Reviews
'In Michel Foucault: A Research Companion, Raffnsoe, Gudmand-Hoyer and Thaning offer a comprehensive and exquisitely detailed review of the works of Michel Foucault. Unlike those who point to revolutionary breaks in Foucault's thought, the authors show continuity in Foucault's philosophical practice of unrelentless self-criticism. We owe a debt of gratitude to the authors for returning us to Foucault, the philosopher, and to his modes of criticism that can guide us in our research. No one interested in the application of Foucault's conceptualizations in the studying our present can be without this book.' - Patricia Ticineto Clough, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at the Graduate Center and Queens College, City University of New York, author of Auto Affection, Feminist Thought and The End(s) of Ethnography, editor of The Affective Turn 'The recently completed publication of Foucault's lectures at the College de France has opened up whole new facets of Foucault's work, inspired new research avenues, and pushed Foucault scholarship to the next level. This signature volume, Michel Foucault: A Research Companion, forms a crucial contribution to these ongoing developments. Based on a thorough-going examination of Foucault's lectures and published works, the volume offers a new perspective to help make way, in a coherent and consistent manner, through Foucault's writings and political engagements. Well-written, in a very accessible style, this Research Companion presents Foucault as a philosopher who recurrently engages in a diagnosis of our most critical contemporary experiences. It offers a unifying trajectory across the different phases and periods of Foucault's work. The book identifies, on the one hand, a number of recurring analytical categories in Foucault's way of thinking and approaching problems - diagnosis, the event, the experience, veridiction, normative matrices and more - that are fundamental and need to be taken into account; the book demonstrates, on the other hand, through Foucault's repeated interrogation of the present, an ongoing transpersonal modification of self and thought: a persistent philosophical meditation ignited by the non-philosophical, an enduring ordeal that modifies one's manner of being, perceiving and thinking, as one enters the game of truth, an ordeal that forces one to move towards something that has not yet arrived and to 'stand vigil for the day to come'. This Research Companion is an invaluable resource.' - Bernard E. Harcourt, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Director, Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, Columbia University, US, and Directeur d'etudes, Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (EHESS), France
'The authors of Michel Foucault: A Research Companion have provided an excellent overview of Foucault's work grounded in a rigorous familiarity with his diverse writings, lectures and interviews. What particularly recommends it is the way Foucault's investigations are shown to be part of a consistent philosophical praxis conceived as both a diagnosis of the present and a work on oneself. In whole, or in it parts, it will prove exceedingly useful to researchers and students alike.' - Mitchell Dean, Professor of Public Governance, Copenhagen Business School. Author of The Signature of Power: Sovereignty, Governmentality and Biopolitics (Sage 2013) and Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society (Sage 1999-2010). 'Since his death, more material by Foucault has been published than appeared in his lifetime. Making use of his lecture courses alongside his major works, Michel Foucault: A Research Companion provides a roadmap and travel companion through the remarkable breadth of his interests and insights. A major undertaking which is consistently valuable.' - Stuart Elden, Professor of Political Theory and Geography, University of Warwick, UK. Author of Foucault's Last Decade (Polity Press, forthcoming 2015) and The Birth of Territory (University of Chicago Press 2013). 'The recently completed publication of Foucault's lectures at the College de France has opened up whole new facets of Foucault's work, inspired new research avenues, and pushed Foucault scholarship to the next level. This signature volume, Michel Foucault: A Research Companion, forms a crucial contribution to these ongoing developments. Based on a thorough-going examination of Foucault's lectures and published works, the volume offers a new perspective to help make way, in a coherent and consistent manner, through Foucault's writings and political engagements. Well-written, in a very accessible style, this Research Companion presents Foucault as a philosopher who recurrently engages in a diagnosis of our most critical contemporary experiences. It offers a unifying trajectory across the different phases and periods of Foucault's work. The book identifies, on the one hand, a number of recurring analytical categories in Foucault's way of thinking and approaching problems diagnosis, the event, the experience, veridiction, normative matrices and more that are fundamental and need to be taken into account; the book demonstrates, on the other hand, through Foucault's repeated interrogation of the present, an ongoing transpersonal modification of self and thought: a persistent philosophical meditation ignited by the non-philosophical, an enduring ordeal that modifies one's manner of being, perceiving and thinking, as one enters the game of truth, an ordeal that forces one to move towards something that has not yet arrived and to 'stand vigil for the day to come'. This Research Companion is an invaluable resource.' - Bernard E. Harcourt, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Director, Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, Columbia University, US, and Directeur d'etudes, Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, France. Author of The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order (Harvard University Press 2011). Editor of Michel Foucault's 1973 College de France lectures La societe punitive (Gallimard 2013) and co-editor of Foucault's lectures Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling: The Function of Avowal in Justice (University of Chicago Press 2014). 