Quartz sync: Mar 23, 2024, 2:12 PM

bibliography.bib

@@ -23,6 +23,67 @@ @book{earley2012
   file = {/home/lino/Documents/20-29 Plan, Research & Learn/23 Literature/earley2012_self-therapy.pdf}
 }
 
+@book{foucault1975,
+  title = {Discipline and {{Punish}}},
+  author = {Foucault, Michel},
+  year = {1975},
+  publisher = {Random House},
+  keywords = {Foucault,surveillance},
+  file = {/home/lino/Documents/20-29 Plan, Research & Learn/23 Literature/foucault1975_discipline and punish.pdf}
+}
+
+@book{foucault2008,
+  title = {The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the {{Coll{\`e}ge}} de {{France}}, 1978-79},
+  shorttitle = {The Birth of Biopolitics},
+  author = {Foucault, Michel and Senellart, Michel},
+  year = {2008},
+  publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan},
+  address = {Basingstoke [England] ; New York},
+  collaborator = {{Coll{\`e}ge de France}},
+  isbn = {978-1-4039-8654-2},
+  langid = {english},
+  lccn = {JC574 .F68 2008},
+  keywords = {Foucault},
+  annotation = {OCLC: ocn214282391},
+  file = {/home/lino/Documents/20-29 Plan, Research & Learn/23 Literature/foucault2008_the birth of biopolitics.pdf}
+}
+
+@book{foucault2009,
+  title = {Security, {{Territory}}, {{Population}}: {{Lectures}} at the {{Coll{\`e}ge}} de {{France}}, 1977-78},
+  shorttitle = {Security, Territory, Population},
+  author = {Foucault, Michel},
+  editor = {Senellart, Michel and Ewald, Fran{\c c}ois and Fontana, Alessandro and Burchell, Adam},
+  year = {2009},
+  publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan, R{\'e}publique Fran{\c c}aise},
+  address = {Basingstoke, New York},
+  abstract = {"Marking a major development in Foucault's thinking, this book derives from the lecture course which he gave at the College de France between January and April, 1978. Taking as his starting point the notion of "bio-power," introduced both in his 1976 course Society Must be Defended and in the first volume of his History of Sexuality, Foucault sets out to study the emergence of this new technology of power over population."--BOOK JACKET},
+  keywords = {Foucault},
+  file = {/home/lino/Documents/20-29 Plan, Research & Learn/23 Literature/foucault2009_security, territory, population.pdf}
+}
+
+@book{lawlor2014,
+  title = {The {{Cambridge Foucault Lexicon}}},
+  editor = {Lawlor, Leonard and Nale, John},
+  year = {2014},
+  publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
+  address = {New York City},
+  isbn = {978-0-521-11921-4},
+  langid = {english},
+  lccn = {B2430.F724 C366 2014},
+  keywords = {{Foucault, Michel},Dictionaries},
+  file = {/home/lino/Documents/20-29 Plan, Research & Learn/23 Literature/lawlor2014_the cambridge foucault lexicon.pdf}
+}
+
+@book{link1997,
+  title = {Versuch {\"U}ber Den {{Normalismus}}: Wie {{Normalit{\"a}t}} Produziert Wird},
+  shorttitle = {Versuch {\"U}ber Den {{Normalismus}}},
+  author = {Link, J{\"u}rgen},
+  year = {1997},
+  publisher = {Westdeutscher Verlag},
+  address = {G{\"o}ttingen},
+  file = {/home/lino/Documents/20-29 Plan, Research & Learn/23 Literature/link1997_versuch über den normalismus.pdf}
+}
+
 @article{luhrmann2019,
   title = {A Third Wave of Autocratization Is Here: What Is New about It?},
   shorttitle = {A Third Wave of Autocratization Is Here},
@@ -96,3 +157,16 @@ @article{wicker1969
   langid = {english},
   file = {/home/lino/Documents/20-29 Plan, Research & Learn/23 Literature/wicker1969_attitudes versus actions.pdf;/home/lino/Zotero/storage/Q233XRLP/j.1540-4560.1969.tb00619.html}
 }
+
+@article{young2006,
+  title = {Responsibility and {{Global Justice}}: {{A Social Connection Model}}},
+  author = {Young, Iris Marion},
+  year = {2006},
+  journal = {Social Philosophy and Policy},
+  volume = {23},
+  pages = {102--130},
+  doi = {10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195392388.001.0001},
+  urldate = {2021-03-23},
+  langid = {english},
+  file = {/home/lino/Documents/20-29 Plan, Research & Learn/23 Literature/young2006_responsibility and global justice.pdf}
+}

