Foucault, Neoliberalism, and Beyond

This volume dismantles any simple link between Foucault and neoliberalism, leaving us with parts for reassembly into politics of our own. -- Quinn Slobodian, Associate Professor of History, Wellesley College
Foucault’s lectures on liberal and neoliberal governmentality at the end of the 1970s have provoked multiple controversies over the evolution of his thought and politics. This excellent collection of essays provides a wealth of historical detail and analysis that helps to situate these lectures in relation to their time and to the trajectory and sources of his thought. This book is indispensable for an informed appreciation of Foucault’s work during this period and its relation to a key moment in French and global history. -- Paul Patton, Hongyi Chair Professor of Philosophy, Wuhan University
In recent political debate, the question of Michel Foucault’s notoriously ambiguous relationship to neoliberalism has become a cypher for all kinds of contemporary preoccupations on the left. But do we really know what Foucault was responding to? This volume performs the immensely valuable work of historicizing Foucault’s relationship to Marxism, neoliberalism and the so-called second left. Making no attempt to definitively resolve the question of Foucault’s political sympathies, the papers in this volume meticulously document the unique political challenges of the late 1970s and manage to be all the more illuminating about our contemporary predicament. This brilliant volume will transform the tenor of contemporary debate around Foucault, neoliberalism, and the revolutionary left. -- Melinda Cooper, Associate Professor in the School of Social and Political Science, University of Sydney