Social thought and the arts of government

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Social thought and the arts of government

• Introduction What is social thought?
• 1. Society Michel Foucault and social thought
• Epistemological space of social thought
• Concept of civil society
• 3. The social
• French governmentality school and the history of
  the social and the social question
• 4. Conclusion links to our present.

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Introduction What is social thought?

• Social and society
• The social question
• Civil society and political and economic thought
• Position distinguished from
• hyper-nominalist,
• techno-constructionist and
• over-politicized conceptions of social thought.

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Three alternatives

• Nominalism views society as historically given
  concept, but not death of the social
  (governmentality)
• Techno-constructivism - reject the claim that
  society has not no substantive character (actor
  network)
• Over-politicisation Westphalian system as a
  condition of society but too close a link between
  state and society (world risk society thesis)

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Part One Society

• Human sciences
• Sociological Region
• Problem of social thought economic and the
  political-juridical
• Two impossible solutions
• Civil society as solution

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Adam Fergusons concept of civil society

• Historical-natural constant
• Spontaneous synthesis not voluntary union
• Permanent matrix of political power
• Motor of history

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Part Two the social

• Clearly it is not a question of the adjective
  that qualifies the set of phenomena which
  sociology deals with the social refers to a
  particular sector in which quite diverse problems
  and special cases can be grouped together, a
  sector comprising specific institutions and an
  entire body of qualified personnel (social
  assistants, social workers). Deleuze.

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Towards a history of the social

• Donzelot on the liberal interventions into the
  family.
• Procacci on social economy
• Pauperism and the conditions of the labouring
  population
• Castel and the Social Question
• Solidarity/solidarisme/insurance

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Conclusion

• Hybrid social thought from social economy to the
  social market economy
• The death of the social and Hayek
• Social thought autonomy and generality
• Society as a unity
• Dialogue of social thought with agency of
  nation-state