'This book provides a wonderfully wide-ranging and comprehensive treatment of Foucault's work, examining material published both during his lifetime and after. The authors mount a lucid argument for the overall coherence of Foucault's work whilst at the same time drawing attention to its continual internal transformation. Their focus on Foucault's project of a diagnosis of the present, and its broadening of the boundaries of what has been traditionally understood to be philosophy, is particularly enlightening as a way of understanding Foucault's ongoing relevance and applicability in contemporary settings.' - Clare O'Farrell, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Author of Foucault: Historian or Philosopher? (Macmillan 1989), and Michel Foucault (Sage 2005). Editor of Foucault: The Legacy (Queensland University of Technology 1997). Founder and maintainer of the Foucault News blog and the michel-foucault.com site. 'So much has been written about the work of Michel Foucault that it is an unexpected pleasure to discover something new. In this comprehensive, scholarly and committed analysis, Sverre Raffnsoe and his colleagues show how Foucault's books, interviews and lectures constitute a continual, profound and always unfinished work of diagnosis of our present, a work that goes beyond mere critique and seeks to enhance our capacities to learn from our pasts in order to transform the futures that are unceasingly taking shape. In reading Foucault in this way, they make a compelling case that this diagnostic practice should be the stake and the test of philosophy today.' - Nikolas Rose, Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Social Science, Health & Medicine, King's College, UK. Author of Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind (with Joelle M. Abi-Rached, Princeton University Press 2013), The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press 2007) and Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self (Free Association Books 1989/1999). Editor of The Essential Foucault (with Paul Rabinow, The New Press 2003). 'In Michel Foucault: A Research Companion, Raffnsoe, Gudmand-Hoyer and Thaning offer a comprehensive and exquisitely detailed review of the works of Michel Foucault. Unlike those who point to revolutionary breaks in Foucault's thought, the authors show continuity in Foucault's philosophical practice of unrelentless self criticism. We owe a debt of gratitude to Raffnsoe and his colleagues for returning us to Foucault, the philosopher, and to his modes of criticism that can guide us in our research. No one interested in the application of Foucault's conceptualizations in the studying of our present can be without this book.' - Patricia Ticineto Clough, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at the Graduate Center and Queens College, City University of New York, US. Author of Auto Affection (University of Minnesota Press 2000), and Feminist Thought and The End(s) of Ethnography (Blackwell 1994). Editor of The Affective Turn (Duke University Press 2007). Review 1 Strenghts: The authors are right in pointing out that there is no introduction to Foucault's thought that covers all of his works as well as his lectures. The publication of his lectures at College de France is changing significantly the available body of his work and this is reflected in its reception. This means that there is a need for an introduction that covers the lectures. As Palgrave Macmillan is publishing the English translations of the lectures a general introduction to them would fit well on their list. The Danish and German versions of the book have received very positive reviews and sold relatively well. Most of the book is already written and has presumably gone through some kind of editorial process. Weaknesses: However, I also have some strong reservations about this project. While I would enthusiastically recommend that Palgrave publishes an introduction to the lectures, the current proposal aims to cover significantly more than just the lectures, it claims to cover everything. To do this in a single volume seems challenging, to say the least. There is a reason why most introductions do not cover everything: since it is impossible to do so well in a single volume one must make informed choices. The outline indicates that the structure of the book is both chronological and thematic at the same time. This is confusing. Part B covers Foucault's early works on madness, psychiatry and mental illness from the early 1960s, but also his lectures on the same topic that were delivered over ten years later, in the early 1970s. Introduction to Kant's Anthropology is discussed in Part D, but chronologically this one of his first works. The book would enter a very crowded market. There are already several introductions to Foucault's thought in English. The situation is probably different in Danish and German. I have also some reservations about the authors' credentials to undertake such an ambitious project. While the main author is the editor-in-chief of Foucault Studies, his CV indicates that he has published surprisingly little on Foucault. His only English language publication on Foucault seems to be an article in Foucault Studies from 2008, in other words in a journal that he himself is the editor of. One of the other authors is a PhD student, and there is no CV for the third author. The claim that this book could replace Dreyfus and Rabinow's book Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics as the standard secondary book on Foucault does not seem very likely. Dreyfus and Rabinow met Foucault several times personally, so their book's authoritativeness is partly based on the fact that they were able to discuss it with him. But there is also the fact that they are world-famous academics. That tends to help the sale of one's books. In sum, one gets the impression that the authors might be slightly out of their depth with this project. review 2 I think this is a proposal for an excellent book, and it has my strong support. It would indeed complement Palgrave's programme of translation, and so this is the obvious publisher for it. I suspect other publishers would want it, so Palgrave should be pleased it was proposed to them. The structure of the book is good, and I like the idea of juxtaposing the familiar Foucault with the unfamiliar. While I fully recognise that the different types of Foucault's writing should be distinguished - books, lectures, interviews, etc. - I am a bit wary of simply privileging the books over all the other occasional writings. Dits et ecrits includes a range of pieces that are not occasional - but pieces in academic journals; prefaces to other author's books, etc. These should not be seen as marginal. In addition, I'm not sure where Foucault's collaborative works will be located - many of these are not in Dits et ecrits, and are not mentioned here. I'm thinking of the Pierre Riviere and Herculine Barbin dossiers; Le desordre des familles, Politiques de l'habitat, works on medicine and urban planning, etc. In addition, the wish to work by theme risks complicating the chronology - the 73-75 lectures, for instance, come before the 1970-73 ones. Yet the 73-74 lectures, for example, only make sense in terms of their analytic focus following the previous years. They are a return to earlier themes, but with a new theoretical lens. There is no easy way around this, of course, as a chronological approach breaks the thematic unities across his career, but the authors need to think carefully about this. Sverre Raffnsoe is, as the proposal suggests, the editor of Foucault Studies and so has a standing in the field. His own work, and that of the contributors is less well-known, certainly in Anglophone debates. Quite a lot of the proposal is taken up with saying what the book is not, and endorsements or blurbs for other editions. It lacked a detailed description of the chapters, especially given the changes proposed on pp. 12-13. I think it would be entirely legitimate to ask for sight of already translated chapters before offering a contract. My final suggestion is that the title is changed. Is this book really an introduction? Could it be seen as a book to send students to first? I'm not sure it would be. I think it could sell to students, and definitely should sell well generally, but it is more of a 'research companion' or 'handbook' or something along those lines. 'Introduction' is both too broad and non-specific and also potentially undersells the book's contribution. The O'Farrell book is an introduction - something you'd send somebody to immediately as a first point of access. This is a thorough, detailed companion to Foucault's work. In that case, the German title Studienhandbuch - study guide or handbook - is more appropriate. review 3 The authors claim that this book would be the first comprehensive introduction to the complete works of Foucault. If one takes into account the lectures being published by Palgrave-MacMillian, this claim seems true, and would make this a welcome addition to the secondary literature. The book's organization is one of its strengths. Such a book would be quite useful to both beginning and advanced students of Foucault. (It struck me as strange, however, that the Birth of the Clinic was given its own chapter, while The Order of Things and the Archaeology of Knowledge were not.) The emphasis on the coherence of Foucault's body of work is welcome. This does not seem to me to be as original an idea as the authors make it out to be, though: many interpreters would affirm a thematic unity in Foucault's work, especially at the general level that the authors do (i.e., to 'clarify central, social experiences, and problems of the present' (2)). The substantive claim being made about the unifying theme of Foucault's body of work is that 'it voices an understanding of philosophy as diagnosis of present experience' and 'constitutes a normative answer to practical problems that have broadly existential relevance' (5). This seems right as far as it goes. But there is little in the proposal to indicate what, exactly, the authors take this to mean. This isn't to say that they don't fill out this characterization in a substantial way; it is only to say that they give little indication about how they do so in the proposal. One reason for worry that this characterization will remain too general is the audience being sought by the authors. They say the book has as its intended audience includes those working in the 'human and social sciences,' as well as 'cultural-, social-, organizational-, gender and queer studies, political science, accounting [!], human