File spoon-archives/foucault.archive/foucault_1998/foucault.9811, message 75


Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 07:32:05 -0500
From: Ian Robert Douglas <Ian_Robert_Douglas-AT-Brown.edu>
Subject: holiday fun


I remember reading once of a doctoral candidate--I think from Toronto--who
completed a study of "Foucault's humanism" and was rather upset when,
having the chance to meet the man, Foucault dismissed her effort, telling
her (paraphrasing) 'you should have done a genealogy' ...


______________________________________________
*** I propose a game!
    How many genealogical studies of institutions can we name?

I made a tentative list of possible 'institutions' (for the moment, using a
fairly narrow understanding of the word):
   the asylum, the prison, the courthouse, the clinic, the factory, the
barracks, the sanatorium, the school, the mortuary, the intersection, the
cemetery, the funfair, the stadium, the bedroom, the mall, the hotel room,
the supermarket, the couch, the museum, the post office, the library, the
bank, the university, the airport, the chapel, the park, the household, the
brothel, the office, the washroom, the bathhouse, the gymnasium, the public
house, the theatre, the car, the disco, the highway, the crosswalk, the
State.

(the last isn't really appropriate, but I can never resist to remind myself
of its existence)

*** Selection criteria: I counted only--for the moment--"real spaces"
(unlike 'marriage', or 'the family', for example, which are often referred
to as 'institutions').  I tried to ensure each was differentiated, to a
degree, from the others (for example, I didn't list the "rest home", as
this is something of an amalgam of the clinic and the cemetery, which I'd
already listed).  I also suggest these must be locations of mass activity,
that is to say, they traverse, penetrate, the mundane and normal existence
of people; not simply occasional activities, but spaces where one might
guess that somebody actually is--indeed many people are--at any given time,
somewhere on the planet.
    Obviously there is some difficulty here--Foucault never attempted the
genealogy of the actual institution (as say, Goffman did of the asylum),
but was more interested in the genealogy of the particular rationality at
stake.  I'm assuming I'm understood on this ... some slippage between the
two is OK.


THE GAME:
__________________________________
How many of these institutions have been studied genealogically, and by who?
*** Selection criteria: any--as long as there is a systematic (or near
systematic) attempt to study them.  Journal articles, in other words, would
be admissable.  Any language.

please send suggestions to add to the following (suggestive) list:

p.s., I guess it's not fair if I win the game, so the following are only
the most obvious suggestions ..
p.p.s., great studies which are not really 'genealogical' but erudite, are
also admissable.
p.p.p.s., if in doubt, leave a ?? after.


___the asylum

M. Foucault, (1961) _Folie et deraison_


___ the prison

M. Foucault, (c1977) _Discipline and Punish_


___ the courthouse


___ the clinic

M. Foucault, (c1973) _The Birth of the Clinic_


___ the factory


___ the barracks

G. Oestreich, (1982) _Neostoicism and the early modern state_??


___ the sanatorium


___ the school

Jones, K. & K. Williamson, (1979) 'The birth of the schoolroom', _Ideology
and Consciousness_ 6, pp. 58-110

___ the mortuary


___ the intersection


___ the cemetery


___ the funfair


___ the stadium


___ the bedroom


___ the mall


___ the hotel room


___ the supermarket


___ the couch


___ the museum


___ the post office


___ the library


___ the bank


___ the university


___ the airport


___ the chapel


___ the park


___ the household


___ the brothel


___ the office


___ the washroom


___ the bathhouse


___ the gymnasium


___ the public house


___ the theatre


___ the car


___ the disco


___ the highway

L. Mumford, (1963) _The Highway and the City_??


___ the crosswalk




POINT OF GAME:
__________________________________
jouissance?  you decide ...


THE CARROT:
__________________________________
The person judged (by me) to have contributed the best list of suggestions
will be offered the handsome prize of several free drinks; to be claimed
henceforth if they ever come to New York City when I happen to be in town.


happy holidays!


______________________________________________
Ian R. Douglas  |  Watson Institute of International Studies
Brown University, Box 1831, Providence, RI  02912  USA

tel: 401 863-2420     fax: 401 863-2192

"Only he who takes what he writes directly out of his
 own head is worth reading."  -  Schopenhauer

http://www.powerfoundation.org



   

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