Mark Bevir and R. A. W. Rhodes
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199580750
- eISBN:
- 9780191723179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580750.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Theory
This chapter explores what many observers suggest are the leading present-day forms of interpretive social science: postmodern theories of discourse. First, we challenge the belief these approaches ...
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This chapter explores what many observers suggest are the leading present-day forms of interpretive social science: postmodern theories of discourse. First, we challenge the belief these approaches have a shared paradigm stemming from anti-foundational philosophy. Instead, we suggest that anti-foundationalism is compatible with all kinds of approaches to political science, and these approaches arose out of distinctive socialist or radical traditions, not mainstream political science. Second, we argue that much post-Marxist discourse theory still relies on structuralist and occasionally even determinist forms of explanation associated with modernist-empiricism. There is a clear tension between this lingering structuralism and historicist genealogies. Third, we suggest that discourse introduces several new topics to the theory of the state. These topics include governmentality, collective identities, ideologies, and resistance in governance.Less
This chapter explores what many observers suggest are the leading present-day forms of interpretive social science: postmodern theories of discourse. First, we challenge the belief these approaches have a shared paradigm stemming from anti-foundational philosophy. Instead, we suggest that anti-foundationalism is compatible with all kinds of approaches to political science, and these approaches arose out of distinctive socialist or radical traditions, not mainstream political science. Second, we argue that much post-Marxist discourse theory still relies on structuralist and occasionally even determinist forms of explanation associated with modernist-empiricism. There is a clear tension between this lingering structuralism and historicist genealogies. Third, we suggest that discourse introduces several new topics to the theory of the state. These topics include governmentality, collective identities, ideologies, and resistance in governance.
Rafael Sánchez
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823263653
- eISBN:
- 9780823268887
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263653.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
Since independence from Spain the trope of an endless antagonism pitting civilization against barbarism has remained pervasive in Latin America’s republican imaginary. This book apprehends that trope ...
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Since independence from Spain the trope of an endless antagonism pitting civilization against barbarism has remained pervasive in Latin America’s republican imaginary. This book apprehends that trope not just as the phantasmatic projection of postcolonial elites fearful of the popular sectors, but also as a symptom of a stubborn historical predicament: the cyclical insistence with which the subaltern populations return to the nation’s public spaces in the form of crowds. Focused on Venezuela but relevant to Latin America, Dancing Jacobins is a genealogical investigation of the populist “monumental governmentality” that in response to this predicament began to take shape in that nation at the time of independence. Informed by a Bolivarian political theology, the nation’s representatives, or “dancing Jacobins,” recursively draw on the repertoire of busts, portraits, and equestrian statues of national heroes scattered across Venezuela in a montage of monuments and dancing—or universal and particular. They monumentalize themselves on the stage of the polity as a ponderously statuesque yet occasionally riotous reflection of the nation’s general will. To this day, the nervous oscillation between crowds and peoplehood intrinsic to this form of government has inflected the republic’s institutions and constructs, from the sovereign “people” to the nation’s heroic imaginary, its constitutional texts, representative figures, parliamentary structures, and last, but not least, its army. Through this movement of collection and dispersion these institutions are at all times haunted and imbued from within by the crowds that they otherwise set out to mould, enframe, and address.Less
Since independence from Spain the trope of an endless antagonism pitting civilization against barbarism has remained pervasive in Latin America’s republican imaginary. This book apprehends that trope not just as the phantasmatic projection of postcolonial elites fearful of the popular sectors, but also as a symptom of a stubborn historical predicament: the cyclical insistence with which the subaltern populations return to the nation’s public spaces in the form of crowds. Focused on Venezuela but relevant to Latin America, Dancing Jacobins is a genealogical investigation of the populist “monumental governmentality” that in response to this predicament began to take shape in that nation at the time of independence. Informed by a Bolivarian political theology, the nation’s representatives, or “dancing Jacobins,” recursively draw on the repertoire of busts, portraits, and equestrian statues of national heroes scattered across Venezuela in a montage of monuments and dancing—or universal and particular. They monumentalize themselves on the stage of the polity as a ponderously statuesque yet occasionally riotous reflection of the nation’s general will. To this day, the nervous oscillation between crowds and peoplehood intrinsic to this form of government has inflected the republic’s institutions and constructs, from the sovereign “people” to the nation’s heroic imaginary, its constitutional texts, representative figures, parliamentary structures, and last, but not least, its army. Through this movement of collection and dispersion these institutions are at all times haunted and imbued from within by the crowds that they otherwise set out to mould, enframe, and address.
