People generally start with the following book:
Critical and Effective Histories: Foucault's Methods and Historical
Sociology
by Mitchell Dean
Synopsis
This book places Foucault's methodologies against central currents in
social theory and philosophy in order to provide a guide to doing
historical sociology in particular and social sciences more
generally. It is written for several reasons. First, it seeks to make
Foucault's contribution comprehensible to a wide range of
professional and non-professional readers. Second, it rescues the
originality and usefulness of Foucault's work, and his critical
project from both the welter of ill-informed criticism and the
obfuscation of sympathetic commentators. Third, it embodies a
conviction that Foucault's approaches could inform the metamorphosis
of sociology into an effective, open-ended, multi-focused, relevant
discipline, capable of problematising the grand frameworks and
assumptions of earlier social theory. Finally, it demonstrates that
Foucault's methods provide the necessary condition for any state-of-
the-art social research today. The book thus addresses the many
formulations of Foucault's methodological position and seeks to
establish its relation to such figures as Nietzsche, Kant, Weber,
Elias, Habermas, Giddens and the Annales and Frankfurt Schools.
Futhermore, it explores the itnerconnected substantive themes of
Foucault's work: truth, knowledge and rationality; power, domination
and government; and the self and ethical practice. The book is less a
commentary on Foucault than a use of Foucault's methods to chart an
original position on the condition of social science today. It is
directed not only to readers interested in Foucault's legacy but to
any social scientist or student working at the cutting edge of
contemporary research and to the non-professional audience concerned
with the central, ethical, political, and theoretical problems of our
time.
Info taken from
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Effective-Histories-
Foucaults-Historical/dp/0415064953/
You might also find that Foucault's concepts have been filtered
through the work of Giddens, such as The Nation-State and Violence: A
Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism: v. 2
On 10/05/2007, at 9:27 AM, Ilgin Yorukoglu wrote:
Greetings everyone,
I am working (well, at this point just stressing out myself
actually) on the influence and role of Foucault on recent
historical sociological works- with a specific focus on the notion
of power.
I believe Foucault has been very influential in such works on state
formation, punishment etc. Yet, many times he is not cited (I have
in mind Michael Mann's hundreds of pg. work on the source of social
power, in which he doesn't cite Foucault even once), or other
times, I believe, he's often misinterpreted and criticized based on
this misinterpretation.
Any suggestion, idea, thought will be very much appreciated.
Many thanks beforehand,
Ilgin
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