governmentality - foucault
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GovernmentalityFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Governmentality is a concept first developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in the later
ears of his life, roughly between 1977 and his death in 1984, particularly in his lectures at the Collège
de France during this time.
The concept has been elaborated further from an "Anglo-Neo Foucauldian" perspective in the social
sciences, especially by authors such as Peter Miller, Nikolas Rose, and Mitchell Dean. Governmentality
can be understood as:
the way gover nments try to produce the citizen best suited to fulfill those governments' policiesthe organized practices (mentalities, rationalities, and techniques) through which subjects are
governed[1]
Governmentality may also be understood as:
the "art of government"[2]
the "how" of governing (that is, the calculated means of directing how we behave and act)[3]
"governmental rationality"[4]
"a 'guideline' for the analysis that Michel Foucault offers by way of historical reconstructionsembracing a period starting from Ancient Greece right through to modernity and neo-
liberalism"[5][6][7]
"the techniques and strategies by which a society is rendered governable"[8]
The ‘reasoned way of governing best and, at the same time, reflection on the best possible way of
governing’ [9]
Contents
1 The semantics of governmentality2 Basic definition of governmentality3 History of the term4 Further developments of the concept
4.1 Mentality of rule4.2 From governmentality to neoliberal governmentality: cartography
4.2.1 Governmentality and cartography4.2.2 Neoliberal governmentality and cartography
4.2.2.1 Power-knowledge relations: OpenStreetMap4.2.2.2 Retreat of the State: OpenStreetMap
4.3 Self-governing capabilities4.4 Technologies of power
4.4.1 Technologies of the self 4.4.2 Responsibilisation4.4.3 Healthism4.4.4 Normalisation
4.4.5 Self-esteem4.4.6 Technologies of the market
4.5 Ecogovernmentality4.6 Crises of Governmentality4.7 Application to health care
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4.8 Beyond the West5 See also6 References7 Further reading
The semantics of governmentality
This term was thought by some commentators to be made by the "…linking of governing ("gouverner")
and modes of thought ("mentalité")".[10] In fact, it was not coined by uniting words "gouvernement" and
"mentalité", but simply by making gouvernement into gouvernementalité just like musical into
musicalité [i.e. government + -al- adjective + -ité abstract noun] (see Michel Senellart's "Course
Context" in Foucault's "Security, territory, population" lectures). To fully understand this concept, it is
important to realize that in this case, Foucault does not only use the standard, strictly political definition
of "governing" or government used today, but he also uses the broader definition of governing or
government that was employed until the eighteenth century.[11] That is to say, that in this case, for
Foucault, "...'government' also signified problems of self-control, guidance for the family and for children, management of the house hold, directing the soul, etc."[12] In other words, for our purposes,
government is "…the conduct of conduct..."[13]
Basic definition of governmentality
In his lectures at the Collège de France, Foucault often defines governmentality as the "art of
government" in a wide sense, i.e. with an idea of "government" that is not limited to state politics alone,
that includes a wide range of control techniques, and that applies to a wide variety of objects, from one's
control of the self to the "biopolitical" control of populations. In the work of Foucault, this notion isindeed linked to other concepts such as biopolitics and power-knowledge. The genealogical exploration
of the modern state as "problem of government" does not only deepen Foucault’s analyses on
sovereignty and biopolitics; it offers an analytics of government which refines both Foucault’s theory of
power and his understanding of freedom.[14]
The concept of "governmentality" develops a new understanding of power. Foucault encourages us to
think of power not only in terms of hierarchical, top-down power of the state. He widens our
understanding of power to also include the forms of social control in disciplinary institutions (schools,
hospitals, psychiatric institutions, etc.), as well as the forms of knowledge. Power can manifest itself
positively by producing knowledge and certain discourses that get internalised by individuals and guidethe behaviour of populations. This leads to more efficient forms of social control, as knowledge enables
individuals to govern themselves.
"Governmentality" applies to a variety of historical periods and to different specific power regimes.
However, it is often used (by other scholars and by Foucault himself) in reference to "neoliberal
governmentality", i.e. to a type of governmentality that characterizes advanced liberal democracies. In
this case, the notion of governmentality refers to societies where power is de-centered and its members
play an active role in their own self-government, e.g. as posited in neoliberalism. Because of its active
role, individuals need to be regulated from 'inside'. A particular form of governmentality is characterized
by a certain form of knowledge ("savoir" in French). In the case of neoliberal governmentality (a kind of governmentality based on the predominance of market mechanisms and of the restriction of the action of
the state) the knowledge produced allows the construction of auto-regulated or auto-correcting selves.
In his lecture titled Governmentality, Foucault gives us a definition of governmentality:
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"1. The ensemble formed by the institutions, procedures, analyses and reflections, the
calculations and tactics that allow the exercise of this very specific albeit complex form of
power, which has as its target population, as its principal form of knowledge political
economy, and as its essential technical means apparatuses of security.
