Michel Foucault
- LAST REVIEWED: 13 November 2018
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 July 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0021
- LAST REVIEWED: 13 November 2018
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 July 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0021
Introduction
Paul-Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers, France, on 15 October 1926 and died in Paris on 25 June 1984. He was a French philosopher and historian—in his own words, a historian of systems of thought—but his work has had an enormous impact across the humanities and social sciences. His family background was in medicine: His father was a surgeon, and his mother, whose own father was also a doctor, helped run her husband’s practice. The Foucault family led a comfortable, middle-class existence, and there was an expectation that Michel (as he preferred to be known) would continue the family business, training in medicine and eventually taking over his father’s practice; this expectation would never be met, however, as Foucault had other interests. In 1946, he enrolled at the École Normale Supérieure. He passed the agrégation in 1951 and by 1952 was teaching psychology at the University of Lille. His first significant publications—Maladie Mentale et Personnalité and his introduction to Binswanger’s Dream and Existence—were published in 1954. In the next few years, Foucault held posts in Uppsala, Warsaw, and Hamburg before settling in 1960 at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. In 1961 he obtained his doctorate, and his major thesis, “Madness and Civilization,” was published. In 1963 he published The Birth of the Clinic and Raymond Roussel. In 1966, on the publication of the best-selling The Order of Things, Foucault was widely acclaimed as one of the leading figures in French intellectual life. In 1969, he moved to the University of Paris VIII at Vincennes and published The Archaeology of Knowledge. In 1970, he was appointed to a post (Professor of the History of Systems of Thought) at the Collège de France, a prestigious research institution, and he held this position until his death in 1984. The post entailed twenty-six hours of teaching each year, with about half of this commitment being taken up with lectures outlining current research. In 1973, he published I, Pierre Rivière . . . , and in 1975, Discipline and Punish. His final three published books were part of the History of Sexuality project: In 1976, he published the first volume; in 1984, knowing he was dying, he rushed to finish Volumes 2 and 3 (The Use of Pleasure and The Care of the Self).
General Overviews
There is a glut of general overviews, ranging from a number of texts aimed at undergraduates, which describe Foucault’s main concepts and aim at simplification, through to those that deal with the more complex elements of his work. Veyne 2010 is a good place to start, as it mixes details from Foucault’s life with key points about his philosophical preferences and is an easy read. Of the undergraduate texts, McHoul and Grace 1997 provides a straightforward introduction, while Smart 2002 gives more detail—Smart’s chapters on major themes and on methodology are especially useful for the beginning reader. O’Farrell 2005 and Deleuze 1986 are the best two general accounts of Foucault: O’Farrell concentrates on Foucault as a cultural analyst, while Deleuze’s strength is in taking us in turn through archaeology and genealogy and then knowledge, power, and the subject, without losing sight of their interconnections. Dreyfus and Rabinow 1982 is very useful for their methodological advice, showing us how genealogy emerges as a “solution” to the problems of archaeology; likewise Dean 1994 is most useful for its methodological sophistication and is the recommended text for those who want to know how to try to emulate Foucault’s approach. Gutting 2005 is a useful and interesting collection; for the beginner, the chapters by Flynn, and Bernauer and Mahon, are the best place to start.
Dean, Mitchell. 1994. Critical and effective histories: Foucault’s methods and historical sociology. New York: Routledge.
Especially useful for sociologists, as this text makes connections to Weber and Habermas. Concentrates on Foucault’s later work on governmentality. Dean makes a powerful argument for the role of historical work in sociology. This is the best place to start if one is interested in emulating Foucault’s methodological approach.
Deleuze, Gilles. 1986. Foucault. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
Difficult and idiosyncratic but the best account of knowledge, power, and subjectification. The first half deals with archaeology and genealogy; the second deals with knowledge, power, and the subject. Extremely useful for showing how power and knowledge are not the same thing, a common misconception about Foucault’s work.
