Michel Foucault, the State and the Social Sciences

This book proposes an original reading of Foucault’s theory of the state in relation to the social sciences. In this text, Skornicki deconstructs the pseudo-obviousness in Foucauldian thought, namely that Michel Foucault’s new approach in political philosophy rejects the importance of the State institution for an analysis of power relations to focus instead on the micro-relationships “coming from below” and forming a multiform and heterogeneous political field. He argues that the State is not the institutional framework from which to think about power, but is a reality with multiple political effects whose genetic history and genealogical importance must be accounted for in any critical analysis of contemporary forms of power. The author thus traces, through a history of the modern State that passes through Foucault (but is not reduced to him), paths of reflection that are crucial for our current political situation. He suggests that a fundamental contribution of Foucault's genealogical philosophy to the social sciences is the possibility of an anti-substantialist, yet positive and productive thinking of power and the State. The State is the product of a complex interweaving of phenomena, processes, theories and practices whose history must always be re-thought – and towards which many different forms of struggles are always possible and urgent to be initiated.