This post is a reminder to myself to get hold of and read Grafton Tanner’s new book. I don’t know if he refers to Foucault, but I can’t help but think of Foucault’s notions of heterotopia when I read the book description. …the idea of accumulating everything, of establishing a sort of general archive, the …
In recent years, I, like many others, have noticed that criticism and critical intellectuals have been steadily pathologised as unduly negative and hence in need of therapy and psychological intervention. It’s a very effective way of silencing the critique of institutions and social conditions. It remains to be seen how this trend will play out …
I am currently working on the references for a translation of some of Foucault’s lectures. The editors in French have established a very extensive editorial framework – adding in all the references to texts referred to and alluded to by Foucault. (Foucault read and wrote far too much is my only comment here as I …
I’ve just had the good fortune to be able to spend three months on long service and holiday leave and have taken the opportunity to undertake research and work on organising systems. It has been a process that has been worth its weight in gold. My goal has been to set systems in place that …
I find Marie Kondo’s work and method fascinating. What I find particularly interesting in her method is its invitation to people to develop a more respectful, attentive and less instrumental relationship with the non-human as well as a recognitions of the agency of the non-human (in Bruno Latour’s terms). This open access empirical study locates …
I have found that towards the end of his career, Foucault offered particularly clear and useful definitions of a number of concepts. I should add the caveat perhaps, that Foucault often redefined and refined concepts at different points in his writings. I like this passage which defines the differences in the way philosophical and spiritual …
An interesting reflection by Rob Kitchen on the relationship between academic and fiction writing and storytelling on the Transforming Society blog. He says: The usual approach to writing an academic article or book is to produce a factual, discursive narrative that weaves together theories, observations and findings, contextualising the contentions made with respect to the …
Just posting this here for future reference. The feeling of place has been a subject of long fascination for me and I particularly like the situationist notion of drifting through and paying attention to the subtle shifts in feeling of urban and other landscapes – the notion of dérive. Here’s Guy Debord on the subject: …
This looks like a really interesting work… Federico Italiano (ed.), The Dark Side of Translation – Routledge, 2020 We tend to consider translation as something good, virtuous and bright, but it can also function as an instrument of concealment, silencing and misdirection—as something that darkens and obscures. Propaganda, misinformation, narratives of trauma and imagery of …
Smith, Zadie. “Fascinated to presume: In defense of fiction.” The New York Review of Books 24 (2019). A really wonderful philosophical reflection by Zadie Smith on the reasons for writing and reading fiction and for an engagement with and inclusion of the diversity of human experience. A few extracts that I found particularly helpful. I …
Refracted Input 