geography, etc.' (7). The worry here is that philosophers will find the book's claims about Foucault's work too vague to be useful. That said, I must say that there is something quite compelling in their intention to 'preserve and strengthen Foucault's general and cross-disciplinary scope by taking points of departure in the concepts and questions formulated by him' (2). This is a corrective to the tendency among some philosophers to attempt to shoehorn Foucault's thought into a set of problems that aren't his own. If the book could show how philosophical concerns arise from within Foucault's work, rather than imposing preconceived concerns upon it, the book would be very welcome indeed. But for philosophers to be find the book useful, it must make Foucault's thought clear in a way that one could find in it resources relevant to their concerns. I cannot tell from the accompanying CV whether the authors have the philosophical sensibility necessary to accomplish this. The bottom line is that I think this is a very worthwhile project, with the potential to be useful to beginning and advanced readers of Foucault. Whether it will be an important contribution to the philosophical literature depends on the clarity and focus with which it is executed. Review 4 From my perspective, the distinguishing feature of the proposed book is its structure. The authors point to Foucault's popularity (they repeatedly note that he is the most frequently cited thinker in the humanities and social sciences ) and the fact that their book posits continuity rather than radical breaks within Foucault's work as points of distinction. The former point is, however, irrelevant (Foucault's being popular doesn't necessarily mean that any book on his work will be) and the idea that radical breaks exist within Foucault's work has been discredited by the publication of the courses, which effectively fill in apparent gaps between the published works. (It's worth noting, moreover, that most serious Foucault scholars never supported the view that Foucault's work could be neatly divided into, say, early, middle, and late works). In any case, I think the fact that the proposed book moves through Foucault's work historically, drawing out key themes as it does so, is a plus. I also think the fact that it brings the published works and the courses into conversation in a systematic way in order to elucidate these historical themes is valuable. I noted that the authors say that not many of the courses were published when their book first appeared in Danish, making it something of a groundbreaking work. It may well be the case that a comprehensive treatment of the courses still does not exist in a work aimed at introducing readers to Foucault, but I know some examples of books which reference them and I expect other recent works do as well. So my view is that while including the courses is no longer groundbreaking, the systematic and comprehensive way in which they are including them, while not groundbreaking, ought to be very helpful to first-time readers of Foucaul! t. I think readers who are already familiar with Foucault's work will find it less so, if they find it useful at all, simply because they will have already made these connections themselves. Indeed, I think these authors ought to be sure to pitch the book to first-time readers, and that they are wise to expand their treatment of the courses and to make that treatment more central, as they say they intend to do. I do have some concerns about the length of the book; the authors see this as an assert because it allows for the book to be more comprehensive. If they pitch the book to first-time readers, though, I wonder if a thick monograph appears daunting? I am not a marketing person so may be completely off-base in on this. But if the book is to be quite lengthy I think it's imperative that it be written in a very clear and accessible manner. I confess it's not totally clear to me how they intend to structure the individual chapters, but if my reading is correct and they plan for each to include theoretical and more practical applications of Foucault's work this may help with the accessibility issue. In sum, I think the proposed book has the potential to advance Foucault scholarship by providing first-time readers of Foucault's work with a comprehensive historical overview of his work and the key themes within it. But, as I said, I think they will really need to highlight both its value for first-time readers and the fact that they are bringing the published works and courses into conversation in a way that will enhance first-time readers' understanding of Foucault's work in order to make the book sufficiently different from existing works in the field.
The authors of Michel Foucault: A Research Companion have provided an excellent overview of Foucault's work grounded in a rigorous familiarity with his diverse writings, lectures and interviews. What particularly recommends it is the way Foucault's investigations are shown to be part of a consistent philosophical praxis conceived as both a diagnosis of the present and a work on oneself. In whole, or in it parts, it will prove exceedingly useful to researchers and students alike.' - Mitchell Dean, Professor of Public Governance, Copenhagen Business School. Author of The Signature of Power: Sovereignty, Governmentality and Biopolitics (Sage 2013) and Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society (Sage 1999-2010). 