Ungovernable Counter-Conduct: Ivan Illich’s Critique of Governmentality
Within Michel Foucault’s own conceptualization of governmentality, there is little room for something like ‘ungovernable life’. The latter seems to hint at a form of social conduct beyond power-relations, which would offend Foucault’s basic philosophical postulates. I argue that this identification...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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CBS Open Journals
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Foucault Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/foucault-studies/article/view/6934 |
| _version_ | 1827294886373621760 |
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| author | Tim Christiaens |
| author_facet | Tim Christiaens |
| author_sort | Tim Christiaens |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Within Michel Foucault’s own conceptualization of governmentality, there is little room for something like ‘ungovernable life’. The latter seems to hint at a form of social conduct beyond power-relations, which would offend Foucault’s basic philosophical postulates. I argue that this identification between governmentality and power as such demonstrates a one-sided focus on the history of Western power-relations. By opposing Foucault’s genealogy of governmentality to Ivan Illich’s critical history of government, I delineate indigenous struggles against governmentalization as a form of ungovernable counter-conduct. Throughout his books from the 1970s to 1990s, Illich wrote a critical history of government surprisingly similar to Foucault’s, from the pastorate to modern political economy. However, rather than merely describing this history, Illich argued governmentalization alienated human beings from their autonomy. As a former missionary priest, he criticized the Church’s and modern governments’ attempts to subsume populations under a conduct of conducts. He advocated anticolonial resistance to subsumption under Western governmental regimes. In Illich’s appreciation of decolonized life, an ungovernable form of life can be discovered, which I defend with the example of Zapatismo and indigenous self-government through mandar obedeciendo.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T21:21:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3d476f8fa9bd4ac2aaa29ff42915e399 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1832-5203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:10:43Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | CBS Open Journals |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Foucault Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-3d476f8fa9bd4ac2aaa29ff42915e3992024-04-03T09:21:03ZengCBS Open JournalsFoucault Studies1832-52032023-09-013410.22439/fs.i34.6934Ungovernable Counter-Conduct: Ivan Illich’s Critique of GovernmentalityTim Christiaens0Tilburg University Within Michel Foucault’s own conceptualization of governmentality, there is little room for something like ‘ungovernable life’. The latter seems to hint at a form of social conduct beyond power-relations, which would offend Foucault’s basic philosophical postulates. I argue that this identification between governmentality and power as such demonstrates a one-sided focus on the history of Western power-relations. By opposing Foucault’s genealogy of governmentality to Ivan Illich’s critical history of government, I delineate indigenous struggles against governmentalization as a form of ungovernable counter-conduct. Throughout his books from the 1970s to 1990s, Illich wrote a critical history of government surprisingly similar to Foucault’s, from the pastorate to modern political economy. However, rather than merely describing this history, Illich argued governmentalization alienated human beings from their autonomy. As a former missionary priest, he criticized the Church’s and modern governments’ attempts to subsume populations under a conduct of conducts. He advocated anticolonial resistance to subsumption under Western governmental regimes. In Illich’s appreciation of decolonized life, an ungovernable form of life can be discovered, which I defend with the example of Zapatismo and indigenous self-government through mandar obedeciendo. https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/foucault-studies/article/view/6934GovernmentalityCounter-conductsIvan IllichDecolonizationZapatismo |
| spellingShingle | Tim Christiaens Ungovernable Counter-Conduct: Ivan Illich’s Critique of Governmentality Foucault Studies Governmentality Counter-conducts Ivan Illich Decolonization Zapatismo |
| title | Ungovernable Counter-Conduct: Ivan Illich’s Critique of Governmentality |
| title_full | Ungovernable Counter-Conduct: Ivan Illich’s Critique of Governmentality |
| title_fullStr | Ungovernable Counter-Conduct: Ivan Illich’s Critique of Governmentality |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ungovernable Counter-Conduct: Ivan Illich’s Critique of Governmentality |
| title_short | Ungovernable Counter-Conduct: Ivan Illich’s Critique of Governmentality |
| title_sort | ungovernable counter conduct ivan illich s critique of governmentality |
| topic | Governmentality Counter-conducts Ivan Illich Decolonization Zapatismo |
| url | https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/foucault-studies/article/view/6934 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT timchristiaens ungovernablecounterconductivanillichscritiqueofgovernmentality |