content/concepts/ideology.md

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+By ideology, I do not mean an explicit, conscious attachment to a set of ideas
+and beliefs. Rather, I refer to ideology here in the classic Marxian way: _Sie
+wissen es nicht, aber Sie tun es_. For a critique and refinement of that classic
+Marxian perspective, see [@zizek2008] .

content/concepts/normalisation.md

@@ -16,31 +16,52 @@ of the 19th century, originates from, and what explains the word's usage to
 denote social standards. For example, heterosexuality in the early 20th century
 was _normal_ [@harper2021].
 
-The notion that a thing can be _normal_ is intrinsically tied to the
-_technics_[^fn:1] of the modern bureaucratic state. This is reflected in the
-word used to describe the discipline in which normality takes centre stage:
-Statistics[^fn:2]. It is the field of statistics that assumes that the
-characteristics of human bodies, the parameters of its experience or features of
-entire populations can be meaningfully measured and compared against each other.
-The final aim of this exercise is the construction of an _ideology_[^fn:3] of
-_purification_[^fn:4] that classifies human bodies, experience and collectives
-into normal and abnormal, governed and not (yet) governed, pure and impure. This
-ideology is so deeply entrenched in modern discourse that its removal from the
-discourse would render much of it unintelligible and meaningless [@link1997].
+The notion that a thing can be _normal_ is intrinsically tied to the _technics_
+of the modern bureaucratic state. Here, I am referring specifically to a concept
+used by Lewis Mumford to refer to the interplay of the social and the and
+technological or mechanical realms of human innovation. In _Technics and
+Civilization_, he writes: "To understand the dominating role played by technics
+in modern civilization, one must explore in detail the preliminary period of
+ideological and social preparation. Not merely must one explain the existence of
+the new mechanical instruments: one must explain the culture that was ready to
+use them and profit by them so extensively." [@mumford1934, p. 4]
+
+This is reflected in the word used to describe the discipline in which normality
+takes centre stage: _Statistics_. It is no accident that the words _state_ to
+denote a political entity and the word _statistics_ share see same root, see
+@foucault1975 [p. 101]. It is this field which assumes that the characteristics
+of human bodies, the parameters of its experience or features of entire
+populations can be meaningfully measured and compared against each other. The
+final aim of this exercise is the construction of an [[ideology]] of
+_purification_ that classifies human bodies, experience and collectives into
+normal and abnormal, governed and not (yet) governed, pure and impure. On the
+issue of normalisation as purification and its relationship to what Foucault
+calls "state racism", see especially _Society Must Be Defended_ where Foucault
+says: "We see the appearance of a State racism: a racism that society will
+direct against itself, against its own elements and its own products. This is
+the internal racism of permanent purification, and it will become [in the early
+19th century] one of the basic dimensions of social normalization."
+[@foucault2003]. This ideology is so deeply entrenched in modern discourse that
+its removal from the discourse would render much of it unintelligible and
+meaningless [@link1997].
 
 In its more general sense _normalisation_ refers to the "processes that
 construct experiences and capacities of some social segments into standards
 against which all are measured, and some found wanting or deviant" [@young2006].
 In the discussion of these processes and their modes of operation, Michel
-Foucault's work is of paramount importance[^fn:5].
+Foucault's work is of paramount importance.
 
