http://www.qut.edu.au/edu/cpol/foucst/no1/index.html

EDITORIAL

Introducing Foucault Studies
Stuart Elden, Clare O’Farrell, Alan Rosenberg



Interest in the work of the French thinker Michel Foucault continues to
develop within the English-speaking world and elsewhere at an exponential
rate. There exists an ever-expanding corpus of writing which deals either
directly with his work or uses his ideas as the basis for other research.
Indeed, some of his concepts, notably his work on power, are now so well
recognised as to often appear without attribution. Aside from being widely
used at the research level, Foucault's work is also commonly referred to in
university courses across the humanities and the social sciences as well as
in applied professional disciplines such as education, architecture and
social work. There are several research and discussion networks in existence
which focus on his work, including the Centre Michel Foucault in Paris, the
History of the Present groups in Canada and the UK, the Foucault Circle in
the USA and a new Centro de Estudios Multidisciplinarios Michel Foucault in
Mexico. In the virtual sphere, the popularity of the various Foucault
websites on the internet attests to the influence of his work: the Michel
Foucault: Resources site for example, averages up to 500 hits a day from all
over the world. There are also two major email discussion lists which deal
with his work and a number of other minor lists.

In 2004, the year that marks the twentieth anniversary of Foucault's death,
his work has become more popular than ever with numerous conferences around
the globe in Europe, South America and the United States, Australia and
elsewhere. 2004 has also marked the publication of four previously
unpublished works by Foucault in French: a set of interviews originally
conducted in 1975 by Roger-Pol Droit, two new volumes of lectures and the
dramatised radio broadcast of a very lengthy interview conducted by Claude
Bonnefoy in 1969. A book on Manet containing a lecture by Foucault which had
only appeared previously in incomplete form in an obscure journal has also
been published. 2004 has also marked a remarkable revival of interest in
Foucault's work in France after years of relative neglect. This has not been
restricted merely to publication of new work by Foucault, but also extends
to the publication of new books about his work, special issues in journals
and wide circulation magazines and newspapers, several conferences, and a
special series of Foucault related events at the annual Autumn festival in
Paris.

With so much activity - and ever increasing activity - around Foucault's
work, a journal which deals specifically and directly with his work and its
impact was more than overdue. Although there are a select number of journals
which publish various kinds of research influenced by Foucault's work (as
well as other French thinkers), Foucault has not been accorded the honour of
a journal which provides a forum for the discussion of his work, including
criticisms, developments and applications, the publication of new
translations and reviews and reports of books, conferences and other
activities. This sets him apart from other thinkers such as Nietzsche, Kant,
Hegel, and even, now, Baudrillard, and we believe this journal is timely.

The journal intends to provide a forum for discussion of Foucault which goes
beyond received orthodoxies, simplifications and uncritical appropriations.
In particular, the journal aims to publish work which utilises not only the
more familiar material by Foucault but also the wide range of matrial made
available by the 1994 publication in French of a four volume collection of
over 360 of Foucault's shorter writings and the more recent (and ongoing)
publication of his lectures. Much of this material is still in the process
of being translated into English, and it revolutionises ways of thinking
about his work.

The initial submissions to the journal, a few of which appear in this first
issue, testify to our belief that there was a real lacuna in the available
outlets for work on Foucault. We recognised Foucault's work was being used
productively across the globe and across a whole range of disciplines, and
therefore sought submission of material that not only deals with his work
directly but also that which critiques, updates and augments his claims
across very diverse geographical, disciplinary and historical domains. In
this and subsequent issues we aim to cover the full breadth of these
interests, including power, politics, law, history, social and cultural
theory, sexuality, race, religion, gender studies, psychoanalysis,
philosophy, geography, architecture, education, health studies, management
studies, media studies. Where possible, the journal will look to publish
translations of shorter pieces from Foucault's oeuvre, and will regularly
carry book reviews and conference and seminar reports.

It is important to emphasise that even if the editors have their own
specialised interests, they will be seeking to make the journal as inclusive
a forum as possible (in the spirit of Foucault's own work) and will be
seeking contributions from across a wide range of specialisations, interests
and viewpoints. We have attempted to reflect something of this breadth of
interest in Foucault’s work in our editorial board. There have been
concerns that a journal focused specifically on Foucault's work runs the
risk of imprisoning this famously iconoclastic thinker within the strictures
of a scholarly orthodoxy with rigi rules of inclusion and exclusion. In the
social sciences and other applied fields, one frequently encounters
researchers struggling to understand Foucault and to apply his thought while
fighting an uphill batte against entrenched prejudice concerning his and
other similar ideas in their own very pragmatically oriented fields. These
researchers sometimes find it difficult to publish their work, which is too
divergent to fit easily within the well-defined boundaries of their own
disciplinary and institutional locations. One of the aims of this journal is
to provide an alternative outlet for such work. The name 'Foucault' on the
cover of this journal is thus an open invitation for scholars to depart from
conventional disciplinary strictures whilestill performing their own
rigorous research. Foucault's name serves here as an invitation, not the
name on the door of a closed club.

