New Books in Critical Theory Mark Pennington, "Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Mar 30, 2026
Mark Pennington, Professor of Political Economy at King’s College London, discusses his book on Foucault and liberal political economy. He explores decentralized surveillance and cultural agency. He critiques positivism and expert rule. He examines identity politics, public-health micromanagement, ecological governance, and predictive surveillance. He calls for humility and pluralistic responses to crises.
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How Pennington Came To Reconcile Foucault With Liberalism
- Mark Pennington recounts his intellectual path from land-use planning to Foucault and liberal political economy.
- He explains an early PhD interest in Foucault and motivation to reconcile Foucauldian ideas with a postmodern liberalism.
Decentralized Over-Government Narrows Freedom
- Over-government now works through decentralized networks rather than direct state commands.
- Mark Pennington shows public health, sustainability and social justice discourses create surveillance-like networks that narrow freedom.
Self-Creation Replaces Sovereign Autonomy
- Agency is culturally situated but still real as self-creation rather than absolute autonomy.
- Pennington uses Foucault's 'care of the self' to argue freedom means keeping space open for people to refashion identities.
