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The Politics of Our Selves: Power, Autonomy, and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory
Some critical theorists understand the self as constituted by power relations, while others insist upon the self's autonomous capacities for critical reflection and deliberate self-transformation. Up to now, it has all too often been assumed that these two understandings of the self are incompatible. In her bold new book, Amy Allen argues that the capacity for autonomy is rooted in the very power relations that constitute the self.
Allen's theoretical framework illuminates both aspects of what she calls, following Foucault, the "politics of our selves." It analyzes power in all its depth and complexity, including the complicated phenomenon of subjection, without giving up on the ideal of autonomy. Drawing on original and critical readings of a diverse group of theorists, including Michel Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, Judith Butler, and Seyla Benhabib, Allen shows how the self can be both constituted by power and capable of an autonomous self-constitution. Her argument is a significant and vital contribution to feminist theory and to critical social theory, both of which have long grappled with the relationship between power and agency.
If critical theory is to be truly critical, Allen argues, it will have to pay greater attention to the phenomenon of subjection, and will have to think through the challenges that the notion of subjection poses for the critical-theoretical conception of autonomy. In particular, Allen discusses in detail how the normative aspirations of Habermasian critical theory need to be recast in light of Foucault's and Butler's account of subjection. This book is original both in its attempt to think of power and autonomy simultaneously and in its effort to bring the work of Foucault and Habermas into a productive dialogue.
Allen's theoretical framework illuminates both aspects of what she calls, following Foucault, the "politics of our selves." It analyzes power in all its depth and complexity, including the complicated phenomenon of subjection, without giving up on the ideal of autonomy. Drawing on original and critical readings of a diverse group of theorists, including Michel Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, Judith Butler, and Seyla Benhabib, Allen shows how the self can be both constituted by power and capable of an autonomous self-constitution. Her argument is a significant and vital contribution to feminist theory and to critical social theory, both of which have long grappled with the relationship between power and agency.
If critical theory is to be truly critical, Allen argues, it will have to pay greater attention to the phenomenon of subjection, and will have to think through the challenges that the notion of subjection poses for the critical-theoretical conception of autonomy. In particular, Allen discusses in detail how the normative aspirations of Habermasian critical theory need to be recast in light of Foucault's and Butler's account of subjection. This book is original both in its attempt to think of power and autonomy simultaneously and in its effort to bring the work of Foucault and Habermas into a productive dialogue.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2007
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About the author
Amy Allen
16 books12 followersAmy Allen is a Liberal Arts Research Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, and she is also the current Department Head. Previously, she was the Parents Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy and Gender and Women's Studies at Dartmouth College, and was Chair of the Department of Philosophy from 2006-2012. Her research takes a critical approach to feminist approaches of power, examines the relationship between power and autonomy in the constitution of the subject, and attempts to broaden traditional feminist understandings of power to apply to transnational issues.
(Source: Wikipedia)
(Source: Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 16, 2015
Allen's book is a brilliant dissection of Foucault, Butler, Habermas, Benhabib as well as McCarthy, et al.
Her discussions of power, subjectification, subordination, socialization and power are all exceptionally astute.
One of Allen's explicit aims in this work is to examine the socialization effects on subjects and she does say explicitly on pages 99-103 that she will not address Habermas's internal colonization thesis. But, it is in Habermas's work on internal colonization of the life-world that we would expect to find an analysis of the effects of the capitalist system, work practices and labour-force conditions on power relations, subordination and subjectification. It is notable that there are no entries in the index for the terms capitalism, class, economics, economic security, employment, finance, financial autonomy, labour, income, wages, wage-security, wage stability, wage-gap, work, or workplace.
Consequently, the book is a disappointment for what appears to be its underdevelopment because I would argue that it is not possible to fully understand socialization and subordination - with which Allen is most concerned - without addressing socio-economic and work-life issues. The book thus fails to address these effects for those who are subject to socio-economic power relationships. There are theoretical and political consequences for this analytic under-development inasmuch as the book is a work of critical theory.
We might legitimately ask: how it is possible to fully understand subjectification and subordination without taking into account the influence and effects of the political-economic context of the capitalist socio-economic order and in which subjects – especially women – find themselves? It would be difficult to argue that the effects on women of class, work-life, income and life chances as well as the determining influences of income and financial resources are not pervasive and ubiquitous.
Are these lives about which Allen is concerned all on the other side of the economic divide? We could ask rhetorically: is it no longer the case that work provides the primary source of income for most families, and those who are socialized and grow up in them? Asking this rhetorical question demands that we also ask what is happening to work itself.
In the past 25-30 years there has been a vast transformation in the way work is organized. Standard payroll-based employment is disappearing rapidly in favour of a network of contractors, intermediaries and sub-corporate labour suppliers. It is no longer the producing corporation or provider of goods and services that is the direct employer, but some other entity in the labour-supply chain that provides labour-power to the producer of products. This is sometimes referred to as labour-force 'fissuring', which connotes a fragmentation of employment into categories of part-timers, casual work, temporaries, adjuncts, zero-hour contracts, sub-contracting, franchising, outsourcing and management of workers by third parties all of which is devoid of a social compact between the employee and the corporation that benefits from the labour power of these contingent workers. In turn, this diminishes opportunities for predictable work, health-care cover, pension eligibility, or stable careers. In the US especially, however, it does hollow out worker protections because legislation and regulation, historically predicated in America on payroll employment, doesn't apply to these categories of workers.
