Re: [Foucault-L] historical sociology, anyone?

Hi Ilgin,
I think it might be interesting for you to have a look at governmentality
studies, in which there is a considerable amount of scholarly works now. For
a start, you might consider volumes of Foucault's lectures at College de
France such as "Society Must be Defended", "Security, Territory, Population"
(out in May 2007), and "Governmentality" in Graham Burchell et. al. ed. "The
Foucault Effect". Further, you might consider Mitchell Dean's books
"Governmentality:
Power and Rule in Modern Society" and "Governing Societies". In addition to
these, you might also want to have a look at David Owen's "Sociology after
Postmodernism", although it does not address your research directly. It
attempts at examining the effects of postmodernism on various sub-fields of
sociology.
Hope this helps.

On 10/05/07, David McInerney <vagabond@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

People generally start with the following book:

Critical and Effective Histories: Foucault's Methods and Historical
Sociology
by Mitchell Dean

Synopsis
This book places Foucault's methodologies against central currents in
social theory and philosophy in order to provide a guide to doing
historical sociology in particular and social sciences more
generally. It is written for several reasons. First, it seeks to make
Foucault's contribution comprehensible to a wide range of
professional and non-professional readers. Second, it rescues the
originality and usefulness of Foucault's work, and his critical
project from both the welter of ill-informed criticism and the
obfuscation of sympathetic commentators. Third, it embodies a
conviction that Foucault's approaches could inform the metamorphosis
of sociology into an effective, open-ended, multi-focused, relevant
discipline, capable of problematising the grand frameworks and
assumptions of earlier social theory. Finally, it demonstrates that
Foucault's methods provide the necessary condition for any state-of-
the-art social research today. The book thus addresses the many
formulations of Foucault's methodological position and seeks to
establish its relation to such figures as Nietzsche, Kant, Weber,
Elias, Habermas, Giddens and the Annales and Frankfurt Schools.
Futhermore, it explores the itnerconnected substantive themes of
Foucault's work: truth, knowledge and rationality; power, domination
and government; and the self and ethical practice. The book is less a
commentary on Foucault than a use of Foucault's methods to chart an
original position on the condition of social science today. It is
directed not only to readers interested in Foucault's legacy but to
any social scientist or student working at the cutting edge of
contemporary research and to the non-professional audience concerned
with the central, ethical, political, and theoretical problems of our
time.

Info taken from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Effective-Histories-
Foucaults-Historical/dp/0415064953/

You might also find that Foucault's concepts have been filtered
through the work of Giddens, such as The Nation-State and Violence: A
Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism: v. 2



On 10/05/2007, at 9:27 AM, Ilgin Yorukoglu wrote:

> Greetings everyone,
>
> I am working (well, at this point just stressing out myself
> actually) on the influence and role of Foucault on recent
> historical sociological works- with a specific focus on the notion
> of power.
> I believe Foucault has been very influential in such works on state
> formation, punishment etc. Yet, many times he is not cited (I have
> in mind Michael Mann's hundreds of pg. work on the source of social
> power, in which he doesn't cite Foucault even once), or other
> times, I believe, he's often misinterpreted and criticized based on
> this misinterpretation.
>
> Any suggestion, idea, thought will be very much appreciated.
> Many thanks beforehand,
>
> Ilgin
>
>
>
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[Foucault-L] historical sociology, anyone?, Ilgin Yorukoglu
Re: [Foucault-L] historical sociology, anyone?, David McInerney
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