Thursday, February 16, 2023 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM EST
Online Location
Part intellectual history, part critical theory, The Last Man Takes LSD challenges the way we think about both Michel Foucault and modern progressive politics. Using his acid trip at Zabriskie Point as emblematic of his move from power to the self, this book argues that Foucault contributed to a tectonic shift in the intellectual and political life of the era and its legacy even today. He came to reinterpret the social movements of May ’68 and reposition himself politically in France, embracing anti-totalitarian currents and becoming a critic of the welfare state. Mitchell Dean and Daniel Zamora discuss their book, which examines the full historical context of the turn in Foucault’s thought and how he came to appreciate the possibilities of autonomy offered by a new force on the French political scene that was neither of the left nor the right: neoliberalism.
Mitchell Dean is Professor of Public Governance and Head of the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at the Copenhagen Business School. He is author of the best-selling Governmentality.
Daniel Zamora is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is coauthor of the forthcoming Welfare for Markets: A Global History of Basic Income.