'Since his death, more material by Foucault has been published than appeared in his lifetime. Making use of his lecture courses alongside his major works, Michel Foucault: A Research Companion provides a roadmap and travel companion through the remarkable breadth of his interests and insights. A major undertaking which is consistently valuable.' - Stuart Elden, Professor of Political Theory and Geography, University of Warwick, UK. Author of Foucault's Last Decade (Polity Press, forthcoming 2015) and The Birth of Territory (University of Chicago Press 2013). 'The recently completed publication of Foucault's lectures at the College de France has opened up whole new facets of Foucault's work, inspired new research avenues, and pushed Foucault scholarship to the next level. This signature volume, Michel Foucault: A Research Companion, forms a crucial contribution to these ongoing developments. Based on a thorough-going examination of Foucault's lectures and published works, the volume offers a new perspective to help make way, in a coherent and consistent manner, through Foucault's writings and political engagements. Well-written, in a very accessible style, this Research Companion presents Foucault as a philosopher who recurrently engages in a diagnosis of our most critical contemporary experiences. It offers a unifying trajectory across the different phases and periods of Foucault's work. The book identifies, on the one hand, a number of recurring analytical categories in Foucault's way of thinking and approaching problems - diagnosis, the event, the experience, veridiction, normative matrices and more - that are fundamental and need to be taken into account; the book demonstrates, on the other hand, through Foucault's repeated interrogation of the present, an ongoing transpersonal modification of self and thought: a persistent philosophical meditation ignited by the non-philosophical, an enduring ordeal that modifies one's manner of being, perceiving and thinking, as one enters the game of truth, an ordeal that forces one to move towards something that has not yet arrived and to 'stand vigil for the day to come'. This Research Companion is an invaluable resource.' - Bernard E. Harcourt, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Director, Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, Columbia University, US, and Directeur d'etudes, Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, France. Author of The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order (Harvard University Press 2011). Editor of Michel Foucault's 1973 College de France lectures La societe punitive (Gallimard 2013) and co-editor of Foucault's lectures Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling: The Function of Avowal in Justice (University of Chicago Press 2014). 'This book provides a wonderfully wide-ranging and comprehensive treatment of Foucault's work, examining material published both during his lifetime and after. The authors mount a lucid argument for the overall coherence of Foucault's work whilst at the same time drawing attention to its continual internal transformation. Their focus on Foucault's project of a diagnosis of the present, and its broadening of the boundaries of what has been traditionally understood to be philosophy, is particularly enlightening as a way of understanding Foucault's ongoing relevance and applicability in contemporary settings.' - Clare O'Farrell, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Author of Foucault: Historian or Philosopher? (Macmillan 1989), and Michel Foucault (Sage 2005). Editor of Foucault: The Legacy (Queensland University of Technology 1997). Founder and maintainer of the Foucault News blog and the michel-foucault.com site. 'So much has been written about the work of Michel Foucault that it is an unexpected pleasure to discover something new. In this comprehensive, scholarly and committed analysis, Sverre Raffnsoe and his colleagues show how Foucault's books, interviews and lectures constitute a continual, profound and always unfinished work of diagnosis of our present, a work that goes beyond mere critique and seeks to enhance our capacities to learn from our pasts in order to transform the futures that are unceasingly taking shape. In reading Foucault in this way, they make a compelling case that this diagnostic practice should be the stake and the test of philosophy today.' - Nikolas Rose, Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Social Science, Health & Medicine, King's College, UK. Author of Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind (with Joelle M. Abi-Rached, Princeton University Press 2013), The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press 2007) and Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self (Free Association Books 1989/1999). Editor of The Essential Foucault (with Paul Rabinow, The New Press 2003). 'In Michel Foucault: A Research Companion, Raffnsoe, Gudmand-Hoyer and Thaning offer a comprehensive and exquisitely detailed review of the works of Michel Foucault. Unlike those who point to revolutionary breaks in Foucault's thought, the authors show continuity in Foucault's philosophical practice of unrelentless self-criticism. We owe a debt of gratitude to Raffnsoe and his colleagues for returning us to Foucault, the philosopher, and to his modes of criticism that can guide us in our research. No one interested in the application of Foucault's conceptualizations in the studying of our present can be without this book.' - Patricia Ticineto Clough, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at the Graduate Center and Queens College, City University of New York, US. Author of Auto Affection (University of Minnesota Press 2000), and Feminist Thought and The End(s) of Ethnography (Blackwell 1994). Editor of The Affective Turn (Duke University Press 2007).
