In the 1978 Lectures you can find the most important contribution by
Foucault on population = Third lecture (25 janvier 1978) pp. 57 a.f. The
notion is already de-constructed there.
In the Cours of 1979 population, finally, is rejected because it is a collectivistic concept (a.o p.24 and p.47 French text); it is turned into the liberal concept of mutual interacting individual agents in state and civil society, who are backed and governed by institutions. So, in the end 'population' turns out to be an ineffective notion in power analysis. It was mainly used by Foucault to focus on new forms of knowledge and knowing arisen by the invention of statistics and political economy at the end of eighteenth century
machiel karskens
At 01:27 3-12-2006, you wrote:
Prof. Machiel Karskens
social and political philosophy
Faculty of Philosophy
Radboud University Nijmegen - The Netherlands
In the Cours of 1979 population, finally, is rejected because it is a collectivistic concept (a.o p.24 and p.47 French text); it is turned into the liberal concept of mutual interacting individual agents in state and civil society, who are backed and governed by institutions. So, in the end 'population' turns out to be an ineffective notion in power analysis. It was mainly used by Foucault to focus on new forms of knowledge and knowing arisen by the invention of statistics and political economy at the end of eighteenth century
machiel karskens
At 01:27 3-12-2006, you wrote:
Hello To Those Who Are Reading This
and Thank You
I am working on a project concerned with tracing out the
development of population as the object of knowledge from 17
century to present. I think it is a central issue. Foucault
indicates in Society Must Be Defended that emergence of
population as an object of knowledge within disciplinary
discourse signifies the birth of biopolitics. He also deals
explicitly with the topic in the lectures of '78, but I only
have the lecture on Governmentality in English (I don't think
the others are translated yet). I am currently looking into the
Tanner Lectures as well, and there is some implicit discussion
of population in History of Sexuality Vol 1. Of course, I think
that the notion of population also looms in the background of
Foucault's earlier work. I was hoping that people reading this
email would be kind enough to give some suggestions for further
research and any other input they would like to impart. I am
looking for all kinds of sources within Foucault's body of work
as well as in the work of others. Sources on Malthus would be
welcome as well.
Thank you,
Nikolay Tugushev
tugushev@xxxxxxxxxx
_______________________________________________
Foucault-L mailing list
Prof. Machiel Karskens
social and political philosophy
Faculty of Philosophy
Radboud University Nijmegen - The Netherlands