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Turning to the Subjectivity of the Individual

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Academic Activism in Higher Education

Abstract

In this chapter, we pay particular attention to Michel Foucault’s (Power: essential works of Foucault 1954–1984 – Volume 3. Faubion JD (ed). Penguin Books, London, 1994) conceptions and arguments on power, knowledge, freedom and resistance. Foucault (Power: essential works of Foucault 1954–1984 – Volume 3. Faubion JD (ed). Penguin Books, London, 1994) urges us to turn to the subjectivity of the individual again as the struggles reflect opposition to the effects of power linked with knowledge, competence and qualification – struggles against the privileges of knowledge . We argue that academic activism in the context of a Foucauldian view of the subjectivity of an individual is constituted by at least the following: that individuals are situated in genuine relations of power; that individuals act upon the actions of others; and that individuals’ relations of power are constituted by the possibility for agonistic incitement and struggle.

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Davids, N., Waghid, Y. (2021). Turning to the Subjectivity of the Individual. In: Academic Activism in Higher Education. Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0340-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0340-2_3

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