2. The tendency which, over a long period and throughout the West, has steadily led
towards the pre-eminence over all other forms (sovereignty, discipline, etc) of this type of
power which may be termed government, resulting, on the one hand, in formation of a
whole series of specific governmental apparatuses, and, on the other, in the development of
a whole complex of savoirs.
3. The process, or rather the result of the process, through which the state of justice of the
Middle Ages, transformed into the administrative state during the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, gradually becomes 'governmentalized'."[15]
As Foucault’s explicit definition is rather broad, perhaps further examination of this definition would be
useful.
We shall begin with a closer inspection of the first part of Foucault’s definition of governmentality:
This strand of the three-part definition states that governmentality is, in other words, all of the
components that make up a government that has as its end the maintenance of a well-ordered and happy
society (population). The government’s means to this end is its "apparatuses of security," that is to say,
the techniques it uses to provide this society a feeling of economic, political, and cultural well-being.
The government achieves these ends by enacting "political economy," and in this case, the meaning of
economy is the older definition of the term, that is to say, "economy at the level of the entire state, which
means exercising towards its inhabitants, and the wealth and behavior of each and all, a form of
surveillance and control as attentive as that of the head of a family over his household and his goods".[16]
Thus, we see that this first part of the definition states that governmentality is a government with specific
ends, means to these ends, and particular practices that should lead to these ends.
The second part of Foucault’s definition (the "resulting, on the one hand, in formation of a whole series
of specific governmental apparatuses, and, on the other, in the development of a whole complex of
savoirs"[15]) presents governmentality as the long, slow development of Western governments which
eventually took over from forms of governance like sovereignty and discipline into what it is today:
bureaucracies and the typical methods by which they operate.
The next and last strand of Foucault’s definition of governmentality is "3. The process, or rather theresult of the process, through which the state of justice of the Middle Ages, transformed into the
administrative state during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, gradually becomes
'governmentalized'."[2] This strand can be restated as the evolution from the Medieval state, that
maintained its territory and an ordered society within this territory through a blunt practice of simply
imposing its laws upon its subjects, to the early renaissance state, which became more concerned with
the "disposing of things",[17] and so began to employ strategies and tactics to maintain a content and thus
stable society, or in other words to "render a society governable".[18]
Thus, if one takes these three strands together, governmentality may be defined as the process through
which a form of government with specific ends (a happy and stable society), means to these ends
("apparatuses of security"[19]), and with a particular type of knowledge ("political economy"[19]), to
achieve these ends, evolved from a medieval state of justice to a modern administrative state with
complex bureaucracies.
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History of the term
The concept of governmentality segues from Foucault's ethical, political and historical thoughts from the
late 1970s to the early 1980s. His most widely known formulation of this notion is his lecture entitled
"Security, territory and population" (1978). A deeper and richer reflection on the notion of
governmentality is provided in Foucault's course on "The Birth of Biopolitics" at the Collège de France
in 1978-1979. The course was first published in French in 2004 as Naissance de la biopolitique: Cours
au Collège de France (1978-1979) (Paris: Gallimard & Seuil). This notion is also part of a wider analysis on the topic of disciplinary institutions, on neoliberalism and the "Rule of Law", the
"microphysics of power" and also on what Foucault called biopolitics. In the second and third volumes
of The History of Sexuality, namely, The Use of Pleasure (1984) and The Care of the Self (1984), and in
his lecture on "Technologies of the Self" (1982), Foucault elaborated a distinction between
subjectivation and forms of subjectification by exploring how selves were fashioned and then lived in
ways which were both heteronomously and autonomously determined. Also, in a series of lectures and
articles, including "The Birth of Biopolitics" (1979), "Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Criticism of
Political Reason" (1979), "The Subject and Power" (1982) and "What is Enlightenment?" (1984), he
posed questions about the nature of contemporary social orders, the conceptualization of power, human
freedom and the limits, possibilities and sources of human actions, etc. that were linked to his
understanding of the notion of "governmentality".
The notion of governmentality (not to confuse with governance) gained attention in the English-
speaking academic world mainly through the edited book The Foucault Effect (1991), which contained a
series of essays on the notion of governmentality, together with a translation of Foucault's 1978 short
text on "gouvernementalité" .
Further developments of the concept
Hunt and Wickham, in their work Foucault and Law [1994] begin the section on governmentality with a
very basic definition derived from Foucault’s work. They state, "governmentality is the dramatic
expansion in the scope of government, featuring an increase in the number and size of the governmental
calculation mechanisms" [1994:76]. In other words, governmentality describes the new form of
governing that arose in the mid-eighteenth century that was closely allied with the creation and growth
of the modern bureaucracies. In giving this definition, Hunt and Wickham conceive of the term as
consisting of two parts 'governmental' and '–ity' - governmental meaning pertaining to the government of
a country; and the suffix –ity meaning the study of. They acknowledge that this definition lacks some of
Foucault’s finer nuances and try to redress this by explaining some more of Foucault’s ideas, including
reason of state, the problem of population, modern political economy, liberal securitisation, and theemergence of the human sciences" [1994:77].
Kerr’s approach to the term is more complex. He conceives of the term as an abbreviation of
"governmental rationality" [1999:174]. In other words it is a way of thinking about the government and
the practices of the government. To him it is not "a zone of critical-revolutionary study, but one that
conceptually reproduces capitalist rule" [1999:197] by asserting that some form of government (and
power) will always be necessary to control and constitute society. By defining governmentality only in
terms of the state, Kerr fails to take account of other forms of governance and the idea of mentalities of
government in this broader sense.
Dean’s understanding of the term incorporates both other forms of governance and the idea of
mentalities of government, as well as Hunt and Wickham’s, and Kerr’s approaches to the term. In line
with Hunt and Wickham’s approach, Dean acknowledges that in a very narrow sense, governmentality
can be used to describe the emergence of a government that saw that the object of governing power was
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to optimise, use and foster living individuals as members of a population [1999:19]. He also includes the
idea of government rationalities, seeing governmentality as one way of looking at the practices of
government. In addition to the above, he sees government as anything to do with conducting oneself or
others. This is evident in his description of the word in his glossary: "Governmentality: How we think
about governing others and ourselves in a wide variety of contexts..." [1999:212]. This reflects that the
term government to Foucault meant not so much the political or administrative structures of the modern
state as the way in which the conduct of individuals or of groups may be directed. To analyse
government is to analyse those mechanisms that try to shape, sculpt, mobilise and work through thechoices, desires, aspirations, needs, wants and lifestyles of individuals and groups [Dean, 1999:12].
Dean's main contribution to the definition of the term, however, comes from the way he breaks the term
up into ‘govern’ ‘mentality’, or mentalities of governing—mentality being a mental disposition or
outlook. This means that the concept of governmentality is not just a tool for thinking about government
and governing but also incorporates how and what people who are governed think about the way they
are governed. He defines thinking as a "collective activity" [1999:16], that is, the sum of the knowledge,
beliefs and opinions held by those who are governed. He also raises the point that a mentality is not
usually "examined by those who inhabit it" [1999:16]. This raises the interesting point that those who are
governed may not understand the unnaturalness of both the way they live and the fact that they take thisway of life for granted—that the same activity in which they engage in "can be regarded as a different
form of practice depending on the mentalities that invest it" [1999:17]. Dean highlights another
important feature of the concept of governmentality—its reflexivity. He explains:
On the one hand, we govern others and ourselves according to what we take to be true
about who we are, what aspects of our existence should be worked upon, how, with what
means, and to what ends. On the other hand, the ways in which we govern and conduct
ourselves give rise to different ways of producing truth. [1999:18]
By drawing attention to the ‘how and why’, Dean connects "technologies of power" [Lemke, 2001:191]
to the concept of governmentality. According to Dean any definition of governmentality should
incorporate all of Foucault’s intended ideas. A complete definition of the term governmentality must
include not only government in terms of the state, but government in terms of any "conduct of conduct"
[Dean, 1999:10]. It must incorporate the idea of mentalities and the associations that go with that
concept: that it is an attitude towards something, and that it is not usually understood "from within its
own perspective" [1999:16], and that these mentalities are collective and part of a society’s culture. It
must also include an understanding of the ways in which conduct is governed, not just by governments,
but also by ourselves and others.
The semantic linking of governing and mentalities in governmentality indicates that it is not possible to
study technologies of power without an analysis of the mentality of rule underpinning them. The practice
of going to the gym, expounded below, is a useful example because it shows how our choices, desires,
aspirations, needs, wants and lifestyles have been mobilised and shaped by various technologies of
power.
Mentality of rule
A mentality of rule is any relatively systematic way of thinking about government. It delineates adiscursive field in which the exercise of power is ‘rationalised’ [Lemke, 2001:191]. Thus Neo-liberalism
is a mentality of rule because it represents a method of rationalising the exercise of government, a
rationalisation that obeys the internal rule of maximum economy [Foucault, 1997:74]. Fukuyama [in
Rose, 1999: 63] writes "a liberal State is ultimately a limited State, with governmental activity strictly
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bounded by the sphere of individual liberty". However, only a certain type of liberty, a certain way of
understanding and exercising freedom is compatible with Neo-liberalism. If Neo-liberalist government is
to fully realize its goals, individuals must come to recognize and act upon themselves as both free and
responsible [Rose, 1999:68]. Thus Neo-liberalism must work to create the social reality that it proposes
already exists. For as Lemke states, a mentality of government "is not pure, neutral knowledge that
simply re-presents the governing reality" [Lemke, 2001:191] instead, Neo-liberalism constitutes an
attempt to link a reduction in state welfare services and security systems to the increasing call for
subjects to become free, enterprising, autonomous individuals. It can then begin to govern its subjects,not through intrusive state bureaucracies backed with legal powers, the imposition of moral standards
under a religious mandate, but through structuring the possible field of action in which they govern
themselves, to govern them through their freedom. Through the transformation of subjects with duties
and obligations, into individuals, with rights and freedoms, modern individuals are not merely ‘free to
choose’ but obliged to be free, "to understand and enact their lives in terms of choice" [Rose, 1999:87].
