Book Review: Political Theory: Foucault and the Politics of Hearing
| Date | 01 January 2014 |
| Published date | 01 January 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1111/1478-9302.12041_31 |
| Author | Ed Wright |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
between models, as city functions evolve over time, or
potential tensions within models result from competing
objectives. Nevertheless, the models provide an inter-
esting framework for analysing urban politics and
explaining ‘governability gaps’ (p. 153). Overall, the
book offers a thoughtful analysis of four different
models of urban governance, drawing on the main
theories and up-to-date developments in the field. As
such, it provides a good introduction for students of
urban governance while setting out models that could
be used as a framework for future empirical study.
Dorine Boumans
(University of Strathclyde)
Fool’s Gold? Utopianism in the Twenty-First
Century by Lucy Sargisson. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2012. 301pp., £60.00, ISBN 978 1 4039
9242 0
This book does two things: it discusses and critically
reflects upon the theoretical developments in the field
of utopian studies over the past 30 years,and it uses this
enriched theoretical vocabulary to explore the utopian
dimensions of a range of contemporary social and
political phenomena.
The first chapter skilfully guides us through the
conceptual proliferation that has occurred as theorists
have sought to deepen and broaden the concept of
utopia – the coining of the concepts of the dystopian,
the critical utopian, the anti-utopian, the anti-anti-
utopian, the critical dystopian and so forth – which has
enabled a much finer-grained analysis to be developed.
Armed with this upgraded conceptual apparatus, Lucy
Sargisson proceeds to provide fascinating utopian
analyses of religious fundamentalism, feminism and
gender, sexuality, climate change, attitudes to nature,
intentional communities, architecture, computer
gaming and cloning, cyborgs and robots.A huge array
of texts, artefacts, institutions and practices are interro-
gated to reveal the nature of their utopian or dystopian
dimensions, ranging from the fantastic buildings of
contemporary Dubai to the Second Life computer
game, and from post-apocalypse fiction to New
Zealand green communities.
Throughout the study there is both classification and
judgement; the form, function and content of these
utopian phenomena is delineated, but Sargisson is at
pains to make normative assessments, as in her critique
of the ‘hierarchical utopianism’ of Dubai (p. 160), and
of the perfectionist utopianism to be found in some
religious currents.This dislike of what Sargisson sees as
the authoritarianism and closure of perfectionist
utopias is a long-standing feature of her work (though
one not shared by all theorists of the utopian).
Sargisson’s normative analysis of utopian tendencies in
the modern world brings to mind the methodological
intent of Ernst Bloch’s search for ‘concrete utopias’ in
the society of his time, the seams of utopian gold in the
everyday and the extraordinary.
Inevitably, some readers will not be entirely happy
about the specific areas covered,and those omitted, and
Sargisson herself notes the absence of coverage on
democracy and the economy. Her choice of topics
grows out of her previous scholarly work,and her sense
of what are genuinely pressing issues; Bloch took three
large volumes in The Principle of Hope to be more
encyclopedic, and still penned a highly personal and
idiosyncratic work. In short, this is a valuable contri-
bution to the literature of utopian studies, written with
great clarity, and with a strong authorial voice that is
genuinely engaging.
Vincent Geoghegan
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Foucault and the Politics of Hearing by Lauri
Siisiäinen. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. 156pp.,
£80.00, ISBN 978 0 415 51926 7
Foucault and the Politics of Hearing is concerned with
challenging the view that, for Michel Foucault, sound,
voice and auditory perception (what Lauri Siisiäinen
refers to as the ‘auditory-sonorous’) was an insignificant
issue, particularly in comparison to sight, in the opera-
tion of power. This being the case, the fundamental
argument this book propounds is that Foucault had an
interest in the auditory-sonorous throughout his intel-
lectual career,and that the value that he gave it in terms
of utilisation for power was not negligible.The book
also focuses on establishing further potential for under-
standing sound through a Foucauldian lens; that is to
say, beyond Foucault’s own thought explicitly.
Siisiäinen analyses Foucault’s work chronologically,
this chronology being split into three parts. The first
part concerns Foucault’s thinking in the 1960s, and
likewise the second and third parts concern his thought
in the 1970s and 1980s. Demonstrated by a reading of
BOOK REVIEWS 107
© 2014 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2014 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2014, 12(1)
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