A Normative Foucauldian: Selected Papers of Mark Olssen

Mark Olssen is one of the leading social scientists writing in the world today. Inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault, Olssen's writings traverse philosophy, politics, education, and epistemology. This book comprises a selection of his papers published in academic journals and books over twenty-five years. Taken as a whole, the papers represent a redirection of the core axioms and directions of western ontology and philosophy in relation to how history, the subject, and education are theorised within the western philosophical tradition. Olssen's writings not only contain a powerful critique and revision of western liberalism from a poststructuralist perspective, they both explicate and extend Michel Foucault's challenge to the core axioms and assumptions underpinning western thought. As Stephen Ball suggests in his Foreword to this volume, "Olssen uses Foucault to explore issues... Olssen's Foucault is not a lonely nihilist but a troubled provocateur who encourages in us toward the political project of self-formation - our relation to ourselves and always, to others."