Michel Feher Explained

Michel Feher (born 1956) is a Belgian philosopher and cultural theorist who writes in English and French. He is the founding editor of Zone Books^[1] and the co-founder and president of Cette France-là, Paris, a monitoring group on French immigration policy.^[2] Feher writes for a number of outlets and has a semi-regular blog with the French journal Mediapart.^[3] He has held the positions of Professor and Visiting Lecturer at various universities, including École Normale Supérieure in Paris,^[4] the University of California, Berkeley, and most recently, Goldsmiths, University of London.^[5]

Feher has been called "one of the most insightful observers of financialized capitalism writing today."^[6]

Together with Wendy Brown, Michel Feher is co-editor of Zone Books' series Near Futures.^[7] In 2016, Feher co-edited "Europe at a Crossroads" with William Callison, Milad Odabaei and Aurélie Windels, the first issue of Near Futures Online, the digital companion to Zone’s Near Futures series.^[8]

Works

Books and edited volumes in English

• Rated Agency: Investee Politics in a Speculative Age (Zone Books, 2018).
• (ed. with William Callison, Milad Odabaei and Aurélie Windels) Europe at a Crossroads, Near Futures Online, Issue No. 1 (March 2016).
• (ed. with Gaëlle Krikorian and Yates McKee) Nongovernmental Politics, MIT Press, 2007.
• (ed. with Paul Rabinow) The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954-1984. Vol 2. Aesthetics: Method and Epistemology, 2000.
• Powerless by Design: The Age of the International Community, 2000.
• (ed.) The Libertine Reader: Eroticism and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century France, 1997.
• (ed. with Ramona Nadaff and Nadia Tazi) Fragments for a History of the Human Body, 3 Volumes, 1989.
• (ed. with Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter) Zone 1-2: The Contemporary Cities, 1986.

Articles in English

• "Disposing of the Discredited: A European Project" in Mutant Neoliberalism: Market Rule and Political Rupture, William Callison and Zachary Manfredi, eds. (Fordham University Press, 2020).
• "Movements of Counter-Speculation: A Conversation with Michel Feher," Interview by William Callison, Los Angeles Review of Books (July 12, 2019).
• "The Political Ascendency of Creditworthiness," Public Books, 1.9.2019.
• (with Eyal Weizman, Yve-Alain Bois, and Hal Foster), "On Forensic Architecture: A Conversation with Eyal Weizman," October, Volume | (Spring 2016) p. 116-140.
• "Belonging and Neoliberalism: Michel Feher, in conversation with James Graham" in After Belonging: The Objects, Spaces, and Territories of the Ways We Stay in Transit (Zürich: Lars Müller, 2016), 313-320.
• The Critical State of the Union, in 'Europe at a Crossroads', Near Futures Online, Issue No. 1 (March 2016).
• "Europe and the spectre of democracy: Michel Feher interviews Yanis Varoufakis," Open Democracy (13 May 2016).
• Brave New World Redux, Max de Estaban (2015).
• Self-Appreciation; or, The Aspirations of Human Capital, Public Culture, Vol. 21, No. 1 (2009).
• The Saudi Mirror, Public Culture, Vol. 18, No. 2 (2006).
• Constancy in Context, Wisconsin International Law Journal, Volume 24, Issue 3 (2006).
• Empowerment Hazards: Affirmative Action, Recovery Psychology, and Identity Politics, Representations, Vol. 55 Summer (1996).

Books and edited volumes in French

• Le temps des investis: essai sur la nouvelle question sociale, Paris, La Découverte, 2017.
• Éric Alliez, Michel Feher, Didier Gille, Isabelle Stengers, Contre-temps: Les pouvoirs de l'argent, Editions Michel de Maule (2015/1988). (et 978-2876230286).
• (with Cette-France-là) Xénophobie d’en haut: le choix d’une droite éhontée. Paris, La Découverte, 2012. .
• (with Cette-France-là) Sans-papiers et préfets: la culture du résultat en portraits. Paris, La Découverte, 2012. .
• Conjurations de la violence: introduction à la lecture de Georges Bataille, Presses universitaires de France (PUF) 1981. .