In this first issue, we are very pleased to include a new translation of one
of Foucault’s lectures, alongside three important and challenging essays.
Simon Enoch examines the construction of the Jewish subject in Nazi medical
discourse and Neil Levy and Jeremy Moss, quite by coincidence working at the
same institution, reflect respectively on some of the ethical and political
implications of Foucault's work. They are accompanied by a review essay by
Brad Elliott Stone on two of Foucault’s lecture courses, and a range of
reviews of other books. The last contribution here is a brief report by
Richard Lynch of the work he has done on a bibliography of English
translation of Foucault’s work. The report explains the way in which the
bibliography can be used, and provides links to the material which is freely
available on the Foucault Resources website. Richard intends to keep this
material up-to-date, and this journal will include brief updates where
appropriate. Together we believe this first issue is a significant
contribution to the ongoing reception of Foucault’s work in the
English-speaking world, and although contributions to the journal continue
in good numbers, we also hope it will inspire future submissions.
This launch issue will be followed by twice yearly publication. There is the
potential for special issues on particular topics, and suggestions for
themes would be welcomed by the editors.

Two further points about the journal are worth noting. First, that the
journal is available online, and is free to anyone who wishes to use it.
This seems appropriate given the global reach of interest in Foucault and
the wide internet usage by Foucault scholars and resarchers in general. It
also means that the journal is free from external constraints. Second, that
the journal aspires to the same standards as print journals, and sees the
internet as a valuable medium for the dissemination of high-quality rigorous
work. All articles published in Foucault Studies have gone through
peer-review and standard editorial procedures.

Having no outside support means that the editors are necessarily indebted to
a number of people. We are especially grateful to the editorial board for
their advice and enthusiasm for this venture; to the numerous referees who
have reviewed the work submitted to the journal and offered helpful and
generous criticism; and to Morris Rabinowitz and Doris B. Katz for their
invaluable technical assistance. All of these people enabled this first
issue of the journal to come into existence. We hope you enjoy the material
presented here.

 Number 1, December 2004 (Inaugural Issue)
| Editorial | Translation | Articles | Notices | Review essays | Reviews |
Abstracts |


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EDITORIAL

Stuart Elden, Clare O'Farrell, Alan Rosenberg, pp. 1-4.
Full text in PDF (139k)

TRANSLATION

Michel Foucault, Crisis of Medicine or Anti-Medicine? pp. 5-19.
Translated by Edgar C. Knowlton Jr., Professor Emeritus of European
Languages, University of Hawaii
William J. King, University of Hawaii-Manoa
and Clare O'Farrell, School of Cultural and Language Studies, Queensland
University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Full text in PDF (255k) | Translators' details

ARTICLES

Neil Levy, Foucault as Virtue Ethicist, pp. 20-31.
 abstract and link to article
Jeremy Moss, Foucault and Left Conservatism, pp. 32-52.
 abstract and link to article
Simon Enoch, The Contagion of Difference: Identity, Bio-politics and
National Socialism, pp. 53-70.
 abstract and link to article



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Notices

Richard A. Lynch, Wabash College, Boston, USA
Two bibliographical resources for Foucault's work in English, pp. 71-76
Full text in PDF (186k) | Author details | Link to Bibliography



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Review Essay

Foucault, Michel. Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France, 1974-1975,
Arnold I. Davidson (Introduction), New York:Picador, 2003.
Foucault, Michel. "Society Must Be Defended": Lectures at the College de
France, 1975-1976. Trans, David Macey. New York: Picador, 2003. , pp. 77-91

 Both books reviewed by Brad Elliott Stone, Dept of Philosophy, Loyola
Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA
 Full text in PDF (200k) | Reviewer details



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Reviews

Han, Béatrice. Foucault's Critical Project: Between the Transcendental and
the Historical. California: Stanford University Press, 2003 , pp. 92-97.
 Reviewed by Mark Kelly, Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney,
Australia
 Full text in PDF (200k) | Reviewer details

McKinlay, Alan and Starkey Ken, eds. Foucault, Management and Organization
Theory. London: Sage Publications, 2004, pp. 98-104.
 Reviewed by Douglas I. Thompson French Studies, University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, USA
 Full text in PDF (209k) | Reviewer details

Schuld, Joyce J. Foucault and Augustine: Reconsidering Power and Love. Notre
Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003, pp. 105-110.
 Reviewed by John McSweeney Department of Theology and Religious Studies,
Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland
 Full text in PDF (191k) | Reviewer details

Foucault, Michel. Religion and Culture. J. R. Carrette (ed.). Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1999, pp. 111-113.
 Reviewed by Muhammad Ayaz Naseem, Concordia University, Canada.
 Full text in PDF (132k) | Reviewer details

Bernauer, James and Carrette, Jeremy, eds. Foucault and Theology.
Hampshire/Burlington: Ashgate, 2004, pp. 114-115.
 Reviewed by Stuart Elden, Department of Geography, University of Durham, UK
 Full text in PDF (130k) | Reviewer details

Foucault, Michel. The Essential Foucault: Selections from Essential Works of
Foucault, 1954-1984. Ed. Paul Rabinow and Nikolas Rose. New York: The New
Press, 2003, pp. 116-118.
 Reviewed by Stephen D'Arcy, Department of Philosophy, Huron University
College, Canada
 Full text in PDF (151k) | Reviewer details

Deacon, Roger. Fabricating Foucault: Rationalising the Management of
Individuals. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2003, pp. 119-122.
 Reviewed by Brad Mapes-Martins, University of Massachusetts
 Full text in PDF (162k) | Reviewer details

Gros, Frédéric, ed. Foucault et le courage de la vérité. Presses
Universitaires de France, 2002, pp. 123-125.
 Reviewed by Alain Beaulieu, Department of Philosophy, McGill University,
Canada
 Full text in PDF (141k) | Reviewer details

Gros Frédéric. & Lévy, C. Foucault et la philosophie antique. Paris: Kimé,
2003, pp. 126-128.
 Reviewed by Alain Beaulieu, Department of Philosophy, McGill University,
Canada
 Full text in PDF (141k) | Reviewer details



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Article Abstracts

Foucault as Virtue Ethicist
NEIL LEVY
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics Department of Philosophy,
The University of Melbourne, Australia

Full text in PDF (285k) | Author details

Abstract
In his last two books and in the essays and interviews associated with them,
Foucault develops a new mode of ethical thought he describes as an
aesthetics of existence. I argue that this new ethics bears a striking
resemblance to the virtue ethics that has become prominent in Anglo-American
moral philosophy over the past three decades, in its classical sources, in
its opposition to rule-based systems and its positive emphasis upon what
Foucault called the care for the self. I suggest that seeing Foucault and
virtue ethicists as engaged in a convergent project sheds light on a number
of obscurities in Foucault's thought, and provides us with a historical
narrative in which to situate his claims about the development of Western
moral thought.



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Foucault and Left Conservatism
JEREMY MOSS
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics Department of Philosophy,
The University of Melbourne, Australia

Full text in PDF (424k) | Author details

Abstract
The consequences of Foucault's work for political theory have been subject
to much reinterpretation. This article examines the reception of Foucault's
work by the left of politics and argues that the use made of his work is
overly negative and lacks a positive political dimension. Through a
discussion of the work of Judith Butler and other interpreters of Foucault I
argue that the problem facing the poststructuralist left is formulated in a
confusing and unhelpful manner, what I will call the 'dilemma of the left
libertarian'. Once we get around this formulation of the problem a more
progressive political response becomes possible. I end by discussing the
political possibilities of Foucault's work in terms of an account of
autonomy derived from Foucault's later work on the Enlightenment.



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The Contagion of Difference: Identity, Bio-politics and National Socialism
SIMON ENOCH
Communication & Culture Program at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada

Full text in PDF (371k) | Author details

Abstract
Michel Foucault's concept of bio-politics entails the management and
regulation of life processes within the population as a whole. This
administration of the biological was perhaps most manifest in the German
state under National Socialism. Indeed, Foucault remarks that there was no
other state of the period in which "the biological was so tightly, so
insistently regulated." However while the Nazi regime evinced this
bio-political concern with the management of life, it also released an
unprecedented murderous potential. It is this paradox, that the care of life
can become the administration of death, or what Foucault deemed the
transition from bio-politics to thanato-politics, that I wish to investigate
through an examination of the construction of the Jewish subject through
Nazi medical discourse. This paper will examine how medico-political
discourse facilitated the construction of medically authorized norms that
constructed the Jew as both a biological and social threat to the body
politic, and how this discursively produced "Other" informed the transition
from bio-politics to thanato-politics within the confines of the German
medical establishment.