This freedom is a different freedom to that offered in the past. It is a freedom to realize our potential and
our dreams through reshaping the way in which we conduct our lives.
From governmentality to neoliberal governmentality: cartography
Governmentality and cartography
Cartographic mapping has historically been a key strategy of governmentality.[20] Harley,[21] drawing on
Foucault, affirms that State-produced maps "extend and reinforce the legal statutes, territorial
imperatives, and values stemming from the exercise of political power". Typically, State-led mapping
conforms to Bentham's concept of a panopticon, in which 'the one views the many'. From a Foucauldian
vantage point, this was the blueprint for disciplinary power.[22]
Neoliberal governmentality and cartography
Through processes of neoliberalism, the State has "hollowed out" some of its cartographic
responsibilities and delegated power to individuals who are at a lower geographical scale.[23] 'People’s
cartography' is believed to deliver a more democratic spatial governance than traditional top-down State-
distribution of cartographic knowledge.[24] Thus subverting Harley's [21] theory that mapping is uniquely
a source of power for the powerful. Joyce[25] challenges Foucauldian notions of Panopticism, contending
that neoliberal governmentality is more adequately conceptualised by an omniopticon - 'the many
surveilling the many'.[26] Collaborative mapping initiatives utilising GPS technology are arguably
omniopticons,[27] with the ability to reverse the panoptic gaze.[28]
Power-knowledge relations: OpenStreetMap
A prime example of an omnioptic form of neoliberal governmentality is OpenStreetMap
(http://www.openstreetmap.org/) (OSM). OSM, a mapping website founded by Steve Coast in August
2004, does not rely on the government; rather on thousands of volunteers with portable GPS devices.[29]
OSM has a clear Code of Conduct
(http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Automated_Edits/Code_of_Conduct) and exerts 'disciplinary power'
if this is not abided by.[30] In Foucauldian terms, discipline is the discursive framework through which
activity is organised so that the 'correct training' of individuals is ensured.[31] For instance, an OSM
guideline is that "the work of others must be respected".[32] Hence, if a user starts an 'edit war', they may
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be banned from contributing towards the website. OSM thus conforms to Hannah's[22] notion that
neoliberal governmentality "consistently blends the principles of freedom and regulation". It is clear that
even grassroot cartographic initiatives do not exist outside of power-knowledge dynamics.[33]
Retreat of the State: OpenStreetMap
Foucault [34] affirms that neoliberal governmentality is not about the retreat of the State; rather a
restructuring of power relations in society. When the Haiti earthquake struck on 12 January 2010, an
OSM crowdsourcing effort enabled the construction of a map depicting the position of hospitals. [35]
Although OSM users were empowered through the ability to contribute geographic data, government
agencies printed the OSM maps, distributed them in Port-au-Price, and uploaded them to mobile GPS
units.[35] Thus, the State’s power has not eroded: rather its focus has shifted from control over territory,
"towards the governing of a complex composed of men [sic] and things". [36] In brief, the State has
transformed from sole purveyor of geographic information to an institutional body of oversight.
Ultimately, adhering to Foucauldian notions of neoliberal governmentality, OSM indicates that whilst
the State is no longer the locus of all power, its steering capacity should not be underestimated.[37] This
opposes Crampton's [24] affirmation that OSM is "mapping without a net"; a metaphor indicating the
State’s alleged retraction from the cartographic project.
Self-governing capabilities
Through our freedom, particular self-governing capabilities can be installed in order to bring our own
ways of conducting and evaluating ourselves into alignment with political objectives [Rose, 1996:155].
These capabilities are enterprise and autonomy. Enterprise here designates an array of rules for the
conduct of one’s everyday existence: energy, initiative, ambition, calculation, and personal
responsibility. The enterprising self will make an enterprise of its life, seek to maximize its own humancapital, project itself a future, and seek to shape life in order to become what it wishes to be. The
enterprising self is thus both an active self and a calculating self, a self that calculates about itself and
that acts upon itself in order to better itself [Rose, 1996:154]. Autonomy is about taking control of our
undertakings, defining our goals, and planning to achieve our needs through our own powers [Rose,
1996:159]. The autonomy of the self is thus not the eternal antithesis of political power, but one of the
objectives and instruments of modern mentalities for the conduct of conduct [Rose, 1996:155].
These three qualities: freedom, enterprise and autonomy are embodied in the practice of going to the
gym. It is our choice to go the gym, our choice which gym to go to. By going to the gym we are working
on ourselves, on our body shape and our physical fitness. We are giving ourselves qualities to help us perform better than others in life, whether to attract a better mate than others, or to be able to work more
efficiently, more effectively and for longer without running out of steam to give us an advantage over
our competitors. When we go to the gym, we go through our own discipline, on our own timetable, to
reach our own goals. We design and act out our routine by ourselves. We do not need the ideas or
support of a team, it is our self that makes it possible. The practice of going to the gym, of being free,
enterprising, autonomous, is imbued with particular technologies of power.
Technologies of power
Technologies of power are those "technologies imbued with aspirations for the shaping of conduct in the
hope of producing certain desired effects and averting certain undesired ones" [Rose, 1999:52]. The two
main groups of technologies of power are technologies of the self, and technologies of the market.
Foucault defined technologies of the self as techniques that allow individuals to effect by their own
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means a certain number of operations on their own bodies, minds, souls, and lifestyle, so as to transform
themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, and quality of life. Technologies of the market
are those technologies based around the buying and selling of goods that enable us to define who we are,
or want to be. These two technologies are not always completely distinct, as both borrow bits of each
other from time to time.
Technologies of the self
Technologies of the self refer to the practices and strategies by which individuals represent to
themselves their own ethical self-understanding. One of the main features of technologies of self is that
of expertise. Expertise has three important aspects. First, its grounding of authority in a claim to
scientificity and objectivity creates distance between self-regulation and the state that is necessary with
liberal democracies. Second, expertise can "mobilise and be mobilised within political argument in
distinctive ways, producing a new relationship between knowledge and government. Expertise comes to
be accorded a particular role in the formulation of programs of government and in the technologies that
seek to give them effect" [Rose, 1996:156]. Third, expertise operates through a relationship with the
self-regulating abilities of individuals. The plausibility inherent in a claim to scientificity binds
"subjectivity to truth and subjects to experts" [Rose, 1996:156]. Expertise works through a logic of choice, through a transformation of the ways in which individuals constitute themselves, through
"inculcating desires for self-development that expertise itself can guide and through claims to be able to
allay the anxieties generated when the actuality of life fails to live up to its image [Rose, 1999:88].
The technologies of the self involved in the practice of, for example, going to the gym are the:
technology of responsibilisation, technology of healthism, technology of normalisation and technology
of self-esteem.
Responsibilisation
In line with its desire to reduce the scope of government (e.g. welfare) Neo-liberalism characteristically
develops indirect techniques for leading and controlling individuals without being responsible for them.
The main mechanism is through the technology of responsibilisation. This entails subjects becoming
responsibilised by making them see social risks such as illness, unemployment, poverty, etc. not as the
responsibility of the state, but actually lying in the domain for which the individual is responsible and
transforming it into a problem of ‘self-care’ [Lemke, 2001:201] and of 'consumption'.[38] The practice of
going to the gym can be seen as a result of responsibilisation, our responsibility to remain free of illness
so as to be able to work and to care for our dependants (children, elderly parents etc.) This technology
somewhat overlaps with the technology of healthism.
Healthism
Healthism links the "public objectives for the good health and good order of the social body with the
desire of individuals for health and well-being" [Rose, 1999:74]. Healthy bodies and hygienic homes
may still be objectives of the state, but it no longer seeks to discipline, instruct, moralise or threaten us
into compliance. Rather "individuals are addressed on the assumption that they want to be healthy and
enjoined to freely seek out the ways of living most likely to promote their own health" [Rose, 1999:86-
87] such as going to the gym. However while the technology of responsibilisation may be argued to be a
calculated technique of the state, the wave of Healthism is less likely to be a consequence of state planning, but arising out of the newer social sciences such as nutrition and human movement. Healthism
assigns, as do most technologies of the self, a key role to experts. For it is experts who can tell us how to
conduct ourselves in terms of safe, precise techniques to improve cardiovascular fitness, muscle
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strength, and overall health. The borrowing from technologies of the market by technologies of the self can be clearly seen in the area of healthism. The idea of health, the goal of being healthy, the joys
brought by good health and the ways of achieving it are advertised to us in the same manner as goods
and services are marketed by sales people. By adhering to the principles of healthism, our personal goals
are aligned with political goals and we are thus rendered governable.
Normalisation
Another technology of power arising from the social sciences is that of normalisation. The technology of
norms was given a push by the new methods of measuring population. A norm is that "which is socially
worthy, statistically average, scientifically healthy and personally desirable".[39] The important aspect of
normality, is that while the norm is natural, those who wish to achieve normality will do so by working
on themselves, controlling their impulses in everyday conduct and habits, and inculcating norms of
conduct into their children, under the guidance of others. Norms are enforced through the calculated
administration of shame. Shame entails an anxiety over the exterior behaviour and appearance of the
self, linked to an injunction to care for oneself in the name of achieving quality of life [Rose, 1999:73].
Norms are usually aligned with political goals, thus the norm would be fit, virile, energetic individuals,
able to work, earn money, and spend it and thus sustain the economy. For instance, the practice of goingto the gym allows one to achieve this ‘normality’. Through shame we are governed into conforming with
the goals of Neo-liberalism.
Self-esteem
Self-esteem is a practical and productive technology linked to the technology of norms, which produces
of certain kinds of selves. Self-esteem is a technology in the sense that it is a specialised knowledge of
how to esteem ourselves to estimate, calculate, measure, evaluate, discipline, and to judge our selves.[40]
The ‘self-esteem’ approach considers a wide variety of social problems to have their source in a lack of self-esteem on the part of the persons concerned. 'Self-esteem' thus has much more to do with self-
assessment than with self-respect, as the self continuously has to be measured, judged and disciplined in
order to gear personal 'empowerment' to collective yardsticks.[41] These collective yardsticks are
determined by the norms previously discussed. Self-esteem is a technology of self for "evaluating and
acting upon ourselves so that the police, the guards and the doctors do not have to do so".[42] By taking
up the goal of self-esteem, we allow ourselves to be governable from a distance. The technology of self-
esteem and other similar psychological technologies also borrow from technologies of the market,
namely consumption. A huge variety of self-help books, tapes, videos and other paraphernalia are
available for purchase by the individual.
Technologies of the market
The technologies of the market that underlie the practice of going to the gym can be described as the
technology of desire, and the technology of identity through consumption. The technology of desire is a
mechanism that induces in us desires that we work to satisfy. Marketers create wants and artificial needs
in us through advertising goods, experiences and lifestyles that are tempting to us. These advertisements
seek to convey the sense of individual satisfaction brought about by the purchase or use of this
product.[43] We come to desire these things and thus act in a manner that allows us to achieve these
things, whether by working harder and earning more money or by employing technologies of the self toshape our lifestyle to the manner we desire . The borrowing of technologies of the self by technologies
of the market extends even further in this case. Marketers use the knowledge created by psyche-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_(sociology)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-esteemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_(social_science)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumption_(economics)
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discourses, especially psychological characteristics as the basis of their market segmentation. Thisallows them to appeal more effectively to each individual. Thus we are governed into purchasing
commodities through our desire.
The technology of identity through consumption utilises the power of goods to shape identities. [44] Each
commodity is imbued with a particular meaning, which is reflected upon those who purchase it,
illuminating the kind of person they are, or want to be. Consumption is portrayed as placing an
individual within a certain form of life. The technology of identity through consumption can be seen inthe choices that face the gym attendee. To go to an expensive gym because it demonstrates
wealth/success or to go to a moderately priced gym so as to appear economical. The range of gym wear
is extensive. Brand name to portray the abilities portrayed in its advertising, expensive to portray
commitment, or cheap to portray your unconcern for other people’s opinions. All of these choices of
consumption are used to communicate our identity to others, and thus we are governed by marketers into
choosing those products that identify with our identity.
These technologies of the market and of the self are the particular mechanisms whereby individuals are
induced into becoming free, enterprising individuals who govern themselves and thus need only limited
direct governance by the state. The implementation of these technologies is greatly assisted by expertsfrom the social sciences. These experts operate a regime of the self, where success in life depends on our
continual exercise of freedom, and where our life is understood, not in terms of fate or social status, but
in terms of our success or failure in acquiring the skills and making the choices to actualise ourself.[45] If
we engage in the practice of going to the gym, we are undertaking an exercise in self-government. We
do so by drawing upon certain forms of knowledge and expertise provided by gym instructors, health
professionals, of the purveyors of the latest fitness fad. Depending on why we go to the gym, we may
calculate number of calories burned, heart-rate, or muscle size. In all cases, we attend the gym for a
specific set of reasons underpinned by the various technologies of the self and the market. The part of
ourselves we seek to work upon, the means by which we do so, and who we hope to become, all vary
according to the nature of the technology of power by which we are motivated [Dean, 1999:17]. All of these various reasons and technologies are underpinned by the mentality of government that seeks to
transform us into a free, enterprising, autonomous individual: Neo-liberalism. Furthermore, Neo-
liberalism seeks to create and disseminate definitions of freedom, autonomy and what it means to be
enterprising that re-create forms of behavior amenable to neo-liberal goals.
Ecogovernmentality
Ecogovernmentality (or eco-governmentality) is the application of Foucault’s concepts of biopower and
governmentality to the analysis of the regulation of social interactions with the natural world. Timothy
W. Luke theorized this as environmentality and green governmentality. Ecogovernmentality began in the
mid-1990s with a small body of theorists (Luke, Darier, and Rutherford) the literature on
ecogovernmentality grew as a response to the perceived lack of Foucauldian analysis of
environmentalism and in environmental studies.
Following Michel Foucault, writing on ecogovernmentality focuses on how government agencies, in
combination with producers of expert knowledge, construct "The Environment." This construction is
viewed both in terms of the creation of an object of knowledge and a sphere within which certain types
of intervention and management are created and deployed to further the government’s larger aim of
managing the lives of its constituents. This governmental management is dependent on the disseminationand internalization of knowledge/power among individual actors. This creates a decentered network of
self-regulating elements whose interests become integrated with those of the State.
Crises of Governmentality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_agencyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecogovernmentality
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According to Foucault, there are several instances where the Western, "liberal art of government" enters
into a period of crisis, where the logic of ensuring freedom (which was defined against the background
of risk or danger) necessitates actions "which potentially risk producing exactly the opposite."[46]
The inherently contradictory logics that lead to such contradictions are identified by Foucault as:
1. Liberalism depends on the socialization of individuals to fear the constant presence of danger, e.g.,
public campaigns advocating savings banks, public hygiene, and disease prevention, the development of
detective novels as a genre and of news stories of crime, and sexual anxieties surrounding
"degeneration."[47]
2. Liberal freedom requires disciplinary techniques that manage the individual's behaviour and everyday
life so as to ensure productivity and the increase in profit through efficient labour, e.g., Bentham's
Panopticon surveillance system. Liberalism claims to supervise the natural mechanisms of behaviour
and production, but must intervene when it notices "irregularities."[48]
3. Liberalism must force individuals to be free: control and intervention becomes the entire basis of
freedom. Freedom must ultimately be manufactured by control rather than simply "counterweighted" byit.[48]
Examples of this contradictory logic which Foucault cites are the policies of the Keynesian welfare state
under F.D. Roosevelt, the thought of the German liberals in the Freiburg school, and the thought of
American libertarian economists such as the Chicago School which attempt to free individuals from the
lack of freedom perceived to exist under socialism and fascism, but did so by using state interventionist
models.[48]
These governmental crises may be triggered by phenomena such as a discursive concern with increasing
economic capital costs for the exercise of freedom, e.g., prices for purchasing resources, the need for excessive state coercion and interventionism to protect market freedoms, e.g., anti-trust and anti-
monopoly legislation that leads to a "legal strait-jacket" for the state,[49] local protests rejecting the
disciplinary mechanisms of the market society and state.[49] and finally, the destructive and wasteful
effects of ineffective mechanisms for producing freedom.[50]
Application to health care
Scholars[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] have recently suggested that the concept of governmentality may be
useful in explaining the operation of evidence-based health care and the internalization of clinical
guidelines relating to best practice for patient populations, such as those developed by the American
Agency for Health Care Research and Quality and the British National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence (NICE). Recent research by Fischer (http://oxford.academia.edu/MichaelFischer) and
colleagues at the University of Oxford has renewed interest in Foucault's exploration of potential
resistance to governmentality, and its application to health care, drawing on Foucault's recently
published final lectures at the College de France.[59][60][61]
Beyond the West
Jeffreys and Sigley (2009) highlight that governmentality studies have focused on advanced liberal
democracies, and preclude considerations of non-liberal forms of governmentality in both western and
non-western contexts.[62] Recent studies have broken new ground by applying Foucault’s concept of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_School_of_Economicshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.D._Roosevelthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_societyhttp://oxford.academia.edu/MichaelFischerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiburg_schoolhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxfordhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesianhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state
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governmentality to non-western and non-liberal settings, such as China. Jeffreys (2009) for example
provides a collection of essay on China’s approach to governance, development, education, the
environment, community, religion, and sexual health where the notion of 'Chinese governmentally' is
based not on the notion of ‘freedom and liberty' as in the western tradition but rather, on a distinct
rational approach to planning and administration.[63] Such new studies thus use Foucault’s
Governmentalities to outline the nature of shifts in governance and contribute to emerging studies of
governmentality in non-western contexts.
See also
Michel FoucaultPolitical power Rationality and power
References
1. Mayhew, Susan (ed) A Dictionary of Geography (Article: Governmentality) Oxford University Press, 20042. Foucault, M. (1991). 'Governmentality', trans. Rosi Braidotti and revised by Colin Gordon, in Graham
Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality , pp. 87–104.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
3. [Jeffreys and Sigley (2009) 'Governmentality, Governance and China' in China's Governmentalities, (ed.)
Elaine Jeffreys, ISBN 978-0-415-54744-4]
4. Gordon, C (1991). 'Governmental rationality: an introduction', in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter
Miller (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality , pp. 1–48. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press.
5. Michel Foucault, The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France 1982-1983
(2010) http://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/foucault-studies/article/view/3127/3298.pdf
6. Michel Foucault The Courage of Truth : Lectures at the Collège de France 1983-1984 (2011)7. Michel Foucault The Birth of Biopolitics Lectures At The College de France 1978-1979 (2008)
8. Foucault, Governmentality, and Critique(2002)
http://www.andosciasociology.net/resources/Foucault$2C+Governmentality$2C+and+Critique+IV-2.pdf
9. Foucault, M., (2008), The birth of biopolitics. Lectures at the College de France, 1978‐79. Palgrave
MacMillan
10. Lemke, T (2001). 'The birth of bio-politics: Michael Foucault’s lectures at the College de France on neo-
liberal governmentality' in Economy and Society v.30, i.2, p. 190-207 .
11. Burchell, 90
12. Lemke, 2
13. Foucault in Burchell, 48
14. Malette S. (2006). La "gouvernementalité" chez Michel Foucault. M. A., Faculté de Philosophie
(http://www.theses.ulaval.ca/2006/23836/23836.pdf) (PDF). Université Laval - Québec.
15. Burchell, Gordon and Miller, 1991: 102-103
16. Burchell, 92
17. Burchell, 95
18. Jones 174
19. Burchell, 102
20. Rose-Redwood, R.B. (2006). "Governmentality, Geography, and the Geo-Coded World". Progress in Human
Geography. 30 (4): 469–486. doi:10.1191/0309132506ph619oa
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1191%2F0309132506ph619oa).
