Editorial

Shortly after thepublicationin April 2021of thethemedspecial issueFoucault’s History ofSexuality Vol. 4, Confessions of the Flesh, theeditors ofFoucault Studiesareinordinatelypleasedto present thisnon-themed issue containingthree original articles.Thefirstofthesearticles,“Resistance: An Arendtian Reading of Solidarity and Friend-ship in Foucault,” by Liesbeth Schoonheim (KU Leuven, Belgium)compares the accountsof resistance in Arendt and Foucault.While recent scholarship has firmly established thesimilarities betweenthem, in particular with regard tothe diagnosis ofthe dangers of late-modern social processesleading to atomization,totalitarianismandbiological racism,there are alsosignificantdifferences.AlthoughFoucaulthas reflected more extensivelyand rigorously on the shapes and conditions of resistance,thepaper argues that Fou-cault’scomprehensive accountof resistanceomits the encounter with the other,whereasthis encounterwith theunique and unfathomableotherhas been putat the center of po-litical praxis andof acts of resistanceby Arendt.Developing the discussion of resistancein Arendtasshearticulatesitin response to the Shoah,the article claims thatshe providesa concept of solidarity and friendship thatcan bedrawnupon to extend Foucault’s anal-ysis of the transnational solidarity among the governed in fighting for their rights vis-à-vis their governments, as well as tore-articulate andadvancehisunderstandingof friendship.