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B3 W1: Gender and Social Inclusion - Reading Questions

What institutions does Foucault (Donzelot & Deleuze) discuss as starting point of his analysis?
Prisons, schools, hospitals, workhouses

On what observations is his (D&D’s) argument based?
The treatment of infected villages during the plague.

What institutions do you think of when reflecting on  social inclusion and social exclusion?
The education system, the healthcare system, prisons, social care, the Chinese social rating system

Of which practices today does Foucault’s (D&D’s)  text remind you?
The government and the way it controls citizens through constant discipline - education, segregation, gentrification

Have you personally ever felt to be under surveillance?
Yes, living in London you always feel as though you are being watched, with a study from 2011 stating that in the UK, you are recorded by CCTV at least 70 times a day. This would be higher in a denser city like London. On top of this, the UK Snoopers charter, secretly pushed through by Theresa May means any and all of your online communication can be observed, your electronic equipment can be hacked and all data about us can be collected and stored. Total surveillance rather than targeted surveillance.

Have you ever felt yourself in the position of the observer?
Yes, social media survives from the human need to observe and record what others are doing. The timeline of Facebook, the feed of Instagram or Twitter, is just observing what other people are doing.

What connections or differences do you see when comparing the two texts of Clough and Hardt?

On a simple level, I found the Hardt text a lot more difficult to read - the language was more verbose, it was more abstract.

What does this mean "Arguing that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, Freud suggests that in seeking homeostasis and equilibrium, the repetitions of the death drive function in order to return the ego to nonorganic matter, the primitive, the infantile, and the instinctual." p.10 (Clough)
Clough explaining why psychoanalysis was so popular - Lacan, Irigaray - understanding of gender and sexuality - limitations of it and why affect is more effective for analysis - Freud sees a connection between what the human being and the human species go through - but they have to fight and defend themselves against the outside, which makes it difficult to continue - when it is to dangerous, the human subject can only survive through turning to trauma (forced repetition). Everything that exists has a tendency to fall apart - it takes work to remain together/focused/healthy. Clough and Deleuze - the main difference between thinking with affect and psychoanalysis - affect takes from the idea that the world is a whole and there are different matters that exist/change/interact/repeat and evolve - a happier view of the world (rather than the world at risk of falling apart) - lets not see the human as being surrounded by risks with a tendency to fall apart. When working with affect, you don't see the human as being surrounded by enemies/dangerous structures - but not a principle of the materiality of the thinking mind/body - everything interacts. 

The 'crows' are left to die. They are the people who carry the sick, bury the dead, clean and empty houses. 

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