 Foucault distinguishes between two types of normalisation. The first being what
 he later called _normation_ and the second being _normalisation_ proper. Their
 difference lies primarily in their target object. While disciplinary "normation"
-as analysed in _Discipline and Punish_[^fn:6] [@foucault1975] targets the
-individual body, normalisation, on the other hand, as analysed in the lecture
-series _Security, Territory & Population_ targets entire populations. Let me
-treat each of them in turn:
+as analysed in _Discipline and Punish_ [@foucault1975] targets the individual
+body, normalisation, on the other hand, as analysed in the lecture series
+_Security, Territory & Population_ targets entire populations. This is confusing
+because in _Discipline and Punish_, Foucault still refers to "normation" as
+"normalisation" as his refined understanding of the latter was not developed
+until his lecture series on gouvernmentality in 1975.
+
+Let me treat each of those notions in turn:
 
 First, in _Discipline and Punish_, Foucault describes normalising disciplinary
 practices or normation as the set of techniques which seek to identify and then
@@ -78,10 +99,10 @@ explain the divergence of normalisation from the disciplinary normation
 discussed above. While in the disciplines, a norm is predefined and normation
 then operates to achieve fixed objectives such as how to hold the rifle and who
 to have sex with, the operation of normalisation now consists in "establishing
-an interplay between these different distributions of normality and [in] acting
+an interplay between these different distributions of normality and (in) acting
 to bring the most unfavorable in line with the more favorable" [@foucault2009,
-63]. Imagine different states within a country. Suppose each of these states has
-different rates at which people succumb to COVID-19, thus creating different
+p. 63]. Imagine different states within a country. Suppose each of these states
+has different rates at which people succumb to COVID-19, thus creating different
 normalities. Then these different normalities are compared against each other to
 construct a temporary norm of what is demmed most desirable for the overall
 population. Finally, as Ladelle McWhorter summarises it succintly in her
@@ -90,43 +111,4 @@ techniques do not discipline individual bodies to fixed norms; rather, by
 changing the conditions of life of a population, they cause changes in the norms
 themselves." [@lawlor2014]
 
-[^fn:1]:
-    Here, I am referring specifically to a concept used by Lewis Mumford to
-    refer to the interplay of the social and the and technological or mechanical
-    realms of human innovation. In _Technics and Civilization_, he writes: "To
-    understand the dominating role played by technics in modern civilization,
-    one must explore in detail the preliminary period of ideological and social
-    preparation. Not merely must one explain the existence of the new mechanical
-    instruments: one must explain the culture that was ready to use them and
-    profit by them so extensively." [@mumford1934, p. 4]
-
-[^fn:2]:
-    It is no accident that the words _state_ to denote a political entity and
-    the word _statistics_ share see same root, see @foucault1975 [p. 101]
-
-[^fn:3]:
-    By ideology, I do not mean an explicit, conscious attachment to a set of
-    ideas and beliefs. Rather, I refer to ideology here in the classic Marxian
-    way: _Sie wissen es nicht, aber Sie tun es_. For a critique and refinement
-    of that classic Marxian perspective, see [@zizek2008].
-
-[^fn:4]:
-    On the issue of normalisation as purification and its relationship to what
-    Foucault calls "state racism", see especially _Society Must Be Defended_
-    where Foucault says: "We see the appearance of a State racism: a racism that
-    society will direct against itself, against its own elements and its own
-    products. This is the internal racism of permanent purification, and it will
-    become [in the early 19th century] one of the basic dimensions of social
-    normalization." [@foucault2003]
-
-[^fn:5]:
-    It is obvious that the scope of this assignment is unable to capture the
-    breadth and depth of Foucault's thoughts on the issue. Nonetheless, it can
-    provide a useful starting point for further engaging with his writing.
-
-[^fn:6]:
-    In _Discipline and Punish_, Foucault still refers to "normation" as
-    "normalisation" as his refined understanding of the latter was not developed
-    until his lecture series on gouvernmentality in 1975.
-
 ## Bibliography