Read more
Political resistance is flourishing. In this context, there is a growing interest to reread Michel Foucault's work, especially from the late period, from the perspective of resistance, social movements and affirmative biopolitics. Yet what has been missing so far is a book-length, comprehensive study focusing on this topic. This volume undertakes this task, providing an original typology of the resources of resistance discovered in Foucault's late thinking:
resistance as discursive protection of autonomy
bodily and affective resistance
the strategies, arts and practices of affirmative biopolitics or 'politics of life'
The book shows how these different types of tools, arts and practices can be used in resistant politics, in struggles against various regimes and institutions of power and government, so that they mutually supplement and reinforce one another. The author embarks on advancing Foucault's insights on resistance from where he stopped. Furthermore, the volume proposes a novel assessment of the Foucauldian political toolkit in the 21st century context, addressing its pertinence for struggles against neoliberalism and post-Fordist capitalism.
Foucault, Biopolitics and Resistance will be an important resource for students and scholars interested in Foucault, resistance and 21st century politics within many fields, including political science, international relations, contemporary and continental philosophy as well as sociology. The work elaborates fresh methodological insights, fruitful for further empirical research on social and political movements.
List of contents
1. Introduction Part I: RESISTANCE AND THE POLITICS OF AUTONOMY: FOUCAULT’S UNYIELDING DISCOURSES 2. The Hellenistic-Roman/Enlightenment Model of Resistance 3. Foucauldian Self-Help? Spirituality and Biopolitics in the 21st Century Part II. RESISTANT BODIES AND AFFECTS 4. The Politics of Aphrodisia and the Gay Mode of Life 5. Aesthetic Counter-Conduct 6. Aesthetic and Queer Resistance: Intersections and Further Questions Part III. AFFIRMATIVE BIOPOLITICS AND RESISTANCE 7. From Cynicism to Ars Erotica 8. Foucault and Zen: Spirituality, Resistance and Affirmative Biopolitics 9. Conclusion
About the author
Lauri Siisiainen is a University Researcher in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He is interested in political theory and political philosophy (especially continental), as well as in issues of power, government/governmentality, biopolitics and resistance more broadly. He has published extensively on these areas both in English and in Finnish.
Summary
This work hopes to offer fresh methodological insights, fruitful for further empirical research on social and political movements in today's world, filling the gap with a book-length study that examines late Foucault's body of texts in a comprehensive manner.