These changes are the result of the demands of capital markets and financial sector deregulation in which investors displaced corporate managers and have relentlessly driven down labour costs since the early 1980s. The implementation of a finely-granulated panopticon enabled by technologies of various kinds have made it possible to closely monitor and objectify workers, micro-manage workplaces and intensify work-life. (See Robert Kuttner, NYR, 23 Oct 2014, "Why Work is More and More Debased").
One crucial impact has been to drive down wages, displace more highly-paid males from the labour-force and replace them with low-paid females, making the matter of poverty wages for single mothers, among others, a sexist issue. How can these changes not have substantial impacts on the subjectification, socialization and subordination practices to which families, parents, and children are susceptible? It is not difficult to predict that the children of families in these new labour markets will be socialized to expect diminishing levels of compensation, protection and opportunity.
These changes woven among the systems of the contemporary social order are part of a story about power, and Foucault may be useful in understanding this, but there is no mention of this transformation of power relations in Allen's book. If for Foucault discursive formations order and control our lives and the socio-economic order, and if work does remain as the principal economic and life-world activity for most people, then the institutional practices and concepts control us rather than we controlling them. Allen's exceptionally insightful work unfortunately ignores these work-related, socio-economic and financial realities as determining subjects and although the book is highly instructive and well-written, for the lives predicated on those determinations it suffers for these omissions.
I wanted to give this book five stars, but it's not the book I wanted Allen to write. Because it's missing a justification for leaving out the socio-economic elements I can only give it four stars. I would very much look forward to Allen addressing these missing issues in another book.
Her discussions of power, subjectification, subordination, socialization and power are all exceptionally astute.
One of Allen's explicit aims in this work is to examine the socialization effects on subjects and she does say explicitly on pages 99-103 that she will not address Habermas's internal colonization thesis. But, it is in Habermas's work on internal colonization of the life-world that we would expect to find an analysis of the effects of the capitalist system, work practices and labour-force conditions on power relations, subordination and subjectification. It is notable that there are no entries in the index for the terms capitalism, class, economics, economic security, employment, finance, financial autonomy, labour, income, wages, wage-security, wage stability, wage-gap, work, or workplace.
Consequently, the book is a disappointment for what appears to be its underdevelopment because I would argue that it is not possible to fully understand socialization and subordination - with which Allen is most concerned - without addressing socio-economic and work-life issues. The book thus fails to address these effects for those who are subject to socio-economic power relationships. There are theoretical and political consequences for this analytic under-development inasmuch as the book is a work of critical theory.
We might legitimately ask: how it is possible to fully understand subjectification and subordination without taking into account the influence and effects of the political-economic context of the capitalist socio-economic order and in which subjects – especially women – find themselves? It would be difficult to argue that the effects on women of class, work-life, income and life chances as well as the determining influences of income and financial resources are not pervasive and ubiquitous.
Are these lives about which Allen is concerned all on the other side of the economic divide? We could ask rhetorically: is it no longer the case that work provides the primary source of income for most families, and those who are socialized and grow up in them? Asking this rhetorical question demands that we also ask what is happening to work itself.
In the past 25-30 years there has been a vast transformation in the way work is organized. Standard payroll-based employment is disappearing rapidly in favour of a network of contractors, intermediaries and sub-corporate labour suppliers. It is no longer the producing corporation or provider of goods and services that is the direct employer, but some other entity in the labour-supply chain that provides labour-power to the producer of products. This is sometimes referred to as labour-force 'fissuring', which connotes a fragmentation of employment into categories of part-timers, casual work, temporaries, adjuncts, zero-hour contracts, sub-contracting, franchising, outsourcing and management of workers by third parties all of which is devoid of a social compact between the employee and the corporation that benefits from the labour power of these contingent workers. In turn, this diminishes opportunities for predictable work, health-care cover, pension eligibility, or stable careers. In the US especially, however, it does hollow out worker protections because legislation and regulation, historically predicated in America on payroll employment, doesn't apply to these categories of workers.
These changes are the result of the demands of capital markets and financial sector deregulation in which investors displaced corporate managers and have relentlessly driven down labour costs since the early 1980s. The implementation of a finely-granulated panopticon enabled by technologies of various kinds have made it possible to closely monitor and objectify workers, micro-manage workplaces and intensify work-life. (See Robert Kuttner, NYR, 23 Oct 2014, "Why Work is More and More Debased").
One crucial impact has been to drive down wages, displace more highly-paid males from the labour-force and replace them with low-paid females, making the matter of poverty wages for single mothers, among others, a sexist issue. How can these changes not have substantial impacts on the subjectification, socialization and subordination practices to which families, parents, and children are susceptible? It is not difficult to predict that the children of families in these new labour markets will be socialized to expect diminishing levels of compensation, protection and opportunity.
These changes woven among the systems of the contemporary social order are part of a story about power, and Foucault may be useful in understanding this, but there is no mention of this transformation of power relations in Allen's book. If for Foucault discursive formations order and control our lives and the socio-economic order, and if work does remain as the principal economic and life-world activity for most people, then the institutional practices and concepts control us rather than we controlling them. Allen's exceptionally insightful work unfortunately ignores these work-related, socio-economic and financial realities as determining subjects and although the book is highly instructive and well-written, for the lives predicated on those determinations it suffers for these omissions.
I wanted to give this book five stars, but it's not the book I wanted Allen to write. Because it's missing a justification for leaving out the socio-economic elements I can only give it four stars. I would very much look forward to Allen addressing these missing issues in another book.
January 20, 2011
super smart, esp useful on exposition of Foucault's relation to Kant
July 23, 2024
4 stars for foucault’s chapter
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews