User:Mark Osan/sandbox

Interpretive analytics is the term used by Hubert Drefus and Paul Rabinow describing the methodological approach of Foucault in his analysis of the history of sexuality. Foucault himself never used this term. More generally, IA is now used to analyze and develop "the form and formation of a body of knowledge and its associated social practices by a way of a series of historical case studies". When used to analyze said historical case studies, IA employs two main methodologies used by Foucault separately in his earlier works (archaeology and genealogy). Archeology is a means of investigating the " 'conditions of possibility' which give rise to knowledge" ; genealogy refers to "the 'constraints' that limit the orders of knowledge".

Wilson lists the following five questions as key elements in an IA study:
 * 1 Problematization (identification of the problem that caused the discourse to emerge as a response)
 * 2 Archeology (description of the form of a discursive regime in a particular period)
 * 3 Genealogy (description of how the discursive regime is formed and its effects)
 * 4 Discontinuous theories (examination of the same topic in different episteme s)
 * 5 Dispositif (identification of change and continuity in the understanding of the topic in different epistemes).