Maiken Umbach
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199557394
- eISBN:
- 9780191721564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557394.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
This is a study of a distinctive brand of modernism, which first emerged in late 19th‐century Germany, and remained influential throughout the inter‐war years and beyond. Its supporters saw ...
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This is a study of a distinctive brand of modernism, which first emerged in late 19th‐century Germany, and remained influential throughout the inter‐war years and beyond. Its supporters saw themselves as a new elite, ideally placed to tackle the many challenges facing the young and rapidly industrializing German nation‐state. They defined themselves as bourgeois, and acted as self‐appointed champions of a modern consciousness. Focusing on figures such as Hermann Muthesius, Fritz Schumacher, and Karl‐Ernst Osthaus, and the activities of the Deutscher Werkbund and other networks of bourgeois designers, writers and ‘experts', this book shows how bourgeois modernism shaped the infrastructure of social and political life in early 20th‐century Germany. Like the project of liberal governmentality described by Foucault, bourgeois modernism exercised its power not so much in the realm of ideas, but by transforming the physical environment of German cities, from domestic interiors, via consumer objects, to urban and regional planning. Drawing on a detailed analysis of key material sites of bourgeois modernism, and interpreting them in conjunction with written sources, this study offers new insights into the history of the bourgeois mindset and its operations in the private and public realms. Thematic chapters examine leitmotifs such as the sense of locality and place, the sense of history and time, and the sense of nature and culture. Yet for all its self‐conscious progressivism, German bourgeois modernism was not an inevitable precursor of neo‐liberal global capitalism. It remained a hotly contested historical construct, which was constantly redefined through its performance in different geographical and political settings.Less
This is a study of a distinctive brand of modernism, which first emerged in late 19th‐century Germany, and remained influential throughout the inter‐war years and beyond. Its supporters saw themselves as a new elite, ideally placed to tackle the many challenges facing the young and rapidly industrializing German nation‐state. They defined themselves as bourgeois, and acted as self‐appointed champions of a modern consciousness. Focusing on figures such as Hermann Muthesius, Fritz Schumacher, and Karl‐Ernst Osthaus, and the activities of the Deutscher Werkbund and other networks of bourgeois designers, writers and ‘experts', this book shows how bourgeois modernism shaped the infrastructure of social and political life in early 20th‐century Germany. Like the project of liberal governmentality described by Foucault, bourgeois modernism exercised its power not so much in the realm of ideas, but by transforming the physical environment of German cities, from domestic interiors, via consumer objects, to urban and regional planning. Drawing on a detailed analysis of key material sites of bourgeois modernism, and interpreting them in conjunction with written sources, this study offers new insights into the history of the bourgeois mindset and its operations in the private and public realms. Thematic chapters examine leitmotifs such as the sense of locality and place, the sense of history and time, and the sense of nature and culture. Yet for all its self‐conscious progressivism, German bourgeois modernism was not an inevitable precursor of neo‐liberal global capitalism. It remained a hotly contested historical construct, which was constantly redefined through its performance in different geographical and political settings.
Richard Iton
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195178463
- eISBN:
- 9780199851812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195178463.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
When trying to establish the identity of something, one does not automatically refer to the aspects that do not involve the subject, or to attributes from which the subject is exempted. That being ...
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When trying to establish the identity of something, one does not automatically refer to the aspects that do not involve the subject, or to attributes from which the subject is exempted. That being said, and the word citizen being taken into consideration, it is therefore essential to know the values and limitations that this term is to assume. We have to identify a field that would dictate the styles of engagement and interpellation, agendas, and the goals and orders of politics. Looking into Foucault's notion of governmentality and biopolitics, this chapter concentrates on welfare policy and the movement that resulted in the removal of federal financial support for Americans who earn lower level incomes. More so, we study how the black community has reacted through popular culture to such political and cultural issues.Less
When trying to establish the identity of something, one does not automatically refer to the aspects that do not involve the subject, or to attributes from which the subject is exempted. That being said, and the word citizen being taken into consideration, it is therefore essential to know the values and limitations that this term is to assume. We have to identify a field that would dictate the styles of engagement and interpellation, agendas, and the goals and orders of politics. Looking into Foucault's notion of governmentality and biopolitics, this chapter concentrates on welfare policy and the movement that resulted in the removal of federal financial support for Americans who earn lower level incomes. More so, we study how the black community has reacted through popular culture to such political and cultural issues.
Ewan Ferlie, Louise FitzGerald, Gerry McGivern, Sue Dopson, and Chris Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199603015
- eISBN:
- 9780191752995
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199603015.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Public Management
This introductory chapter sets out the rationale of the book and outlines its major themes. It seeks to generate an overall interpretation of health policy reforming under New Labour based on ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the rationale of the book and outlines its major themes. It seeks to generate an overall interpretation of health policy reforming under New Labour based on empirically grounded and comparative case studies of managed networks drawn from four health policy arenas. It highlights our distinctive contribution to the debate, bringing in organizing concepts of wicked problems and governmentality. It suggests that if managed networks are to make substantial progress then they need to be supported in three key domains (cross-organizational ICTs, cross-organizational learning, and lateral leadership). It finally provides signposts to each of the chapters in turn.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the rationale of the book and outlines its major themes. It seeks to generate an overall interpretation of health policy reforming under New Labour based on empirically grounded and comparative case studies of managed networks drawn from four health policy arenas. It highlights our distinctive contribution to the debate, bringing in organizing concepts of wicked problems and governmentality. It suggests that if managed networks are to make substantial progress then they need to be supported in three key domains (cross-organizational ICTs, cross-organizational learning, and lateral leadership). It finally provides signposts to each of the chapters in turn.
Christine Hentschel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816694310
- eISBN:
- 9781452952475
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816694310.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Security in the Bubble is about the struggles of urbanites to come to terms with life in the city as dangerous. This book examines newly emerging aesthetic, affective and inclusionary spatialities of ...
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Security in the Bubble is about the struggles of urbanites to come to terms with life in the city as dangerous. This book examines newly emerging aesthetic, affective and inclusionary spatialities of security governance. Urban South Africa is an especially pertinent site for such an endeavour: post-apartheid South Africa has reinvented space, using it as a technique of governance in more “positive” and sophisticated ways that ultimately alter the landscape of urban fragmentation. No longer reducible to the after-pains of racial apartheid nor to a new class segregation, this fragmentation is now better conceptualized as a heterogeneous ensemble of bubbles of (imagined) safety. Security in the Bubble is about the political dilemma that this landscape of bubbles creates: Security can only be achieved through particularistic strategies against the commons of the city. The book traces two emerging urban regimes of governing security in contemporary Durban: handsome space and instant space. Handsome space is about aesthetic and affective communication as means to make places safe. Instant space addresses the personal crime-related “navigation” systems of urban residents as they circulate through the city. In both regimes, security is not conceived as a public good, but as a situational experience. The logic of these regimes cuts across distinctions of private and public places or informal and formal actors of security governance and follows remarkably similar rationales of ordering, whether in a bar, a city improvement district, or an informal parking lot.Less
Security in the Bubble is about the struggles of urbanites to come to terms with life in the city as dangerous. This book examines newly emerging aesthetic, affective and inclusionary spatialities of security governance. Urban South Africa is an especially pertinent site for such an endeavour: post-apartheid South Africa has reinvented space, using it as a technique of governance in more “positive” and sophisticated ways that ultimately alter the landscape of urban fragmentation. No longer reducible to the after-pains of racial apartheid nor to a new class segregation, this fragmentation is now better conceptualized as a heterogeneous ensemble of bubbles of (imagined) safety. Security in the Bubble is about the political dilemma that this landscape of bubbles creates: Security can only be achieved through particularistic strategies against the commons of the city. The book traces two emerging urban regimes of governing security in contemporary Durban: handsome space and instant space. Handsome space is about aesthetic and affective communication as means to make places safe. Instant space addresses the personal crime-related “navigation” systems of urban residents as they circulate through the city. In both regimes, security is not conceived as a public good, but as a situational experience. The logic of these regimes cuts across distinctions of private and public places or informal and formal actors of security governance and follows remarkably similar rationales of ordering, whether in a bar, a city improvement district, or an informal parking lot.
