This article contributes to governmentality studies and state theory by discussing how to understand the centrality and importance of the state from a governmentality perspective. It uses Giorgio Agamben’s critique of Michel Foucault’s governmentality approach as a point of departure for re-investigating Foucault as a thinker of the state. It focuses on Foucault’s notion of the state as a process of ‘statification’ which emphasizes the state as something constantly produced and reproduced by processes and practices of government, administration and acclamation. As a result of this, the state appears as a given entity which is necessary for the multiplicity of governmental technologies and practices in modern society to function. Only by reference to the state can governmental practices be effective and legitimized. Finally, the article conceptualizes the centrality of the state through Foucault’s (preliminary) notions of the state as a ‘practico-reflexive prism’ and a ‘principle of intelligibility’.
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Michel Foucault (1926-84) is one of the most read, cited, discussed, and quoted thinkers of the 20 th century and his work extends into a number of disciplines such as sociology, social science, political science, art studies, cultural studies, history, philosophy, the history of ideas, and many, many more. In this process Foucault's work has been extended and adapted to a number of fields, and many of his concepts have in many ways come to live a life of their own, seemingly somewhat disconnected from the usage and context Foucault himself developed them in. Foucault (and his work) has been the subject of an immense and vast number of discussions, writings, and books, both concerning himself and his works, but also concerning the application of them in a number of other Je n'écris pas pour un public, j'écris pour des utilisateurs (I don't write for an audience, I write for users)Michel Foucault, Dits et écrits, vol. II, 524.
The article analyzes the role of trade in the constitution of the modern state in 17th century England. The article focuses on the metaphor of the body politic and especially the ideas on circulation from William Harvey and how these can be used to analyze Thomas Hobbes’ ideas on trade and circulation in Leviathan and the economic thought of William Petty. Harvey’s thoughts on circulation were revolutionary and highly influential on the political and economic thoughts of the time. Even though Hobbes is mainly focused on law and sovereignty, he still characterizes circulation and trade as a vital motion, not subject to the will of the sovereign. Combined with his notion that the sovereign is the holder of an office, who must administer the wellbeing of the state, this opens up for the analysis that what the sovereign is administering is in reality the necessary motions of trade and the economy in general. This is also seen in one of the most prominent of the mercantilist economic thinkers of the age, William Petty, who in his economic thinking contributed to the constitution of the economy as a given field with a given logic which the ruler could not fundamentally change, but had to understand and act in accordance with in order to govern well.
The article investigates Giorgio Agamben’s turn to, and radicalization of, Foucault’s concept of governmentality, which Agamben argues constitutes a ’decisive point’ in the Homo sacer-series. The article shows that in the investigation of the Trinitarian oikonomia, Agamben finds the point of intersection between the ‘totalizing procedures’ of the state and ‘individualizing techniques’ of biopolitics thereby disclosing the ‘zone of indistinction’ between sovereignty and government and politics and economy, which constitutes power in the West. Furthermore, the article argues that Agamben shows how the economy is not something distinct from politics, encroaching on its logic, but rather how the governmental paradigm of the West constitutes the continual administration of the given, the continual and perpetual government of the economy and thereby of the existing economic and political power-relations.
Hugo Grotius wrote some of his earlier works—the De jure praedae and the Mare Liberum— on direct commission from the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) that sought to legitimize the attack on the Portuguese carrack Sta. Catarina and their continued (violent) expansion to the markets of Southeast-Asia. In the process, Grotius establishes the company as a distinct actor who can wage a just war in a state of nature, and as a subject of its home state. In this article, it is shown how Grotius thoughts on just war, sovereignty, natural law and property were developed while defending both the Dutch right to free trade and the right of United Netherland to wage a just war against their oppressor, the King of Spain and Portugal. But what was stated as the right of all to free trade and to the freedom of the seas also became a powerful argument for the continued violent commercial expansion of the Dutch and the Europeans.
I dette nummer af SLAGMARK sætter vi fokus på Michel Foucault som idéhistoriker og hans brug af historien. Foucault er i dag en af de mest citerede tænkere på tværs af human- og samfundsvidenskaberne, men han arbejdede selv først og fremmest med (idé)historien, og det var gennem studier heraf, han udviklede de idéer, som i dag er blevet så populære. Dette nummer forsøger således at åbne spørgsmålet om Foucaults historiske tilgang, og hvordan man med Foucault kan arbejde videre med (idé)historien.
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