Doing Modernity: Studies in Critical Interactionism

LYNN FENDLER PRAXIS AND AGENCY IN FOUCAULT’S HISTORIOGRAPHY ABSTRACT.  This paper examines the consequences for agency that Foucault’s historiographical approach constructs. The analysis begins by explaining the dif- ference between ‘‘legislative history’’ and ‘‘exemplary history,’’ drawing parallels to similar theoretical distinctions offered in the works of Max Weber, J.L. Austin, and Zygmunt Bauman. The analysis continues by reading Habermas’s critique of Fou- cault through the tropological lenses suggested by White [Metahistory. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973]; it argues that Habermas’s critique misrecognizes the tropes of Foucaultian genealogy. The paper draws implications for education by articulating possibilities for praxis and agency in terms of pedagogy specifically related to the distinction between didactics and modeling. The paper concludes by suggesting that genealogy does not ‘‘play by Hegel’s...

Reflexive modernity and the art of public communication Kristin Demetrious Deakin University In 2000, Victoria’s largest regional council, the City of Greater Geelong, allocated $200,000 to fund a community art and place-making project in inner Geelong West. The Walk West project was conceptualised and lobbied by a community group for six years. The project addressed the impact of a large section of freeway installed in the seventies and its consequences for quality of life in the locality. Public art in Geelong is the expression of a vision. It is an emerging sign of a new identity, forged from the city’s manufacturing past and propelled by certainty toward its future. Now former industrialised city precincts are transformed by ‘urban revitalisation’ art and landscaping projects. These ventures seek to open up new commercial opportunities for the city and are massively funded by council,...