Researching archives, inhabiting the archive: the case of the book Disorderly Families 1 2 3

Abstract

Based on the premise that dealing with archives is a fertile and viable alternative for educational research, this article focuses on the book Disorderly Families, written by Michel Foucault and Arlette Farge, about a set of eighteenth century French royal letters/orders (lettres de cachet). Firstly, we focused the trajectories of both thinkers and the commonalities that culminated in that initiative. Thereafter, the empirical treatment of the study is detailed, with emphasis on the procedural and argumentative aspects of the analysis therein. Finally, we advocate for researching as a transfiguring encounter between the researcher and the unsuspected forces of the archive mobilized by him/her.