Articles in French

• « La lutte sociale se joue désormais sur les marchés financiers : Entretien avec Michel Feher », Alternatives Economiques (15/05/2018).
• « Quand le capitalisme change de direction », AOC, 01.06.18.
• « Pourquoi et comment faire des marchés financiers le nouveau foyer des luttes sociales », Ivan du Roy avec Michel Feher, Basta, 20 Octobre 2017.
• « Don, échange, partage : esquisse et croisement de deux projets », Mouvements, des idées et des luttes (26 mai 2015).
• « Que deviennent les arts d’aimer avec le néolibéralisme? Entretien avec Michel Feher », recueillis par Catherine Achin et Olivier Roueff, Mouvements, 2015 Issue 2, number 82, 148-158.
• « Le Proche-Orient hors les murs. Usages français du conflit israélo-palesinien «, De la question sociale à la question raciale ? Représenter la société française. Didier Fassin et Eric Fassin, La Découverte, 2006.
• « Politique non gouvernementale », Vacarme, n° 34, janvier 2006. Collectif dirigé par Michel Feher.
• « Violences dans et hors l'école, quelles responsabilités ? » de Michel Feher, Roger Dadoun, Bruno Mattéi, et Dominique Gelin. Sciences de l'homme et Sociétés, N° 70, Septembre 2004: Cultures en mouvement, Revue Cultures.

External links

• Michel Feher's blog (Mediapart, in French)
• Michel Feher en France Culture (2006-2017)
• La suite dans les idées, Cette France-là, celle du Ministère de l'Immigration et de l'Identité nationale. Michel Feher, philosophe, 19 décembre 2009.
• SICK 80s. The AIDS Crisis, Art and Counter-biopolitical Guerrilla. Conférence de Michel Feher. MACBA. Barcelona, 2010.
• Podcast interview for France Culture: Michel Feher, du collectif Cette France-là, Xenophobie d’en haut et Sans papiers et préfets (07/04/2012)
• Podcast interview for SON[IA with Michel Feher about the failure of neo-liberal policy and possible alternatives through citizen activism against the tyranny of markets] (05.04.2012)
• Podcast interview for SON[IA with Michel Feher about the technologies of the neoliberal project and their repercussions for education and culture] (15.10.2015)
• Television interview on Xerfi Canal

Michel Feher speaking about "Le temps des investis" (15/03/2019)

• Inverview and photos with Feher in Catalan.
• Inverview in Spanish with Feher in El Pais (12/3/2020).

Notes and References

1. http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=36923 Friday Salon: Activism on the Map: The Zone Books Series on Non-Governmental Politics
2. http://nearfuturesonline.org/about/ About Near Futures Online Issue No. 1 (March 2016)
3. https://blogs.mediapart.fr/michel-feher/blog Blog de Michel Feher, Mediapart. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
4. Web site: Michel Feher. Oslo arkitekturtriennale. 2017-06-26.
5. News: Michel Feher. Goldsmiths, University of London. 2017-06-26.
6. Web site: Michel Feher on Right Wing Populism in the Age of Asset Appreciation. 2019-08-12. Progress in Political Economy (PPE). en-GB. 2019-12-31.
7. Web site: Near Futures, Series Announcement from Zone Books . June 6, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170803171406/http://www.zonebooks.org/pdf/ZoneBooks2015.pdf . August 3, 2017 . dead . Web site: Near Futures, publications from Zone Books and MIT Press . June 6, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170715034237/https://mitpress.mit.edu/category/series/zone-near-futures . July 15, 2017 . dead .
8. http://nearfuturesonline.org/about/ About Near Futures Online Issue No. 1 (March 2016)