Instructor: D. Leshem
Michel Foucault’s recently published lectures (The Birth of Biopolitics, 2008) shed new light on late-modern governmentality. He examines the liberal thought of the late 18th to early 19th century, as well as neo-liberal thought as it evolved in post-war Germany and The United States. Within this context he conducts a close reading of texts composed by British political economists, post-war German economists from the Freiburg School, and Chicago School 1970’s economists.
This reading led Foucault to offer original and illuminating answers to these questions—what is the art of government unique to Neo-Liberalism? How do its singular configuration of economic theory, ‘security mechanisms’ and society stem from 19th century liberalism and how are they distinguished from it? This course will be based on readings of Foucault’s lectures accompanied by primary sources, while addressing Keynesian economics and recent developments in the field of economic theory for further context.