21. Harley, J.B. (1989). "Deconstructing the Map". Cartographica. 26 (2): 1–20. doi:10.3138/e635-7827-1757-
9t53 (https://dx.doi.org/10.3138%2Fe635-7827-1757-9t53).
22. Hannah, M.G (2000). Governmentality and the Mastery of Territory in Nineteenth-Century America.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23. Jessop, B (2004). "Hollowing Out the ‘Nation-State’ and Multi-Level Governance". In Kennett, P. A
Handbook of Comparative Social Policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. pp. 11–27.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifierhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780415547444https://dx.doi.org/10.3138%2Fe635-7827-1757-9t53https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationality_and_powerhttp://www.theses.ulaval.ca/2006/23836/23836.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_powerhttp://www.andosciasociology.net/resources/Foucault$2C+Governmentality$2C+and+Critique+IV-2.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucaulthttp://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/foucault-studies/article/view/3127/3298.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifierhttps://dx.doi.org/10.1191%2F0309132506ph619oa
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58. Sheaff, R. et al. (2004) Governmentality by Network in English Primary Care. Social Policy and
Administration 70, 779-86.
59. Fischer, Michael Daniel; Ferlie, Ewan (1 January 2013). "Resisting hybridisation between modes of clinical
risk management: Contradiction, contest, and the production of intractable conflict". Accounting,
Organizations and Society 38 (1): 30–49. doi:10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.002
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.aos.2012.11.002).
60. Foucault, Michel; Ewald, François; Burchell, Alessandro Fontana ; English series editor, Arnold I. Davidson ;
translated by Graham (2012). The courage of truth (the government of self and others II) : lectures at the
Collège de France, 1983-1984. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 9781403986689.
61. Foucault, Michel (2011). The government of self and others : lectures at the College de France, 1982-1983
(Paperback edition. ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403986672.
62. [ Jeffreys, E. & Sigley, G. 2009, 'Governmentality, governance and China' in Elaine Jeffreys (eds), China's
Governmentalities: governing change, changing government, Routledge, New York, USA, pp. 1-23]
63. [ Jeffreys, E. 2009, China's Governmentalities: governing change, changing government, Routledge, New
York. ISBN 978-0-415-54744-4]
Further reading
Cruikshank, B. (1996) 'Revolutions within: self-government and self-esteem', in Andrew Barry,Thomas Osborne & Nikolas Rose (eds.) (1996), Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-
Liberalism, and Rationalities of Government , Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Dean, M. (1999) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage.Joyce, P. (2003) The Rule of Freedom: Liberalism and the Modern City. London: Verso.Foucault, M. (1997) Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, edited by Paul Rabinow, New York: NewPress.Foucault, M.(1982) 'Technologies of the Self' (http://www.thefoucauldian.co.uk/tself.htm), inLuther H. Martin, Huck Gutman and Patrick H. Hutton (eds) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault , pp. 16–49. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.Foucault, M.(1984) The History of Sexuality Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure, trans. Robert Hurley.
New York: Random House, 1985.Foucault, M.(1984) The History of Sexuality Vol. 3: The Care of the Self , trans. Robert Hurley.
New York: Vintage Books, 1988.Foucault, M. (2004), Naissance de la biopolitique: cours au Collège de France (1978-1979).Paris: Gallimard & Seuil.
Foucault, M., (2008), The birth of biopolitics. Lectures at the College de France, 1978‐79.
Palgrave MacMillanHunt, H. & Wickham, G. (1994) Foucault and Law. London. Pluto Press.Inda, J. X. (2005). "Anthropologies of Modernity: Foucault, Governmentality, and Life Politics(http://www.academia.edu/417342/Anthropologies_of_Modernity_Foucault_Governmentality_and_Life_Politics)". Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Kerr, D. (1999) 'Beheading the king and enthroning the market: A critique of Foucauldiangovernmentality' in Science & Society, New York: v.63, i.2; p. 173-203 (accessed throughExpanded Academic Index).Luke, T.W. (1997) Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy and Culture.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Nagl, D. (2013) 'The Governmentality of Slavery in Colonial Boston, 1690-1760' in AmericanStudies, 58.1, pp. 5–26. [1] (http://www.winter-verlag.de/en/detail/t3699977/Nagel_The_Governmentality_of_Slavery/)
Rivera Vicencio, E. (2014)‘The firm and corporative governmentality. From the perspective of Foucault’, Int. J. Economics and Accounting, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp.281–305.
http://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=67421
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifierhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Massachusetts_Presshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttp://www.academia.edu/417342/Anthropologies_of_Modernity_Foucault_Governmentality_and_Life_Politicshttp://www.winter-verlag.de/en/detail/t3699977/Nagel_The_Governmentality_of_Slavery/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781403986689https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781403986672http://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=67421https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780415547444https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.aos.2012.11.002http://www.thefoucauldian.co.uk/tself.htm
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Rose, N. (1996) Inventing Our Selves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom: reframing political thought . Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.Scott, D. (1995) 'Colonial Governmentality' in Social Text , No. 43 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 191–220.
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