Richard A. Lynch
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823271252
- eISBN:
- 9780823271290
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823271252.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
The central thesis of this book is that Michel Foucault’s account of power does not foreclose the possibility of ethics; on the contrary, it provides a framework within which ethics becomes possible. ...
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The central thesis of this book is that Michel Foucault’s account of power does not foreclose the possibility of ethics; on the contrary, it provides a framework within which ethics becomes possible. Tracing the evolution of Foucault’s analysis of power from his early articulations of disciplinary power to his theorizations of biopower and governmentality, the book shows how Foucault’s ethical project emerged through two interwoven trajectories: analysis of classical practices of the care of the self, and engaged practice in and reflection upon the limits of sexuality and the development of friendship in gay communities. These strands of experience and inquiry allowed Foucault to develop contrasting yet interwoven aspects of his ethics; they also underscored how ethical practice emerges within and from contexts of power relations. The gay community’s response to AIDS and its parallels with the feminist ethics of care serve to illustrate the resources of a Foucauldian ethic—a fundamentally critical attitude, with substantive (but revisable) values and norms grounded in a practice of freedom.Less
The central thesis of this book is that Michel Foucault’s account of power does not foreclose the possibility of ethics; on the contrary, it provides a framework within which ethics becomes possible. Tracing the evolution of Foucault’s analysis of power from his early articulations of disciplinary power to his theorizations of biopower and governmentality, the book shows how Foucault’s ethical project emerged through two interwoven trajectories: analysis of classical practices of the care of the self, and engaged practice in and reflection upon the limits of sexuality and the development of friendship in gay communities. These strands of experience and inquiry allowed Foucault to develop contrasting yet interwoven aspects of his ethics; they also underscored how ethical practice emerges within and from contexts of power relations. The gay community’s response to AIDS and its parallels with the feminist ethics of care serve to illustrate the resources of a Foucauldian ethic—a fundamentally critical attitude, with substantive (but revisable) values and norms grounded in a practice of freedom.
Maiken Umbach
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199557394
- eISBN:
- 9780191721564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557394.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
This chapter analyses the discourse of ‘Bürgerlichkeit’ in German reformist circles, arguing that it designated not a class identity, but the political ambition to invent a modern bourgeois identity, ...
