Re: Foucault and ideal types

>
> Dear Foucauldians,
>
> I am just writing on a section about ideal types and discourse analysis. =
> A contradiction, you might think, but maybe we have to learn to think in =
> paradoxes anyway... The question I would like to ask is about a source: =
> I remember I read somewhere a passage in which Foucault criticized the =
> concept of ideal types, but although I could guess why and how he did so,=
> I can't find the source anymore. Does anyone, by chance, know where I =
> may have this from?
>
> Best,
> Thomas
> ************************************************************************
> ############################################

In "Questions of Method," in THE FOUCAULT EFFECT (p. 80), and also in
FOUCAULT LIVE (2nd ed?) (p. 280, under title "Impossible Prison"),
Foucault says that he does not study ideal types (i.e., that the
panopticon is not an ideal type). It might be an overstatement to say
that he criticizes the concept, however.

Steve



Replies
Foucault and ideal types, Thomas Diez
Partial thread listing: