Foucault and the History of our Present

According to philosopher Michel Foucault, the 'history of the present' should constitute the starting point for any enquiry into the past and a critical ontology of ourselves. This book comprises a series of essays all centring on the question of the present or,  rather, multiple presents which compose contemporary experience. The collection brings together philosophical readings of Foucault which try to rework his thought in light of our present, together with practical analyses of our own moment which draw on his methodological approaches to questions of power, knowledge and subjectivity. Covering a range of topics including freedom, politics, ethics, security, war, migration, incarceration, the sociology and political economy of new media, Marxism and activism, Foucault and the History of Our Present features essays from Tiziana Terranova, Alberto Toscano, Judith Revel, Sanjay Seth, Saul Newman, Mark Neocleous and William Walters.

Sophie Fuggle is Lecturer in French at Nottingham Trent University, UK. She is author of Foucault/Paul: Subjects of Power (Palgrave, 2013).

Yari Lanci is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. His current research project focuses on current transformations of armed conflicts and their relation to new regimes of capital accumulation. He is the author of Violence and Vigilantism: the Case of Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' (forthcoming).

Martina Tazzioli is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oulu (Relate centre), Finland. She is on the editorial board of the journal Materialifoucaultiani and is author of Spaces of Governmentality. Autonomous Migration and the Arab Uprisings (2014) and co-editor of Spaces in Migration. Postcards of a Revolution (2013).

Preface; Arnold Davidson
Introduction;Yari Lanci, Sophie Fuggle and Martina Tazzioli
PART I: HISTORIES OF THE PRESENT
1. 'What Are We at the Present Time?' Foucault and the Question of the Present; Judith Revel
2. What is Capitalist Power? Reflections on 'Truth and Juridical Forms'; Alberto Toscano:
3. Foucault in India; Sanjay Seth
4. 'Critique Will Be the Art of Voluntary Inservitude': Foucault, La Boétie and the Problem of Freedom; Saul Newman
PART II: SPACES OF GOVERNMENTALITY
5. The Other Space of Police Power; or, Foucault and the No-Fly Zone; Mark Neocleous
6. On the Road with Michel Foucault: Migration, Deportation and Viapolitics; William Walters
7. Securing the Social: Foucault and Social Networks; Tiziana Terranova
PART III: TROUBLING SUBJECTIVITIES
8. Human Pastorate and 'la vie bête'; Alain Brossat
9. Beyond Slogans and Snapshots: The Story of the Groupe d'Information sur les Prisons; Sophie Fuggle
10. Troubling Mobilities. Foucault and the Hold's over 'Unruly' Movements and Life Time; Martina Tazzioli
PART IV: POLITICS OF TRUTH
11. Environmentality and Colonial Biopolitics. Toward a Postcolonial Genealogy of Environmental Subjectivities; Orazio Irrera
12. Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault on Spiritual Exercises: Transforming the Self, Transforming the Present; Laura Cremonesi
13. A Decolonizing Alethurgy. Foucault after Fanon; Matthieu Renault
14. Ethics as Politics. Foucault, Hadot, Cavell and the Critique of Our Present; Daniele Lorenzini
Interview with Judith Butler: Resistance and Vulnerability; Federica Sossi and Martina Tazzioli)
Index