In a precarious world even our most basic assumptions are subject to challenge and change. Confronted by economic, environmental and existential crises, humanity is once again undergoing a profound reappraisal of its place and purpose. This book draws on the ideas of Michel Foucault to trace the evolving relationship between power, knowledge, and governance in the modern era, from the Age of Enlightenment to artificial intelligence.

As it explores the ideas, actors and events that have shaped our world, the volume chronicles the development of four overlapping periods of modern thought: atomistic, mechanistic, organic, and dataistic. Moving through the centuries – from early industrial capitalism to neoliberalism and the emergence of data-driven systems of thought and control – it charts the transformation of human assumptions, aspirations and the art of governance. As we enter into an uncertain future, the book identifies the rise of new technologies that conceive and conduct us in radical new ways. Establishing the parameters of a new episteme, these knowledges reveal new realities and raise the possibility of alternative forms of humanity.

As such, the book will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students of the history of knowledge, social theory and the sociology of modernity.

Dominic Hewson is a writer and social theorist with experience teaching and conducting research in Ireland, Vietnam and the UK. He is currently working at Ulster University, where he teaches classical and contemporary social theory.