Michel Foucault reading group

Goals
This project aims to gather an interested group of individuals who will read and discuss texts by Michel Foucault.

Background
From the Wikipedia article Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: [miʃel fuko]; English-speakers' pronunciation varies) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher. He held a chair at the Collège de France, which he gave the title "The History of Systems of Thought." His writings have had an enormous impact: Foucault's influence extends across the humanities and social sciences and into applied and professional areas of study.

Foucault is known for his critical studies of various social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, parameters of educational timeframes, and the prison system, and also for his work on the history of sexuality. His work concerning power and the relation between power and knowledge, as well as his ideas concerning "discourse" in relation to the history of Western thought, have been widely discussed and applied.

His work is often described as postmodernist or post-structuralist by commentators and critics; during the 1960s, however, he was more often associated with the structuralist movement. Although he was initially happy with this description, he later emphasized his distance from the structuralist approach, and he always unequivocally rejected the 'post-structuralist' and 'postmodernist' labels.

Learning Project Summary
Each month a text will be chosen and the group will read it and then post comments and questions to this Learning Group.
 * Introduction to Foucault

Suggested Texts
December 2006 The Archeology of Knowledge

Learning Activities

 * Read the Introduction to The Archeology of Knowledge
 * Post questions, comments and responses to the Talk:Michel Foucault reading group
 * Read The Unities of Discourse Chapter 1 of part 2 of The Archeology of Knowledge
 * Post questions, comments and responses to the Talk:Michel Foucault reading group

Texts
Copied from Wikipedia article Michel Foucault

Wikipedia articles

 * Michel Foucault
 * Madness and Civilization
 * The Order of Things
 * The Archaeology of Knowledge
 * Discipline and Punish
 * The History of Sexuality

Active participants
Active participants in this Learning Group
 * Mystictim 00:58, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Executivezen 16:21 4 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Cormaggio beep 11:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)