Dreyfus, Hubert L., and Paul Rabinow. 1982. Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
Very useful for making sense of The Archaeology of Knowledge and in analyzing the turn to genealogy, which is understood as a solution to the “failures” of archaeology. Together with Dean 1994, this is recommended as a methodological guide.
Gutting, Gary, ed. 2005. The Cambridge companion to Foucault. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
A series of essays on various Foucaultian themes. Lacks coherence but takes the reader into a number of fascinating areas. Flynn on history and Bernauer and Mahon on ethics are especially useful chapters. The chapter by “Maurice Florence” purports to be Foucault’s own pseudonymous account of his thought.
McHoul, Alec W., and Wendy Grace. 1997. A Foucault primer: Discourse, power, and the subject. New York: New York Univ. Press.
A well-written and easily understood text—perhaps the best place for an undergraduate to start.
O’Farrell, Clare. 2005. Michel Foucault. London: SAGE.
Especially useful for those interested in cultural analysis. O’Farrell emphasizes the utility of Foucault’s definition of culture: the organization of knowledges and social relations and the ways in which these are rendered acceptable or unacceptable. Includes a useful chronology and bibliography. The appendix of key concepts is very valuable.
Smart, Barry. 2002. Michel Foucault. New York: Routledge.
A well-written, thematic treatment of Foucault. Recommended for undergraduate audiences. The first chapter, on major themes in Foucault, and the second chapter, on methodological approaches, are especially well written for a beginner.
Veyne, Paul. 2010. Foucault: His thought, his character. Malden, MA: Polity.
This appreciation, by one of his close friends, stresses Foucault’s skepticism and his debt to Nietzsche. The book dismisses the idea that Foucault was a relativist but allows that he was a nominalist, who nonetheless respected the truth of “stubborn facts.”
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Actor-Network Theory
- Adolescence
- African Americans
- African Societies
- Agent-Based Modeling
- Aging
- Analysis, Spatial
- Analysis, World-Systems
- Anarchism
- Anomie and Strain Theory
- Arab Spring, Mobilization, and Contentious Politics in the...
- Asian Americans
- Assimilation
- Authority and Work
- Bell, Daniel
- Biosociology
- Bourdieu, Pierre
- Careers
- Caste
- Catholicism
- Causal Inference
- Chicago School of Sociology
- Children
- Chinese Cultural Revolution
- Chinese Society
- Citizenship
- Civil Rights
- Civil Society
- Class
- Cognitive Sociology
- Cohort Analysis
- Collective Efficacy
- Collective Memory
- Community
- Comparative Historical Sociology
- Comte, Auguste
- Conflict Theory
- Conservatism
- Consumer Culture
- Consumption
- Contemporary Family Issues
- Contingent Work
- Conversation Analysis
- Corrections
- Cosmopolitanism
- Crime, Cities and
- Criminology
- Cultural Capital
- Cultural Classification and Codes
- Cultural Omnivorousness
- Cultural Production and Circulation
- Culture and Networks
- Culture, Sociology of
- Democracy
- Demography
- Development
- Deviance
- Discrimination
- Doing Gender
- Du Bois, W.E.B.