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This chapter analyses the discourse of ‘Bürgerlichkeit’ in German reformist circles, arguing that it designated not a class identity, but the political ambition to invent a modern bourgeois identity, which was defined through individual self‐cultivation (Bildung) on the one hand, and rigorous self‐control and discipline on the other. The chapter traces how this bourgeois habitus emerged out of German Enlightenment culture, and became a prerequisite for the transformation of direct rule into ‘liberal’ or indirect government. This process is exemplified through a close reading of Muthesius's music chamber as a training ground for bourgeois sensibilities and sensory control. The chapter then traces how in modern German cities at large, a new visual openness was constantly kept in check by the invention of new psychic ordering mechanisms, which became more pronounced and openly authoritarian during the Weimar years.Less
This chapter analyses the discourse of ‘Bürgerlichkeit’ in German reformist circles, arguing that it designated not a class identity, but the political ambition to invent a modern bourgeois identity, which was defined through individual self‐cultivation (Bildung) on the one hand, and rigorous self‐control and discipline on the other. The chapter traces how this bourgeois habitus emerged out of German Enlightenment culture, and became a prerequisite for the transformation of direct rule into ‘liberal’ or indirect government. This process is exemplified through a close reading of Muthesius's music chamber as a training ground for bourgeois sensibilities and sensory control. The chapter then traces how in modern German cities at large, a new visual openness was constantly kept in check by the invention of new psychic ordering mechanisms, which became more pronounced and openly authoritarian during the Weimar years.
Alexander Somek
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199542086
- eISBN:
- 9780191715518
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542086.003.0012
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law, EU Law
This chapter takes up individualism's core claim to authority, namely, its appeal to the self's interest. What this claim means is less obvious when the Union promises bounties, as in the case of ...
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This chapter takes up individualism's core claim to authority, namely, its appeal to the self's interest. What this claim means is less obvious when the Union promises bounties, as in the case of European citizenship, than in cases where the pursuit of self-interest involves sacrifice. Arguably, an appeal to self-interest is essentially about the future remuneration that comes from forgoing pleasure. Pursuing one's self-interest, thus understood, requires rational conduct. In order not merely to think, but also to behave rationally, people have to have a certain soul. The unhappiness involved in sacrifice needs to be sustainable. The chapter explores the hidden link between this citizen's soul and the emergence of Union policies where the Union is cast as an inexpensive, neoliberal, caring state.Less
This chapter takes up individualism's core claim to authority, namely, its appeal to the self's interest. What this claim means is less obvious when the Union promises bounties, as in the case of European citizenship, than in cases where the pursuit of self-interest involves sacrifice. Arguably, an appeal to self-interest is essentially about the future remuneration that comes from forgoing pleasure. Pursuing one's self-interest, thus understood, requires rational conduct. In order not merely to think, but also to behave rationally, people have to have a certain soul. The unhappiness involved in sacrifice needs to be sustainable. The chapter explores the hidden link between this citizen's soul and the emergence of Union policies where the Union is cast as an inexpensive, neoliberal, caring state.
Norbert Peabody
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199259885
- eISBN:
- 9780191744587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259885.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Asian History
This chapter argues that it is no longer tenable to insist that the forms of knowledge through which colonial rule was established were fully European in origin and development but, rather, they were ...
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This chapter argues that it is no longer tenable to insist that the forms of knowledge through which colonial rule was established were fully European in origin and development but, rather, they were created out of conditions that entailed considerable collaboration — intended and unintended, conscious and unconscious, wanted and unwanted — between the British and, at least, certain key indigenous groups. These Indian groups were often able to harness, redirect, and shape aspects of the emergent forms of knowledge that were being created during the colonial encounter in order to establish and/or deepen a privileged position in local society that itself was divided along various lines including class, status, party and gender. By working through and, in some cases, beyond conditions of possibility raised by the colonial encounter, Indian actors exercised substantial, but often unacknowledged, agency in the formation of colonial knowledge.Less
This chapter argues that it is no longer tenable to insist that the forms of knowledge through which colonial rule was established were fully European in origin and development but, rather, they were created out of conditions that entailed considerable collaboration — intended and unintended, conscious and unconscious, wanted and unwanted — between the British and, at least, certain key indigenous groups. These Indian groups were often able to harness, redirect, and shape aspects of the emergent forms of knowledge that were being created during the colonial encounter in order to establish and/or deepen a privileged position in local society that itself was divided along various lines including class, status, party and gender. By working through and, in some cases, beyond conditions of possibility raised by the colonial encounter, Indian actors exercised substantial, but often unacknowledged, agency in the formation of colonial knowledge.
