The many-sided crisis of our present

The many-sided crisis of our present. Foucault, Critique, and Neoliberal Governmentality.

“Crisis, crisis, a crisis like no other” – so declares a reporter on hourly news bulletins.

Defined by a set of interlocking crises, our present is teetering on the brink of something or, perhaps, into … nothing. The increasingly irreversible slide into environmental catastrophe, the further intensification and extension of global economic crisis, the exacerbation of social inequalities and racial injustices, the return of authoritarian and demagogic leaders, as well as the malfunctioning of democratic institutions. In short, the legitimacy of the global economic and political system is precariously poised.

Just over thirty years ago – with the fall of the Berlin Wall – the mood and tone of public and media discourse was entirely different. If there was talk (and there was, indeed, much triumphant talk!) of things ending, then it was in the sense of ‘completion’, ‘fulfillment’, a sense of reaching the pinnacle of so-called ‘civilisation’: capitalism and liberalism had apparently carried the day against their ideological adversaries. Obviously, there is today sufficient evidence to note that such hubris was misplaced. With today’s talk about walls and barriers being erected -- with the active prevention of vulnerable people reaching shores -- liberalism (and specifically neo-liberalism), which once reveled in the collapsing of walls and preaching the unobstructed flow of ‘capital, goods, services, and people’, etc., is under enormous critical scrutiny.

With specific reference to the French philosopher, Michel Foucault (1926-84), and to certain key ideas he developed in the mid- to late 1970s, while lecturing at the Collège de France, we ask: how might we make sense of the history of our political present, and the many-sided crisis that today envelops (neo) liberal governmentality?

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Sven-Olov Wallenstein is Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics at Södertörn University. He specializes in modern European philosophy and German Idealism, with a particular emphasis on aesthetics and philosophy of art. He is the author of numerous books on philosophy, contemporary art, and architecture, and is the co-editor of the anthology, Foucault, Biopolitics and Governmentality (2013).

Karl Lydén is a doctoral researcher in Philosophy at Södertörn University. His PhD research is on re-thinking the collective subject in the later writings of Michel Foucault. He has also translated notable texts of the later Foucault in Swedish.

David Payne, PhD in Political Theory from the University of Essex, is a researcher on contemporary political thought, and is presently writing a book on the idea of the proper in an age of generalized appropriation. Research editor at Södertörn University.

The episode has been produced by David Payne and Simon Karlsson. Music written by Simon Karlsson.

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“Thought-works” created and produced by researchers in the humanities and social sciences at Södertörn University. Each episode embarks on a journey through the distinct worlds opened up by publications from the university’s publishing archives, ending up on a collision course with the imposingly obscure meaning of our own crisis-ridden times.