Writing Genealogies

An exploration of Foucault's strategies for doing research

Bibliographic Data

ID2932250
AuthorsMaria Tamboukou (0000-0002-6380-4415, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume20
Issue2
Pages201-217
Publication date1999-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0159-6306 • E-ISSN: 1469-3739
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0159630990200202
OpenAlexW2008594005
LanguageEN
Citations received53
References cited29

Meeting' FoucaultLike many people of my generation, when I was young I thought that the world needed dramatic changes and that I should do something about it.After spending several years actively involved in various off-mainstream political and feminist groups, I foun d myself trapped in an impasse of both theory and practice .It was the early 1980s in Greece; Europe was changing, the world was changing and theories seemed insufficient to account for what was happening.In the early 1990s I decided Lo leave Greece and escape to London.Jn my attempt to make a new start, I became interested in politics once more, but this time it was definitely politics with a small 'p'.It was then that I 'met' Foucau lt and had the idea of focusing my research on his work.Foucau lt's work came as an inspiration in a period when all political theory seemed dry to me and when political activi ty was no longer on the agenda.I thi nk that my interest in Foucau lt coincided with a critical period in my life, when, dislocating myself from familiar spaces and places, l had felt the need to experiment with new modes of thinking and perhaps with new modes of being.J n following Foucault, I think that I have become passionately interested in a wider shift in the European intellectual landscape: the return of ethics as a primary issue in the philosophical agenda, after so many years of the primary position of pol itics.I think that far from abandoning politics, this shift has been working towards redefining the subject(s) of politics and the very notion of P/politics itself.Following Foucault 's intellectual paths, and especially his suggestion for writing genealogies, turned out to be an exciting adventure.There were a lot of things to be discovered.Foucault had used the term 'genealogy' to describe his work, but he insisted on not following any certain method ology to do that.On the contrary he was against all closed types of methodologies and instead he was continually slipping away from being committed to any of them.His intellectual work has been rather a move to go 'beyond' any existing theories and/or methodologies, yet he kept on referring again and again lo his works as genealogies.This paper is therefore focusing on the very ontology of the Foucauldian genealogy, being aware of 1.he vanity of any attempt to frame the Foucauldian genealogy as a closed method for research, bu t at the same time acknow ledging the need to map the Foucauldian genealogy in a cartography of contemporary problematics upon social and historical research.Therefore: What is Genealogy?In trying to work out this question, I think I should make clear that this paper is not attempting to open new directions in the philosophical and /or epistemological debate on Foucault's theories.Drawing on inufluential theorisations of the Foucauldian methodology Iwill attempt to bring together those critical pieces that illuminate the dark tunnel of the genealogical method and make it 'usable'.Why and how to use genealogy as a critical tool is what I want to illustrate, but to do t h i s I cannot help reflecting on, first of all, the ontology of the method.Therefore, what is genealogy?Foucault has written lovely histories.Although tempting, however, Foucauldian histories have been highly interrogated

Epistemology · Sociology · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Philosophy

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