Forgetting Foucault? Anonymity, death and the author

The title 'Forgetting Foucault?', minus the question mark (a very important omission, of course), is one I have borrowed from Baudrillard's famous paper of 1980 which tries to cut Foucault's thesis about power/knowledge down to size but fails to tell us exactly why Foucault should be forgotten'. 1 Racevskis describes the Baudrillard article as 'a fairly abstruse poetico-philosophic essay that indicts Foucault for collusion with prevailing myth-making strategies. Foucault,' Racevskis continues, 'is shown by Baudrillard to have become infatuated with the imagi- nary force of his own discourse, and his genealogy is depicted as a system satisfying a certain hegemonic logic of reason. ' 2 In effect, not only has Foucault not been forgotten, the contrary is the case; a Foucault industry has grown over the ten years since his death with a Centre for Foucauldian Studies set up in Paris. What were Foucault's own views about his posterity? Why would Baudrillard want us to forget Foucault and what is this continuing presence his memory constitutes?peer-reviewe

Evaluating history and social studies textbooks : some non-technical considerations

The search for a set of universal criteria with which to evaluate history and social studies textbooks cannot be an easy one; indeed it seems doomed from the beginning. Criteria can be of many different kinds but even as one tries to enumerate them for these subjects one could find oneself challenged with a very fundamental question which, answered affirmatively, would abort the exercise even before it is begun: should one have textbooks in these subjects at all? As I hope to show later this is far from being an idle question or a red herring. At the same time such textbooks already exist, they are in ready demand from teachers, their number on the market is growing, and they are not likely to be drawn from circulation in the schools and from the market in the foreseeable future no matter what some pedagogists and theorists like myself may say. What may be encouraging, in some countries at least, is that teachers and the public today appear, in general, to be more discerning, more concerned about the quality of the books on offer, and perhaps more discriminating because there are so many text books and schemes around to choose from when they are involved in the choice. In other countries the choice is made for the teachers by a centralised public authority. But whoever chooses and whatever the choice, the existence of a situation where choice is necessary, of itself, creates a demand for guidance on how one should look at the competing textbooks on offer; for criteria of evaluation.peer-reviewe

The normative foundations of lifelong education

'Lifelong Education' is a term which is bandied about nowadays with equanimity and fashionable ease wherever educationalists of whatever kind get together for brainstorming sessions about educational problems or to discuss policy or strategies. But more often than not, the ways in which it is used demonstrate radical limitations and even misconceptions in the minds of many of its users, who tend to misemploy it. Either it becomes for them a handy slogan, or else they use it in a manner which demonstrates its equivalence in their minds with certain limited areas of educational policy; usually adult educational or vocational retraining programmes. These equivalences are, however, both misleading and oversimplified; adult educational and vocational retraining programmes are only partial strategic elements within an all embracing policy blueprint for education. Underpinning this blueprint is a complex educational philosophy with a central humanistic core. At the same time, lifelong education concurrently presents itself as a pragmatic educational response to several ob- served problems and aspirations of a mankind living in a unique historical situation. The set of issues that represent the humanistic core of lifelong education all gyrate around a particular concept o 'universal' or 'generic' man, those representing the pragmatic justifications of lifelong education are concerned with 'concrete' man. It is with these issues and justifications that this paper is concerned.peer-reviewe

Work/education relationships in Malta and the concept of lifelong education

The matter of the proper relationship of education to work is a complex one because it involves different possible permutations and because the socio-political and ideological stakes involved are usually high. The polar edges of the spectrum of possibilities are: (a) that there is no proper relationship between education and work; that education is for something else, not for work, (b) that education is for work, that the requirements of the labour market should primarily determine what is taught. For the sake of convenience one can label the first a theory of classical liberalism (under-pinned by the view that education has to do with the transmission of knowledge which is intrinsically valuable), and the second a theory of utilitarianism or instrumentalism.peer-reviewe

Wendy Wain to Dr. Silver, undated

Personal correspondenc

Wendy Wain to Dr. Silver, 17 October 1963

Personal correspondenc

Myth, Archetype and the Neutral Mask: Actor Training and Transformation in Light of the Work of Joseph Campbell and Stanislav Grof

This paper explores the influence of transpersonal thinking, including the mythological perspective of Joseph Campbell and the holotropic perspective of Stanislav Grof, on actor training using the neutral mask. An outline of training in the neutral mask is given, focusing on the approach of David Latham, as experienced by the author in his own training. Points of correspondence with the vision of Campbell and Grof, and their influence, are discriminated and discussed. These correspondences open up two areas of inquiry: the transformative effect of the mask work when conducted in a transpersonally-oriented set, and the use of the neutral mask as an approach to the study of myth and archetype. Both are discussed, and some preliminary conclusions drawn based on experiences reported by student-actors and the author’s observations during his own research and his practice as actor and teacher

The politicisation of Islam in Malaysia and its opponents

This article profiles four prominent detractors of Islam’s politicisation in contemporary Malaysia. While much ink has been spilt profiling the promulgators of politicised Islam, whether in Malaysia or elsewhere, comparatively little has been written about those who oppose it. This article is a modest attempt to rectify that deficiency. It begins, however, with a brief history of that politicisation process as it has occurred in Malaysia, with particular reference to Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM). This brief overview traces Malaysia’s unique form of politicised Islam to late twentieth-century intercommunal tensions driven by Malay poverty and cultural anxiety. These enabled long-standing ethno-religious associations to facilitate a blending of Islamist ideology with issues surrounding Malay rights. It is within this context that we then examine the social and educational backgrounds, principal publications, records of activism, and ideological positions of four prominent critics of Malaysian Islam’s politicisation, namely: Chandra Muzaffar, Zainah Anwar, Marina Mahathir, and Siti Kasim. The article concludes that all four figures differ from their counterparts in PAS and ABIM by possessing Western-orientated backgrounds, a long-standing dedication to multiculturalism, and a desire to orientate their work around human rights-based issues. The article concludes by suggesting how (or if) these detractors can impact the future direction of Malaysian politics.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe