Michel Foucault and Power Today: International Multidisciplinary Studies in the History of the Present

Foucault's thought finds innumerable applications across the social sciences, from studies in the social aspects of the medical practices and criminal sociology to juridical and economic sciences. Owing to their philosophical ramifications, his ideas have also impacted the spheres of literary studies, ethics, political thought, and "critical ontology." Few thinkers have left such an influence across such a diverse range of studies. Contributors attempt to pay homage to that diversity by presenting a multidisciplinary series of analyses dedicated to the question of "power today." Drawn from a number of papers presented at an international conference entitled "Michel Foucault and social Control: conducted at Maison de la culture Côte-des-Neiges in Montreal on May 8-10, 2004 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Foucault's death, the essays that comprise this volume address the issue at both a theoretical level and as it pertains to specific fields of practice. In addition to paying tribute to Foucault's achievements and situating his thought within the French and larger European context from which it emerged, these essays also re-evaluate the relevance of Foucault's ideas for understanding contemporary conditions. This book is suited for a broad academic audience in the humanities and Social Sciences, especially philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Law & Politics Chapter 2 Michel Foucault and the Obsolescent State: Between the American Century and the Dawn of the European Union Chapter 3 The Immanence of Law in Power: Reading Foucault with Agamben Chapter 4 The Hybrid Character of "Control" in the Work of Michel Foucault Part 5 Politics & Culture Chapter 6 No "Copper Tops" Left Behind: Foucault, The Matrix, and the Future of Compulsory Schooling Chapter 7 It Does Too Matter: Michel Foucault, John Coltrane, and Dominant Positions Part 8 Psychiatry Chapter 9 Foucault and Psychiatric Power after Madness & Civilization Chapter 10 From Psychiatry to Bio-Politics or the Birth of the Bio-Security State Part 11 Health Care Chapter 12 Genetic Responsibility and Neo-Liberal Governmentality: Medical Diagnosis as Moral Technology Chapter 13 The Problem with High Maintenance Bodies or The Politics of Care Part 14 The French Context Chapter 15 Subverting Social Order: Foucault and Derrida on the Role of the Intellectual

About the Author :
David Gabbard is Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction of the College of Education, East Carolina University. Alain Beaulieu is lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, McGill University

Review :
...this selection of papers touches on the importance of Foucault's work for Politics, Law, Psychiatry, Health Care and The French Context....there are some good individual pieces here. Michel Foucault's work was an invitation to think differently and this volume's contributors respond superbly to it in their analyses of how power needs to be thought about today. Foucault would have learned much from it. Readers will take away renewed appreciation for Foucault's legacy and for its timeliness in understanding the twenty-first century's dangerous challenges to each person's care of the self.