Foucault's 1984 discussion of Kant's 1784›What is Enlightenment?‹emphasizes the historical ontology of ourselves as our most noble task. Forty years after Foucault's death (and 300 years after Kant's birth), society has changed.
Capitalist globalization has slowed, and the forgotten Cold War has been reanimated. Monopolies are increasing, and the neoliberal self-governing of people appears to be undermined by the algorithmization of subtle control techniques.
Accordingly, our meeting invites contributions that discuss the reception of Foucault's analyses under the lens of recent social change: did or in how far did the formation of subject positions in discourses, processes of subjectivation in governmental power practices, or the constitution of ourselves as ethical selves in self-technologies change compared to Foucault's late account of the subject constitution in neoliberal capitalism? We will rethink and work with Foucault on an updated historical ontology of ourselves.
Abstract Submission
- Abstracts in English should be between 150 and 250 words and submitted online no later than April 1.
- Please register an account and submit your abstract at the conference website:www.uibk.ac.at/socialtheory/foucault
- Notification of acceptance & conference registration: early April
- If acceptance notifications are needed prior to the submission deadline, please contact the organizers (Frank Welz, frank.welz(at)uibk.ac.at)
- Sessions will depend on submitted papers. Possible session topics are:
- Discourse and subject positions
- Governmentality and subjectivation
- Self-technologies and ethical selves
- Historical ontology of ourselves
We expect the conference to begin on Friday morning as an online event. On Saturday morning (or Friday afternoon), it will be continued on-site. The meeting will conclude on Saturday, 6 pm. Presenters will have approximately 30-40 minutes combined for paper presentation and discussion. We look forward to your contribution!