The Foucault effect: studies in governmentality
... Governmental rationalities take into account intellectual technologies that are used to guide thought and action, bringing to light what and who is to be governed, as well as the primary goal and strategies to achieve it (Dean, 2010;Foucault, 1991). The concept of governmentality has been used extensively to understand the phenomenon of neoliberalism and the social reforms it generates (Dyb, 2021;Flint, 2002;Foucault, 1991;Jacobs & Travers, 2015;Zhaxi, 2019). ...
... Governmental rationalities take into account intellectual technologies that are used to guide thought and action, bringing to light what and who is to be governed, as well as the primary goal and strategies to achieve it (Dean, 2010;Foucault, 1991). The concept of governmentality has been used extensively to understand the phenomenon of neoliberalism and the social reforms it generates (Dyb, 2021;Flint, 2002;Foucault, 1991;Jacobs & Travers, 2015;Zhaxi, 2019). The rationalities of government in the housing sector of Ghana are reflected in changing policies since independence. ...
... Another technology of government is the production of the liberal individual as an active agent able and constrained to decide for themselves through contemporary social and economic policies. This technology, according to Foucault (1991), generally underlines the state's capacity to withdraw from direct methods of control and organisation and also informs and fuels political rhetoric and hegemonic discourses-in Ghana as elsewhere. ...
... Inledning Foucault (1991) beskriver govermentality som det sätt på vilket individer styrs genom olika teknologier som opererar i samhället. Utbildningssektorn kan ses som en praktik där olika metoder och strategier styr och kontrollerar individers tankar och aktioner i specifika riktningar för att anpassas till rådande trender (Dahlstedt & Hertzberg, 2012). ...
... När samtliga begrepp sammanfattats kategoriserades begreppsutsagorna i teman. Dessa teman kunde sedan göras till föremål för ytterligare tolkningar och analyser (Kvale & Brinkman, 2009 (Foucault, 1991(Foucault, , 2003. I teknologierna finns vissa normer och uppfattningar som får inverkan på hur tekniker utformas (Ivarsson Westerberg, 2016). ...
... Genom dialogen återupprepas brister i skolorna och rektorerna får genom dialogerna med Skolverket och universiteten veta vad de bör genomföra för att nå detta. Dialog och samverkan blir här styrningstekniker för att få rektorerna att styra sina tankar och uppfattningar om vad som anses vara "best practice" i en skola för tillfället (Foucault, 1991) Som en rektor framhåller: samverkan för bästa skola är inte samverkan utan direktiv om hur man ska kunna skapa en bättre skola. Andra associationer är systematik, planering, uppföljning, och tydliga roller (R3; R7). ...
SammanfattningSyftet med denna artikel är att diskutera hur den statliga interventionen Samverkan för bästa skola (SBS) styr rektorer i svensk grundskola. SBS är ett regeringsuppdrag till Skolverket som pågått sedan 2015 och vänder sig till skolor med låga resultat, vilka inte på egen hand förväntas kunna vända denna trend. Artikeln bygger på intervjuer med rektorer i grundskolan som deltagit i SBS. Ett resultat i studien är att rektorerna generellt är osäkra i sitt ledarskap och välkomnar det statliga stödet som handlar om att utveckla det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet. Enligt Foucault (2008) innebär detta att staten genom olika maktteknologier styr och reglerar rektorernas beteende i syfte att elevers kunskapsutveckling ska öka och ge högre resultat. Idén om effektiv intervention är en central aspekt inom den evidensbaserade praktiken, dvs. att administrera en behandling för att uppnå en viss effekt (Biesta, 2007). Denna rörelse är ett internationellt fenomen som bygger på ett tayloristiskt synsätt som vuxit fram sedan 1990-talet med sanktionssystem och offentlig rangordning av utbildning (Uljens, 2021a, 2021b). Forskning om tänkbara konsekvenser av SBS är ännu begränsad varför denna studie kan bidra genom analys av insamlat empiriskt material. ENGLISH ABSTRACT “It was like hacking with a machete in the beginning – now we are refining it” – A study of Collaboration for Best School as a governance technology The purpose of this article is to discuss how the state intervention Collaboration for the Best School (CBS) governs principals in Swedish compulsory schools. CBS is a government assignment to the Swedish National Agency for Education which has been ongoing since 2015, and targets schools with low results that are not expected to be able to reverse this trend on their own. The article is based on interviews with compulsory school principals who have participated in SBS. One result of the study is that the principals are generally insecure in their leadership and welcome the government’s support, which especially focuses on developing the systematic quality work. According to Foucault (2008), this means that the state through various technologies of power controls and regulates the principals’ behavior, in order to increase students’ knowledge development and produce higher grades. The idea of effective intervention is a central aspect within evidence-based practice, i.e. administering a treatment to achieve a certain effect (Biesta, 2007). This is an international phenomenon based on a Taylorist approach that has emerged since the 1990s with sanction system and public ranking of education (Uljens, 2021a, 2021b). Research on possible consequences of CBS is still limited, therefore this study can contribute in this field through analysis of collected empirical material.
