A Normative Foucauldian: Selected Papers of Mark Olssen(74 Educational Futures)

Inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault, Olssen’s writings traverse philosophy, politics, education, and epistemology. This book comprises a selection of his papers published in academic journals and books over twenty-five years. Taken as a whole, the papers represent a redirection of the core axioms and directions of western ontology and philosophy in relation to how history, the subject, and education are theorised within the western philosophical tradition. Olssen’s writings not only contain a powerful critique and revision of western liberalism from a poststructuralist perspective, they both explicate and extend Michel Foucault’s challenge to the core axioms and assumptions underpinning western thought. As Stephen Ball suggests in his Foreword to this volume, “Olssen uses Foucault to explore issues… Olssen’s Foucault is not a lonely nihilist but a troubled provocateur who encourages in us toward the political project of self-formation – our relation to ourselves and always, to others."

Table of Contents:
Foreword: Critique, Ethics, Learning  Stephen J. Ball Series Editor's Foreword: Mark Olssen: Foucauldian Social Democrat  Michael A. Peters Preface PART 1: Michel Foucault 1 Foucault and the Imperatives of Education  1 Introduction  2 Foucault and Kant  3 Rejecting Kantian Foundationalism  4 Critique as a Historicophilosphical Practice  5 Critique as How Not to Be Governed  6 Criticism as Practical Politics  7 Foucault and Critique in Education: Some Illustrations  8 Critique in a Non-Foundational World: A Question of Method 2 Discourse, Complexity, Normativity: Tracing the Elaboration of Foucault’s Materialist Concept of Discourse  1 A Brief Introduction to Foucault’s Methods  2 From the Early to the Late Foucault  3 An Incorporeal Materialism  4 Resisting Hegelian Assumptions of Unity  5 Foucault’s Poststructuralism  6 Foucault Contra Habermas: Overcoming Relativism by Adding the Concept of Life PART 2: Foucault, Marx, Hegel 3 Foucault and Marxism: Rewriting the Theory of Historical Materialism  1 Introduction  2 Marxist Preliminaries: A Brief Summation  3 Reconceptualising Determination  4 Change and Determination  5 Monism and Pluralism  6 Complexity, Chance, Pluralism: Appropriating Nietzsche to Correct Marx  7 Complexity and Openness  8 The Nature of Identity  9 Diffference and Community  10 Conclusion 4 Marx, Education and the Possibilities of a Fairer World: Reviving Radical Political Economy through Foucault  Mark Olssen and Michael A. Peters  1 Introduction  2 Marx’s Radical Political Economy  3 Foucault’s Radical Political Economy  4 Governmentality Studies  5 Neoliberalism and the Birth of Biopolitics  6 Towards a Possible Foucauldian Politics  7 From Governmentality to the Hermeneutics of the Self as Education 5 In Conversation with Mark Olssen: On Foucault with Marx and Hegel  Rille Raaper and Mark Olssen PART 3: Social Democracy in the 21st Century 6 From the Crick Report to the Parekh Report: Multiculturalism, Cultural Difference and Democracy: The Re-visioning of Citizenship Education  1 Introduction: The Crick Report  2 Iris Marion Young and the Politics of Cultural Diffference  3 The Crick Report and the Politics of Cultural Diffference  4 The Parekh Report on the Future of Multi-ethnic Britain: Multi-Ethnic Citizenship  5 Adding the Parekh Report to the Crick Report 7 In Defence of the Welfare State and Publicly Provided Education: A New Zealand Perspective  1 Neoliberalism and New Zealand Education  2 The Failure of Market Theories  3 Alternatives  4 Conclusion 8 Education Policy, the Cold War and the “Liberal–Communitarian” Debate  1 Introduction  2 Classical Liberalism  3 Classical Economic Liberalism  4 Utilitarianism  5 The Moment of Equality in Liberal Theory: John Rawls  6 The Unsatisfactory Basis of Rawls’s Theory  7 The Communitarian Response to Liberal Frameworks  8 Communitarianism and the Philosophers of the Cold War  9 Communitarianism and School Choice  10 Conclusion 9 Social Democracy, Complexity and Education: Perspectives from the Writings of John Atkinson Hobson and John Maynard Keynes  1 The Philosophy of John Atkinson Hobson  2 Complexity Theories  3 Hobson and Keynes  4 Complexity and Education PART 4: Neoliberal Governmentality 10 Neoliberalism and Laissez-Faire: The Retreat from Naturalism  1 The Problem of Laissez-Faire in Neoliberal Thought  2 Foucault, Röpke and Neoliberalism  3 Hayek and Neoliberalism  4 Planning and the Rule of Law  5 A Critique of Hayek’s Concept of Planning  6 Knowledge and Planning  7 Lars Cornelissen on Hayek and Democracy  8 Education 11 Neoliberal Competition in Higher Education Today: Research, Accountability and Impact  1 Introduction  2 Research and Accountability  3 From Bad to Worse: The REF and the Impact of Research  4 Neoliberalism and Democracy 12 Foucault and Neoliberalism: A Response to Recent Critics and a New Resolution  1 Introduction  2 Criticisms of Foucault  3 Rescuing Foucault  4 Neoliberal “Biopower” as a Form of “Positive” State Power  5 A Possible Resolution: Adam Ferguson and the Concept of Civil Society as a Category in Governmentality  6 Conclusion PART 5: Complexity, Democracy, Ethics 13 Foucault as Complexity Theorist: Overcoming the Problems of Classical Philosophical Analysis  1 Introduction  2 Complexity and Openness  3 The Nature of Identity  4 Holism–Particularism, Uniqueness and Creativity 14 Exploring Complexity through Literature: Reframing Foucault’s Research Project with Hindsight 15 Complexity and Learning: Implications for Teacher Education  1 An Introduction to the Science of Complexity  2 The Normative Consequences of Complexity for Learning and Teacher Education  3 A Possible Ethical Theory for a Complex Global Society PART 6: Political Theory in the 21st Century 16 Globalisation, the Third Way and Education Post-9/11: Building Democratic Citizenship  1 Introduction  2 Neoliberalism, Globalisation and the Move to the “Third Way”  3 What Is Globalisation?  4 A New Political Settlement?  5 Totalitarianism  6 Rights Talk  7 A New Multicultural Cosmopolitanism  8 Democracy  9 Deepening Democracy through Education 17 Totalitarianism and the “Repressed” Utopia of the Present: Moving beyond Hayek and Popper with Foucault  1 Introduction  2 Hayek and Popper: Utopianism, Planning and Holistic Engineering  3 Karl Popper: “Utopian” and “Piecemeal” Engineering  4 Utopianism and the Totalitarian State  5 The Poverty of the Liberal Critique of Totalitarianism  6 Foucault and Totality  7 Reconceptualising Utopianism Post-9/11  8 Conclusion 18 Wittgenstein and Foucault: The Limits and Possibilities of Constructivism  1 Introduction  2 Social and Individual Constructions  3 Idealism  4 Objectivity, Truth and Relativism  5 The Centrality of Language and Discourse  6 Foucault as Constructivist  7 Conclusion 19 Invoking Democracy: Foucault’s Conception (with insights from Hobbes)  1 Introduction  2 Liberty, Ethics and Domination  3 Rights as a Historico-Political Discourse  4 Contestation and Deliberation  5 Extending Foucault and Democracy Post-9/11

About the Author :
Mark Olssen is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences (FACSS) and Emeritus Professor of Political Theory and Education Policy in the Department of Politics at the University of Surrey. His most recent book is Constructing Foucault's Ethics: A Poststructuralist Moral Theory for the Twenty-First Century (Manchester University Press, 2021).