Abstract: This article advances the ‘dispositive’ (le dispositif) as a key conception in Foucault’s work. As developed in his annual lectures in 1978 and 1979, the dispositive represents a crucial constituent of societal analysis on par with the familiar analytics of power/knowledge and the governmentality perspective – indeed it forms a lesser known intermediary between these. Foucault’s dispositional analysis articulates a history of connected social technologies that we have constructed to relate to each other. Expounding these points, the article distinguishes various dispositional prototypes and develops key ‘socio-ontological’ implications of the analysis. Reinstating the proper analytical status of the dispositive contributes to the reception of the important notion; the interpretation of Foucault’s entire oeuvre; and a resourceful approach to the study of contemporary societal problems.
Note: The present working paper represents an earlier version of our article “Foucault’s dispositive: The perspicacity of dispositive analytics in organizational research”, reviewed and published
by Organization (Sept. 17, 2014; DOI: 10.1177/1350508414549885). We have chosen to distribute it since this paper, compared to the later, thoroughly revised article, presents more details pertaining to Foucault’s use of the dispositive as an analytical concept, as well as a number of the more general implications of this type of historico-philosophical social analytics.

The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy & Organization Studies
Along with authors Matias Møl Dalsgaard (Aarhus University) and Marius Gudmand-Høyer (Copenhagen Business School), I have written a chapter on the Danish philosopher of existence and theologian Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). The handbook titled The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy & Organization Studies (Oxford, Oxford University Press 2014) is edited by Jenny Helin, Tor Hernes, Daniel Hjorth and Robin Holt, and is available via most major bookstores, including Amazon.
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Forskningsprojekterne ”Den humane vending” og ”Humanomics” undersøgerHumanistisk forskning har en lang tradition for tværfaglighed
og eksperimenter med nye krydsdiscipliner; og de to projekter ønsker at
kortlægge og diskutere det aktuelle billede af denne import og eksport
mellem videnskaberne i forhold til faglig kundskab, teorier og metoder.
Hele årsskriftet kan hentes her
Suggested citation: Raffnsøe, Stjernfelt, Raffnsøe-Møller, Budtz Pedersen: “En ny agenda for humanvidenskaberne”, VILLUM FONDENs og VELUX FONDENs Årsskrift (2012), pp. 72-77.
]]>Sundhedsvidenskab handler ikke længere kun om medicin, men også om livsstil, madkultur og livsformer. Tilsvarende drejer politik sig ikke kun om fordeling af økonomiske goder, men også om kultur, religion og anerkendelse i det offentlige rum. Produktion og værdiskabelse er i stigende grad et spørgsmål om den rette ledelse af selvstændige mennesker. Det kræver ikke kun teknisk og naturvidenskabelig viden, men også indsigt i menneskers tankeformer og handlingsmønstre at forholde sig til miljø og bæredygtighed.
”Det humane” er dermed blevet helt afgørende i samfundet og for videnskaben, men hvorfor og hvordan? Det er omdrejningspunktet for forskningsprogrammet, som VELUX FONDEN støtter med 5,6 mio. kr.
Kontaktperson:
Professor Sverre Raffnsøe, sra.lpf@cbs.dk, tlf: 2855 7766,
Projektkoordinator Ditte Vilstrup Holm, dvh.lpf@cbs.dk, tlf: 3815 3677
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