- Durkheim, Émile
- Economic Institutions and Institutional Change
- Economic Sociology
- Education
- Education and Health
- Education Policy in the United States
- Educational Policy and Race
- Elites
- Emotions
- Empires and Colonialism
- Entrepreneurship
- Environmental Sociology
- Epistemology
- Ethnic Enclaves
- Ethnicity
- Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
- Exchange Theory
- Families, Postmodern
- Family
- Family Policies
- Fascism
- Feminist Theory
- Fertility
- Field, Bourdieu's Concept of
- Food
- Forced Migration
- Foucault, Michel
- Frankfurt School
- Friendship
- Gender
- Gender and Bodies
- Gender and Crime
- Gender and Education
- Gender and Health
- Gender and Incarceration
- Gender and Professions
- Gender and Social Movements
- Gender and Work
- Gender Pay Gap
- Gender, Sexuality, and Migration
- Gender Stratification
- Gender, Welfare Policy and
- Gendered Sexuality
- Genocide
- Gentrification
- Gerontology
- Ghetto
- Globalization and Labor
- Goffman, Erving
- Habit
- Health
- Historic Preservation
- Housework
- Human Trafficking
- Identity
- Immigration
- Indian Society, Contemporary
- Institutions
- Intellectuals
- Internet
- Intersectionalities
- Intersex
- Interview Methodology
- Job Quality
- Justice
- Knowledge, Critical Sociology of
- Labor Markets
- Latino/Latina Studies
- Law and Society
- Law, Sociology of
- Leisure
- LGBT Parenting and Family Formation
- LGBT Social Movements
- Life Course
- Lipset, S.M.
- Management
- Markets, Conventions and Categories in
- Marriage and Divorce
- Marxist Sociology
- Masculinity
- Mass Incarceration in the United States and its Collateral...
- Mass Media
- Material Culture
- Mathematical Sociology
- Mead, G.H.
- Medical Sociology
- Mental Illness
- Methodological Individualism
- Middle Classes
- Migration
- Military Sociology
- Money and Credit
- Morality
- Motherhood
- Multiculturalism
- Multilevel Models
- Multiracial, Mixed-Race, and Biracial Identities
- Nationalism
- Non-normative Sexuality Studies
- Norms
- Occupations and Professions
- Organizations
- Paid Work
- Panel Studies
- Parsons, Talcott
- Policing
- Political Culture
- Political Economy
- Political Sociology
- Popular Culture
- Positivism
- Poverty
- Power
- Proletariat (Working Class)
- Protestantism
- Public Opinion
- Public Space
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
- Race
- Race and Sexuality
- Race and Violence
- Race and Youth
- Race in Global Perspective
- Race, Organizations, and Movements
- Racism
- Rational Choice
- Relationships
- Religion
- Religion and the Public Sphere
- Residential Segregation
- Revolutions
- Role Theory
- Rural Sociology
- Scientific Networks
- Secularization
- Sequence Analysis
- Sex versus Gender
- Sexual Identity
- Sexualities
- Sexuality Across the Life Course
- Simmel, Georg
- Single Parents in Context
- Skill
- Small Cities
- Social Capital
- Social Change
- Social Closure
- Social Construction of Crime
- Social Control
- Social Darwinism
- Social Disorganization Theory
- Social Epidemiology
- Social History
- Social Indicators
- Social Mobility
- Social Movements
- Social Network Analysis
- Social Networks
- Social Policy
- Social Problems
- Social Psychology
- Social Stratification
- Social Theory
- Socialization, Sociological Perspectives on
- Sociolinguistics
- Sociological Approaches to Character
- Sociological Research on the Chinese Society
- Sociological Research, Qualitative Methods in
- Sociological Research, Quantitative Methods in
- Sociology, History of
- Sociology of Manners
- Sociology of Music
- Sociology of War, The
- Sports
- Status
- Suburbanism
- Survey Methods
- Symbolic Boundaries
- Symbolic Interactionism
- The Division of Labor after Durkheim
- The State
- Tilly, Charles
- Time Use and Childcare
- Time Use and Time Diary Research
- Tourism, Sociology of
- Transnational Adoption
- Trust
- Unions and Inequality
- Urban Ethnography
- Urban Growth Machine
- Urban Inequality in the United States
- Values
- Veblen, Thorstein
- Violence
- Visual Arts, Music, and Aesthetic Experience
- Wallerstein, Immanuel
- Wealth
- Weber, Max
- Welfare, Race, and the American Imagination
- Welfare States
- Whiteness
- Women’s Employment and Economic Inequality Between Househo...
- Work and Employment, Sociology of
- Work/Life Balance
- Workplace Flexibility