Foucault’s Analysis of Modern Governmentality - A Critique of Political Reason

by Thomas Lemke

Tracking the development of Foucault's key concepts

Lemke offers the most comprehensive and systematic account of Michel Foucault's work on power and government from 1970 until his death in 1984. He convincingly argues, using material that has only partly been translated into English, that Foucault's concern with ethics and forms of subjectivation is always already integrated into his political concerns and his analytics of power. The book also shows how the concept of government was taken up in different lines of research in France before it gave rise to "governmentality studies" in the Anglophone world.

A Critique of Political Reason provides a clear and well-structured exposition that is theoretically challenging but also accessible for a wider audience. Thus, the book can beread both as an original examination of Foucault's concept of government and as a general introduction to his "genealogy of power."

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, Academic

464 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Thomas Lemke is Professor of Sociology with focus on Biotechnologies, Nature and Society at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main in Germany and Honorary Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. His research interests include social and political theory, biopolitics, science and technology studies.

Reviews

[Eren Buğlalılar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foucaultperverler cemiyetinin kuruluş metni gibi kitap. Lemke ilk çalışmalarından başlayarak Cinselliğin Tarihi'ne kadar Foucault düşüncesinin bir özetini sunmuş. Lemke'nin fikirleri bazen ağdalı bir akademik üslup çorbasında görünüp kayboluyor. Üslupçuluk dışında bir başka meziyeti de var yazarın: Göğsünü fedakarca Foucault'ya kalkan edebiliyor. Onun İran Devrimi konusundaki saçma sapan heyecanlarını dahi "aslında şöyle demek istedi" diyerek savunuyor.

Üslubu ve Foucaultperverliği aştığımızda ise karşımıza orta-üst seviye, toplu bir Foucault düşüncesine giriş kitabı çıkıyor. Çok not alıp düşündüm. Daha başlangıç seviyesi bir tanıtım arayanlar Lisa Downing'in "The Cambridge Introduction to Foucault" kitabına bakabilirler. Çeviriyi de iyi buldum.

[Raj Karan Gambhir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lemke does an extraordinary job of systematically laying out the contributions of a thinker who was not afraid to make provisional changes to his theoretical project as he matured. A really excellent dispelling of some of the more reductive characterizations of Foucault's work as well. Could not reccomend this book more.

[Zhen Hao · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to read Foucault without reading Foucault