Introducing Foucault Studies

Stuart Elden, Clare O’Farrell, Alan Rosenberg Interest in the work of the French thinker Michel Foucault continues to develop within the English‐speaking world and elsewhere at an exponential rate. There exists an ever‐expanding corpus of writing which deals either directly with his work or uses his ideas as the basis for other research. Indeed, some of his concepts, notably his work on power, are now so well recognised as to often appear without attribution. Aside from being widely used at the research level, Foucaultʹs work is also commonly referred to in university courses across the humanities and the social sciences as well as in applied professional disciplines such as education, architecture and social work. There are several research and discussion networks in existence which focus on his work, including the Centre Michel Foucault in Paris, the History of the Present groups in Canada and the UK, the Foucault Circle in the USA and a new Centro de Estudios Multidisciplinarios Michel Foucault in Mexico. In the virtual sphere, the popularity of the various Foucault websites on the internet attests to the influence of his work: the Michel Foucault: Resources site for example, averages up to 500 hits a day from all over the world. There are also two major email discussion lists which deal with his work and a number of other minor lists. In 2004, the year that marks the twentieth anniversary of Foucaultʹs death, his work has become more popular than ever with numerous conferences around the globe in Europe, South America and the United States, Australia and elsewhere. 2004 has also marked the publication of four previously unpublished works by Foucault in French: a set of interviews originally conducted in 1975 by Roger‐Pol Droit, two new volumes of lectures and the dramatised radio broadcast of a very lengthy interview conducted by Claude Bonnefoy in 1969. A book on Manet containing a lecture by Foucault which had only appeared previously in incomplete form in an obscure journal has also been published. 2004 has also marked a remarkable revival of interest in Foucaultʹs work in France after years of relative neglect. This has not been restricted merely to publication of new work by Foucault, but also extends to the publication of new books about his work, special issues in journals and