... Finally, the assumption of horizontal authority and governmentality as its theoretical anchor obfuscates the topdown pressures and power asymmetries involved in the entrenchment of responsible consumption. Governmentality, understood as governing through the will (Foucault, 1980(Foucault, , 1982(Foucault, , 1991(Foucault, , 2007Rose et al., 2006), commonly fails to distinguish between the means (e.g. consumer choice) and ends (e.g. climate mitigation) of governance, which leads to the flawed conclusion that compliant consumers freely consent to both. ...
... Unlike liberals, who saw freedoms expand as state power retracted, Foucault suggested that a political theory of power should move beyond this reductionist view of the state, to "cut off the King's head" (Foucault, 1978, p. 89). Although the repressive, coercive and "negative" power of the state ("domination") had decreased, this did not signify a reduction of state power to the advancement of personal freedom and autonomy (Foucault, 1978(Foucault, , 1991(Foucault, , 2007. For Foucault, the power of the modern state was not developed "above" individuals but through a "matrix of individualization" (Foucault, 1982, p. 784;Lemke, 2009). ...
The concept of consumer responsibilization challenges conventional thinking around responsible consumption, draws attention to its political dimensions, and situates the emergence of responsible consumers within the realm of neoliberal governance. In this article, we critique and amend the theoretical anchoring of consumer responsibilization in the concept of governmentality and the Foucauldian theory of power that underpins it. We argue that governmental theorizing implies flattening the power relationship between the state, the market and consumers, and that it thereby marginalizes and eclipses the top-down exercise of power under neoliberal governance. This produces theoretical inconsistencies in the transformative consumer literature on responsibilization that risk impeding theory development and silencing critical empirical trajectories. At worst, it may end up reifying the neoliberal governance it sets out to scrutinize. We draw on Karl Polanyi’s writings to advance a critical political economy perspective on consumer responsibilization designed to address these concerns. We develop these ideas by introducing the concept of “embedded responsibilization” to the field of consumer research. Theorizing responsible consumption as being embedded in the Polanyian sense will solidify consumer responsibilization as a theoretically consistent transformative research project and encourage necessary trajectories for empirical research on responsibilization.
... Access to modern energy lifts people out of poverty and improves their wealth, health, security, well-being, and educational and entrepreneurial prospects; it also promotes gender equality and social, economic, and political equity [11]. Regarding why some benefit from others, ref. [12] stated that different political and economic situations alter the conditions of access and, thus, the specific individuals or groups that can best benefit from a set of resources. ...
... Environments 2025,12,34 ...
Biomass energy is a significant yet often overlooked energy source in many developing nations, particularly in households where it is utilized in highly inefficient ways. This inefficiency stems from the direct combustion of wood, charcoal, leaves, agricultural residues, and animal dung for cooking purposes. A substantial portion of the Ethiopian population relies on traditional biomass energy, a dependence influenced by socioeconomic factors and residential location. In this study, we focus on traditional coffee vendors operating on the streets of Bahir Dar who utilize traditional biomass for coffee preparation. We aim to investigate the accessibility and health implications of traditional biomass utilization among these women coffee vendors. We employed a mixed-methods research approach with a concurrent research design to achieve our objectives. Data were analyzed quantitatively through descriptive statistics and qualitatively through thematic analysis. Both the descriptive and textual data indicate that women traditional coffee vendors (WTCVs) rely on traditional biomass energy because customers expect the ceremonies to be performed using it, as it holds significant traditional and cultural value. While traditional biomass energy is relatively accessible, the vendors’ limited income often restricts their ability to secure it consistently. Consequently, their dependence on traditional biomass, combined with poor working conditions, negatively impacts their respiratory health and heightens the risk of burns and injuries.
... In a series of lectures in 1978 and 1979, Michel Foucault developed the notion of 'governmentality', which refers to the indirect ways in which the government and other institutions exert control over individuals and populations (Foucault, 1991a). For Foucault (1991b), government is not a central and monolithic power, instead, it is a collection of interconnected practices, including self-governance, governance within social institutions and communities, as well as state governance. In other words, power also operates at the micro level; it traverses every part of social life and everyone is caught up in power circulation (Hall, 2001). ...
... Meanwhile, these multilingual resources assimilated migrants into mainstream society and systems. Taking Foucault's (1991b) theory on governmentality into consideration, the power took place from a distance and it circulated within 'the very grain of individuals' (Foucault, 1980, p. 39), indirectly shaping and governing individual behaviours, the community and the state in this case. ...
... Powerful actors such as governments and companies can create knowledge about resources and the environment in general. Similarly, governmentality is where government causes citizens to act according to its priorities or preferences (Foucault, 1991). Discursive power and governmentality are exercised through politics, which is "the practices and processes through which power, in its multiple forms, is wielded and negotiated" (Paulson et al., 2003, p. 209). ...
... While the DFSD is relatively silent on farmers' monetary benefits, it has managed to create narratives and knowledge on the tree species that are being planted under the MTS by "disciplining" farmers to plant their prioritised tree species with "discursive power" and "governmentality" (Fletcher, 2010;Foucault, 1991;Lukes, 2005). Indeed, resource users' perceptions about the environment are not only shaped by ecological knowledge, but also by discourses and narratives created by powerful institutions (Brosius, 1997;Fairhead and Leach, 1996;Svarstad et al., 2018). ...
Reforestation through agroforestry is a common practice in the tropics but the political structures and processes as well as the ecological factors that define their outcomes need more attention. We employed mixed methods with insights from political ecology to enhance the understanding of agroforestry under the modified taungya system (MTS) in Ghana. The study reveals that the MTS is defined by governmentality and discursive power informed by the broader political economy. Specifically, economic and ecological factors intersect with environmental politics to inform the choice of tree species being used for the agroforestry. Additionally, the power dynamics across scale create differentiated access to degraded forest reserves and push less powerful people to the background. More so, power struggles, inhibiting structures, and politics of the sharing of tree revenue within the system contribute to some farmers devising illegal means to have, and maintain access, to degraded forest reserves which are creating negative consequences to the agroforestry initiative. We recommend that the Forestry Commission should (re)sensitise all forest-fringe communities, provide opportunities for a meaningful participation of all stakeholders of the MTS and sign the agreement on the sharing of tree revenue with participating farmers. It is also important that more women are targeted and assigned degraded forest reserves directly, as they are more compliant with the required practices of the MTS.
... In this view, the profiling tool works 'at a distance' (Burchell et al, 1991), echoing Foucault's notions of how governmentality works and the change in perspective supposedly happens through the unemployed person's selfreflective capacities. Learning about discouraging outcomes should work by increasing the unemployed people's mobility and willingness to be flexible. ...
... • Increased Manipulation Susceptibility: Individuals whose cognitive independence has been subtly eroded, who rely heavily on algorithmically curated information feeds, and who possess diminished critical thinking skills may become more vulnerable to targeted manipulation through personalized propaganda, sophisticated advertising, or politically motivated disinformation campaigns delivered via the same algorithmic channels. • Potential for Subtle Social Control Reinforcement: Systems that subtly shape cognition and behavior towards conformity, predictability, and alignment with system-defined norms -particularly when embedded within workplace surveillance systems, educational assessment tools (Kwok, 2025G), or state monitoring apparatuses (Kwok, 2025H) -can serve as powerful, often invisible, tools for reinforcing existing power structures, managing populations, and maintaining social control, potentially limiting dissent and critical citizenship (Foucault, 1991;Rouvroy & Berns, 2013). ...
... • Decision Frameworks & Algorithmic Governmentality: AI systems are increasingly deployed to support or automate decision-making in high-stakes domains (e.g., credit scoring, hiring screening, resource allocation, predictive policing, content moderation). These systems, often operating as opaque "black boxes" (Burrell, 2016) and trained on potentially biased historical data, embed specific decision criteria, values, and assumptions, thereby enacting new forms of algorithmic governmentality (Foucault, 1991;Rouvroy & Berns, 2013). They subtly steer individual choices (e.g., through personalized nudges), manage populations through classification and risk assessment, and sort individuals based on encoded biases and dominant norms, posing significant challenges to transparency, individual autonomy (Kwok, 2025N), procedural fairness, due process, and the principle of non-discrimination. ...
... Haggerty and Ericson [40] introduced the concept of the data double as part of a larger theory of the "surveillant assemblage" [40], which the authors construct through engagement with literature from cultural studies [59] and philosophy [11,24,25,30]. They describe the data double as a decorporealized body [40, p.613]. ...
... Second, a critical or poststructuralist understanding of discourse implies lower levels of awareness, i.e., actors that hold and follow certain neoliberal logics, or a counter-discourse, may be largely unconscious or not reflective about it (Hajer 1995, Hajer andWagenaar 2003;cf. Laclau and Mouffe 1985, Foucault 1991, Fairclough 1992. Hajer (2009:60) defines discourse in this sense as an "ensemble of ideas, concepts, notions and categorizations that are produced, reproduced, and transformed in a particular set of practices." ...
... Barcelona constituyó una importante inspiración para la reconstrucción del frente fluvial y la elaboración de la marca ciudad de Rosario, que se cimentaron en determinadas analogías materiales y simbólicas entre ambas urbes (Vera, 2013). La noción de gubernamentalidad opera sobre un conjunto de datos del territorio para forjar un medio que induce conductas a través de la libertad (Foucault, 2007;Burchell et al., 1991). Con frecuencia, la gubernamentalidad urbana contemporánea se enlaza con la idea de ciudad neoliberal cuyas variaciones y disputas teóricas han sido analizadas por Gilles Pinson (2020). ...
A comienzos del siglo XXI la ciudad de Rosario fue anfitriona del III Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española (III CILE). Ese evento cultural constituye un observatorio de una serie de procesos urbanos de relevancia, tales como la revitalización patrimonial, la rehabilitación de áreas deprimidas, la elaboración de una marca ciudad y la formación de dispositivos de gubernamentalidad. Este artículo analiza las transformaciones materiales, simbólicas y de estilo de gestión articuladas alrededor del III CILE. La metodología aplica un análisis cualitativo-hermenéutico sobre un corpus de legislación nacional, normativa municipal, planificación urbana y notas periodísticas, con el propósito de identificar y analizar los impactos en la imagen y la gubernamentalidad del congreso sobre Rosario. Se concluye que, si bien la celebración del III CILE supuso intervenciones urbanísticas de cierta importancia contextual, las modificaciones más perdurables se inscribieron en la imagen, la marca y la gubernamentalidad urbanas.
... Institutional discourses, also referred to as power discourses, refer to ordered systems of knowledge that mediate the relationships between people, the world, and practices of meaning making (Foucault, 1978). They influence our experiences, interactions, and ways of knowing and speaking about the world (Burchell et al., 1991). Critical discourse analysis traditionally investigates speech from a top-down, macro perspective, while narrative analysis explores practices of storying and meaning making from a bottom-up micro positioning (Souto-Manning, 2014). ...
A death by medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is often equated with a good death or a death with dignity, yet how MAiD-bereaved family members in Canada conceptualize the relationship between dignity and MAiD is currently unknown. Using a critical narrative inquiry approach, this article explores how family members with complex MAiD experiences constructed the concept of dignity in their bereavement stories. Dignity is conceived of as a thick, culturally relative concept with descriptive and evaluative meanings. Twelve family members from three of Canada’s provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario) completed narrative interviews about their experiences with complex MAiD bereavement. The interview transcripts are presented as short stories that portray how participants talk about dignity in relation to MAiD. These stories were analyzed from a critical narrative analysis approach that examined how institutional discourses are weaved into everyday stories about personal experience. The analysis identified three dignity narratives in participants’ stories: the Dignified MAiD Narrative, the Traumatic MAiD Narrative, and the Unjust MAiD Narrative. The Dignified MAiD Narrative may provide solace to family members who agreed with their loved one’s decision to choose MAiD; however, this narrative may simultaneously create moral tensions by setting unrealistic expectations for family members. The Traumatic and Unjust MAiD Narratives provide counter perspectives that challenge the notion that MAiD unequivocally leaves a legacy of a dignified, good death.
... Theoretically, Michel Foucault's notion of governmentality is crucial for comprehending neoliberalization mechanisms. Governmentality denotes the methods by which the state exerts authority over the populace through a synthesis of governance strategies and the internalization of societal standards by people (Foucault, 1991). In higher education, neoliberal governmentality is evident in the transition toward self-regulation and accountability among institutions and individuals, where market-oriented principles of competition, efficiency and performance prevail (Olssen and Peters, 2005). ...
Purpose
This study aims to explore the neoliberalization of higher education and its impact on gender-sensitive workplaces for international academic staff. Using a qualitative multiple-case study approach, the research examines how neoliberal policies intersect with gender-sensitive practices within academic institutions, characterized by marketization, privatization and commodification. The theoretical framework integrates Foucault’s concept of governmentality, Bourdieu’s notion of capital, intersectionality from gender theory and paradox theory to analyze the conflicting demands faced by international employees.
Design/methodology/approach
This study’s data comes from semistructured interviews with international academic staff and document analysis of institutional policies. The findings reveal that neoliberal policies often undermine gender-sensitive initiatives by prioritizing market-driven objectives over inclusivity, creating paradoxical tensions for international employees, especially women and minorities, who navigate both gender and nationality-based challenges.
Findings
The study concludes that while neoliberalization in higher education fosters a competitive environment, it simultaneously complicates the implementation of effective gender-sensitive practices. Institutions must address these tensions by reevaluating their policies to better support diverse international staff.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the literature by highlighting the complex dynamics at the intersection of neoliberalism, gender sensitivity and international employee experiences. It offers insights for policymakers and academic leaders committed to fostering inclusive and equitable workplaces.
... The ethical dimensions of humanitarian aid demand a sophisticated interrogation of the fundamental assumptions underlying international assistance paradigms. Scholars such as Foucault (1991) and post-colonial theorists have compellingly argued that humanitarian interventions are never purely altruistic, but constitute complex technologies of governance that produce specific forms of knowledge, subjectivity, and political relationality (Mbembe2003). In the specific context of U.S. humanitarian aid to Colombia, this means critically examining how the aid framework potentially reinforces hierarchical global relationships, where recipient nations are positioned in a perpetual state of dependency and performative gratitude. ...
The Venezuelan migration crisis, which has displaced over 7 million people since 2014, has created one of the largest humanitarian emergencies in Latin America. Colombia, as Venezuela’s immediate neighbour has borne the brunt of this crisis, taking in more than 2.5 million migrants. In response to the humanitarian demands posed by this unprecedented influx, the United States has played a central role, providing substantial humanitarian aid to Colombia. This research paper examines how U.S. humanitarian aid has facilitated Colombia’s migration management strategies and enhanced its international standing through humanitarian diplomacy. The analysis delves into the policies and practices adopted by Colombia, including the implementation of the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Venezuelan migrants, and how U.S. aid empowered the country to take on a leadership role in multilateral forums such as the Quito Process. Ultimately, this paper argues that U.S. humanitarian aid has not only helped Colombia cope with the migration crisis but has also strengthened its position as a regional leader in Latin America and a strategic ally of the United States.
... As with critical realism (Wynn & Williams, 2020), this pluralistic position (Raaper & Olssen, 2017), in effect, ties Foucauldian heuristics to a range of methodological and conceptual approaches. Indeed, Foucault (1991) viewed his works not as a substantive doctrine but as "philosophical fragments put to work in a historical field of problems" (p. 74) that stand against "dogmatic assertions… to be taken or left en bloc" (Foucault, 1989, p. 275). ...
This thesis explores the educational trajectories of Japanese students at an ‘élite’—and, thus, highly prestigious—Top Global University Project (TGUP) institution. Within Japan’s ‘enterprise society’, neoliberal reform scaffolds educational transitions, with few, if any, existing studies tracing Japanese character-building in terms of lived market subjectivities—a gap that this project, in part, seeks to address. Drawing on Foucault’s governmentality and operationalised through interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), findings indicate that neoliberal trajectories are shaped by three broad aspects: strategic awareness and choice during educational transitions; the competitive culture fostered by shadow education, quantification, and the race to secure ‘élite’ higher education; and the regionalised and performative aspects of vocational recruitment. Placing these themes within Japanese society’s ‘bigger picture’, learner testimonies underscore the pervasive influence of neoliberalism within Japanese education, emphasising self-discipline, competitiveness, and marketability. Specifically, as learners transition from shōnen/shōjo (youth) to seinen (social adolescence) and shakaijin (social adulthood), the pressure to conform to market-driven demands for ‘functional’ human capital intensifies. As such, participants navigate the system pragmatically, focusing on personal gains and market competitiveness. In doing so, they internalise entrepreneurial values, where educational success is essential for economic and social validation.
... Desde esa óptica, la gubernamentalidad, entendida como la racionalidad política detrás del ejercicio de dominio, explora el poder desde el sujeto como miembro activo que conforma una sociedad y no únicamente desde el aparato estatal (Foucault, 1972(Foucault, , 1977. En la gubernamentalidad el poder tiene un aspecto productivo en lugar de represivo; produce cosas, induce placer, formas de conocimiento (Foucault, 1991). ...
El presente artículo se centra en la conceptualización de los territorios hidrosociales, en torno a la inserción de un megaproyecto turístico en Yucatán, México. Para su análisis se utilizó una estrategia metodológica cualitativa aplicada a un caso de estudio que abarca tres poblados de la península: Yalcobá, X’tut y Sisbichén, afectados actualmente por la construcción del megaproyecto turístico “Xibalbá”. El objetivo es identificar las racionalidades que conciben, definen y problematizan el territorio hídrico, desde las lógicas del estado-empresario, y revelar su inserción al territorio a través de mecanismos específicos. Concluye que el megaproyecto Xibalbá es un mecanismo de poder, caracterizado por lógicas que conciben el agua como recurso económico desde la industria cultural, que inserta racionalidades políticas a través de particularidades físicas, sociales, simbólicas y culturales del sitio acompañado por los siguientes mecanismos: La legislación, el discurso, las políticas públicas y la tecnología.
... In the context of AN, infrastructural development was and is highly desired among the Shuar population, not only due to improved access, but also because travel by boat on the treacherous Nangaritza River is both risky and time-consuming. On one hand, this desire of increased integration into State institutions and capitalism theoretically echoes Foucault's (1991) conceptualization of governmentality, in which subjectivities are transformed and new needs/desires emerge aligned with the desires of the dominators. 18 On the other side, the road facilitating access for machinery also actualized the vernacular, Shuar principle of prevailing by using the means of its opponent: we can learn mining, take control of its articulation in our territories, and use it to our advantage. ...
Drawing upon critical social theory and fine-grained empirical observations, political ecologists have long argued against hegemonic stories of the environment, development and capitalism. This commitment is held across the wide range of approaches in political ecology. In a world haunted by increasing social inequalities and ecological degradations, there are strong reasons to pursue this critical agenda. In this article however, I coin the concept of "narrative predictability" to offer a critical analysis of a narrative tendency in political ecology towards a plot featuring the State and/or the Corporation as villains, the environment and indigenous peoples as victims, and activists as heroes. My engagement is not a reactionary attack, but rather an application of political ecology's main tool – empirical scrutiny – on itself. Empirically, the article draws upon recent fieldwork among indigenous Shuar people engaged in gold mining in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Theoretically, the article problematizes romanticism and essentialism within resistance studies. A key observation is that there seems to be a neglect of empirical complexity challenging the recurrent plot. What are the implications of avoiding discomforting observations when producing narratives aimed at progressive change? This article argues that political ecology needs to counter its own narrative predictability by strengthening its attentiveness to the heterogeneity and ambiguities of marginalized people in a world of capitalist ruins.
... Este análisis constó de búsqueda de supuestos, análisis conceptual, análisis y crítica de argumentos sobre el modelo tripartito de la sostenibilidad (Ballinas Aquino y Hernández Flores, 2023), ya sea a través de 1) los pilares de la sostenibilidad o 2) de las dimensiones de la sostenibilidad, 3) el análisis de la lógica empresarial y la idea de que el modelo tripartito se puede compatibilizar, así como 4) las propuestas de operacionalización del DS sobre vacíos conceptuales. Lo cual es importante, pues los discursos naturalizantes, las racionalidades, las jerarquías políticas y el uso de las tecnologías actúan como dispositivos de poder para delinear subjetividades y comportamientos a través del tiempo (Boelens et al., 2016;Burchell et al., 1991). ...
El desarrollo sostenible ha adquirido una enorme relevancia para responder a la crisis ambiental y aunque no surgió de la academia, ha sido adoptada por ésta. Por eso, en este texto se profundiza desde la filosofía y la semiótica en los problemas epistémicos ligados al desarrollo sostenible, la sostenibilidad y la sustentabilidad, que son sintagmas problema que se basan en metáforas. A partir de un análisis bibliográfico cualitativo, de búsqueda de los supuestos implícitos y explícitos del desarrollo sostenible y crítica de sus argumentos, se realiza como objetivo, un análisis teórico-conceptual del modelo de los pilares de la sostenibilidad y de sus dimensiones desde una perspectiva crítica. También como objetivo, se profundiza en la lógica empresarial para comprobar si los tres pilares o tres dimensiones se pueden compatibilizar, y se devela la lógica imperante de construir propuestas de operacionalización del desarrollo sostenible (competencias para la sostenibilidad, indicadores de sostenibilidad y evaluaciones de sostenibilidad) sobre vacíos conceptuales. Con esto, el artículo establece que hay una profunda desconexión entre los niveles conceptual y operativo de la sostenibilidad. En conclusión, se muestra que la sostenibilidad no es un concepto operativo, sino que, en el mejor de los casos, es una hipótesis a demostrar por las generaciones futuras, o bien, de parte de las generaciones actuales respecto de repercusiones de las acciones de generaciones pasadas. Por esta razón, para atender la crisis ambiental, se requiere apelar a alternativas al discurso institucionalizado de la sostenibilidad, como la sustentabilidad, el ecodesarrollo y las perspectivas del Sur Global que incluyen saberes rurales e indígenas.
... governmentality, fr. gouvernementalité), inspirert av arbeida til Michel Foucault (1991Foucault ( , 2002sjå også Dean, 2010;Gordon, 1991). Rusførebygging kan i dette perspektivet verte forstått som ei av mange manifesteringar av styringsformer i seinmoderne liberale samfunn, der målet er å leie individ mot ynskjeleg livsførsel og optimaliserte livsval. ...
Denne teoretisk-empiriske artikkelen har to føremål. For det fyrste vil artikkelen utmynte eit diskursorientert teoretisk rammeverk for å analysere rusførebygging i skulen som eit pedagogisk-politisk fenomen. For det andre prøver artikkelen rammeverket ut i ein empirisk analyse av medietekstar om rusførebygging i skulen. Forskingsspørsmål for artikkelen er: Korleis vert rusførebygging i skulen diskursivt forma i medieoffentlegheita? Diskursar om rusførebygging i skulen vert teoretisk omgrepsgjorde som høvesvis aktivering av bestemte kulturhistoriske grunnbilete av barn og unge og legitimering av ulike førebyggingsteknologiar. Det empiriske materialet utgjer 29 medietekstar frå perioden januar 2020 til november 2023. Desse vert analyserte med blikk på korleis rusførebygging i skulen vert ulikt diskursivt forma etter kva bilete som vert aktivert, og teknologi som vert legitimert. Tre diskursar vert identifiserte gjennom analysen, høvesvis den kontrollerte eleven (dionysisk grunnbilete: barn og unge er fødde ville, førebyggingsteknologi: disiplinering), den inkluderte eleven (apollinsk grunnbilete: barn og unge er naturleg gode, førebyggingsteknologi: etablering av fellesskap for vekst og tilhøyrsle) og den opplyste eleven (athensk grunnbilete: barn og unge er naturleg rasjonelle, førebyggingsteknologi: formidling av balansert informasjon). Analysen gjer synleg korleis rusførebygging i skulen tangerer både pedagogikk og politikk, og artikkelen diskuterer funna i ljos av pedagogiske grunnlagsproblem og politisk makt. English abstract School-Based Drug Prevention as a Discursively Shaped Pedagogical-Political Phenomenon This theoretical-empirical article has two aims. First, to outline a discourse oriented theoretical framework for analyzing school-based drug prevention as a pedagogical-political phenomenon. Second, to try out the framework in an empirical analysis of media texts thematizing drug prevention in schools. The research question for the article is: How is school-based drug prevention discursively shaped in the media public sphere? Discourses on school-based drug prevention are theoretically conceptualized as activating cultural images of children and youths and as legitimizing prevention technologies. The empirical material consists of 29 media texts from the period January 2020 to November 2023, which are analyzed with attention to how drug prevention in schools is discursively shaped. Three discourses are identified: the controlled student (Dionysian image: children and youths are born wild, prevention technology: discipline), the included student (Apollonian image: children and youths are naturally good, prevention technology: establishing communities for growth and belonging), and the enlightened student (Athenian image: children and youths are naturally rational, prevention technology: communicating balanced information). The analysis shows how school-based drug prevention is entangled with pedagogy and politics, and the findings are discussed in light of foundational questions in education and political power.
... Our research attempts, from a Foucauldian perspective, to answer the question whether old idealistic discourses on the EU and identity questions that shaped historical discussions on Europeanization are still conserved after almost four decades of membership, or whether an increasingly pragmatic approach to the EU has led to their disappearance. Also relying on the Foucauldian concept of memory, we try to understand how recent Spanish discourses on democracy and human rights relate to past ones (Foucault, 1991). The article is composed of three main sections. ...
Democratization occupied a significant weight in Spain’s accession to the European Economic Community. Accession was viewed as a remedy to Spain’s isolation, ‘backwardness’ and questionable ‘Europeanness’. In this process, proEuropean political and media elites and civil society in Spain constructed the EU as a symbol of modernity and democracy. This article examines how media and political elites in Spain conceptualize the role of the EU as symbol and a normative actor, distinguished by its commitment to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, after almost four decades of accession. By integrating Q methodology with in-depth interviews, we attempt to study the subjective perceptions of elites regarding the role of the EU as a normative actor and whether this role is constructed through identitarian or pragmatic factors.
... Our first concern is the relationship between power and freedom. Whereas state power, in conventional liberal thinking, is considered in contradistinction to consumers' freedom and autonomy, the soft power envisioned by Foucault in the emergence of the liberal state suggested a reformulation of this relationship (Burchell et al., 1991;Foucault, 1991Foucault, , 2003. Instead of existing in opposition to power, consumer autonomy would now be considered as a vessel for the channeling and exertion of power (Donzelot and Gordon, 2009;Miller and Rose, 1990;Rose et al., 2006). ...
Purpose
Critical studies within the economic and administrative sciences are increasingly paying attention to the way markets shift responsibility to consumers for societal and personal goals, referring to this process as consumer responsibilization. This article advances a new approach to responsibilization theory with the aim of overcoming some of its limitations.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual approach is used to critique dominant post-structural understandings of consumer responsibility and to advance alternative ways of thinking about responsibilization regimes that highlight the embodied and embedded experiences of responsible consumers.
Findings
The article suggests that responsible consumption is embodied and embedded within neoliberal social structures characterized by inherent tensions and will produce strained experiences rather than skilled and empowered neoliberal subjects. The authors underscore the need for an empirical focus on the adaptational responses of consumers to responsibilization processes. With a focus on the frictional relationship between the idealization pressures involved in responsibilization processes and the real-world consequences embodied in consumer experiences, the conceptual approach may provide new ways to advance the concept of responsibilization as a critique of neoliberal marketization.
Originality/value
While responsibilization theory has been gaining widespread attention, this is the first paper to critically examine its limitations and offer an embedded-embodied perspective on consumer responsibility.
... In contrast, modern neoliberal education reduces the subject's ethical engagement to forms of self-regulation, focused primarily on efficiency and productivity. Foucault's (1991) concept of governmentality is essential to understanding how postmetaphysical education regulates the individual. Under the guise of self-care, neoliberal education encourages students to constantly manage their own emotions, behavior, and productivity. ...
Introduction: The Decline of the Sacred in the Educational Sphere. Friedrich Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God in The Gay Science (1882) resonates throughout contemporary debates on the crisis of modern education, particularly in the fields of humanities and arts. This death symbolizes not merely the decline of religious belief but the erosion of metaphysical structures that once underpinned the legitimacy of knowledge, culture, and values. In our neoliberal epoch, education is increasingly functionalized, stripped of metaphysical depth, and subsumed into economic logics that reduce knowledge to marketable skills. In the humanities and arts, where education once engaged deeply with questions of existence, morality, and meaning, this crisis is felt acutely.
... According to Michel Foucault (2008), knowledge is an eminently political phenomenon capable of generating and configuring norms and conduct. Risk assessment is one of the prominent themes of Foucauldian studies (Burchell, Gordon, and Miller 1991) and genetic testing geared towards prevention and prediction has been considered one of the techniques capable of shaping the subject. 'Genetic prudence', as described by Rose (2007), embodies a form of pastoral power that, predicated on a logic of prevention, pushes individuals to measure themselves against the calculus of future dangers through concrete choices in the present. ...
Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT) is used to select in vitro embryos for distinct clinical contexts and purposes. PGT for monogenic conditions (PGT‐M), also known as Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), enables the prevention of passing on a known genetic disorder to one's offspring. Conversely, PGT for aneuploidies (PGT‐A), or Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS), is used to improve IVF success rates in fertility patients and increase confidence about the health outcomes of potential offspring. Using discourse analysis, we examine how Spanish fertility clinic digital platforms frame these techniques and their associated subjectivity processes. We find: first, an excessively unproblematic portrayal of experimental innovations such as PGT; second, a linguistic, semantic and clinical overlap between ‘diagnosis’ and ‘screening’, which increases the genetic responsibility of couples or women without known genetic conditions regarding their prospective children; and third, the use of genomics as a modulator of female fertility and as a means to control maternal age‐related decline. Ultimately, this discourse positions PGT as a routine IVF component, serving as an assurance tool for both treatment success and the health of the potential baby. This narrative reflects the speculative turn in assisted reproduction, emphasising new forms of responsibility and choice of would‐be mothers.
El artículo explora, a través de la construcción y análisis de un corpus documental, la imbricación de la empatía en reflexiones y propuestas relativas a la cuestión del liderazgo que circulan actualmente en Argentina. En el primer apartado se sostiene que el discurso sobre el liderazgo empático, si bien procede del ámbito del management, irradia, asimismo, saberes y elaboraciones vinculados a la actividad política. Asumiendo, en clave de los estudios de gubernamentalidad, que toda práctica de gobierno se despliega en un medio de pensamiento, en los apartados dos y tres se muestra su funcionamiento como herramienta que permite a los líderes tanto gobernar las emociones como leer y entender los universos mentales y emocionales de los demás. Por su parte, en el cuarto apartado se argumenta que la referencia a la empatía también sirve de fundamento para establecer distinciones que son pertinentes al campo de estudios sobre el liderazgo y a los debates que surcan la realidad política nacional. El trabajo se cierra con una reflexión en torno al carácter ambivalente de la empatía que tiene por propósito discutir el optimismo de las propuestas de reforma del liderazgo que se inspiran en ella.
This article explores the interplay of religious and secular hegemonies experienced by young secular individuals in contemporary Türkiye. We elucidate this condition as in-betweenness through the resistance to conforming to exclusive or extreme discursive arrangements imposed by religious and secular people. Focusing on the online youth group Gray Zone on X, we draw on Habermas’s postsecularity and adopt Constructivist Grounded Theory to show how this hegemonic dynamic manifests through participants’ reflexive thinking and the reduction of rigid ideologies. Our findings, based on semi-structured interviews, demonstrate that the shift from hegemonic to "in-between" interactions emerges through the everyday articulations of lived social practices that reproduce religious-secular engagements. These articulations show that different hegemonies challenge each other daily, which we call the multiple hegemonies effect. Despite the contradictory practices within secularity itself that create a sense of being in-between, secular participants reinforce their commitment to secularity by continuously redefining its meaning to explain “true” secularity.
Autistic teachers can bring strength to an educational institution, particularly when working with autistic children and young people. However, they often face barriers and challenges that cause them to camouflage their identity at work. This is not only exhausting for the teacher but can also create mental health issues impacting on their wellbeing, including a loss of self. So, what are the underlying causes for autistic teachers to camouflage their identity? This article, based on the social model of disability and critical realism, draws upon the theories of Bourdieu and Foucault to explore the power dynamics involved in autistic camouflaging. When drawing upon Foucault's theory of power/knowledge, it was found that the prevailing truth often stems from a limited comprehension of autism. Furthermore, Foucault's idea of power and resistance coexisting implies that social camouflaging can be viewed as a form of resistance against external pressures; if those external pressures cease to exist, implies that social camouflaging will also cease to exist. Symbolic violence, as outlined by Bourdieu, is one such pressure, fostering a perception that autistic individuals lack social capital. This results in those in higher positions within a school's hierarchy leveraging their symbolic capital to compel autistic teachers to conceal their identities rather than embrace their unique strengths. This article aims to inspire school leaders and managers to rethink their social structures by learning from the lived experiences of autistic teachers within their organisations. This could be to identify specific policies that cause autistic teachers to camouflage and address hidden triggers leading towards an environment where autistic teachers are not compelled to hide their true selves.
This chapter draws on Foucauldian scholarship to examine how educating emotions in early childhood supports the art of ‘modern government’. Through exploring the development of social emotional learning (SEL), this chapter illustrates how psy-professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, and other allied professions) have successfully produced, used, and expanded a problematic discourse of well-being into schools and education settings that serve to strengthen their authority on human feelings in society. By utilising Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education documents (curriculum, guidelines, and other resources) as a case study, this chapter demonstrates how educating SEL makes use of unique power-relations to exercise dominant psy-discourses that inspire learning communities—comprised of young people, their parents, family, teachers, and school staff—to learn specific movements for governing themselves as well as others. In conclusion, this chapter calls for the further interrogation of psychological concepts used for educating emotions, like SEL or emotional literacy, and their associated practices in order to examine how they ‘support’ children and young people with their ‘well-being’.
Social psychological theory has made a number of important contributions to how we think about organisational life, from the way in which work is designed to the relationship between managers and employees. This chapter outlines a number of concerns that social psychology has been uncritically accepted without interrogating some important assumptions. We present how critical perspectives on the application of social psychology to work raise some important issues for scholars. Starting with a review of existing critiques, we explore how labour process and social theory can be used to as a basis to develop new lines of research in critical social psychology. The final section reports on the recent popularity of positive psychology and its psychologisation of workplace problems.
This chapter explores the issue of statelessness through the lens of Hannah Arendt’s political theories, mainly focusing on her concept of the “right to have rights”. By linking Arendt’s critique to the CSR practices of MNEs, the chapter highlights the potential of these entities to mitigate some of the adverse effects of statelessness. Through a critical analysis of Arendt’s work and its relevance to today’s globalised world, the chapter advocates for rethinking human rights frameworks and the role of corporate entities in promoting social justice and equity.
The article considers the practice and praxis of graffiti and street art from the perspectives of law enforcement, local government and placemaking, and between the production and consumption of this ambivalent form of cultural expression. The work is based on primary, site-based research and visualisation undertaken in Europe, North America and Australia.
The subject matter of this final chapter is the development of an understanding of aging and professional power over the past 50 years, using examples drawn from social welfare and old age, through developing the theories and philosophies derived from the French social theorist, Michel Foucault. Whereas previous chapters focused on postmodernism and the body in Western culture, this chapter consolidates analysis of the aging body, to explore the interrelationship between discourse, professional power, and intersubjectivity. Foucault’s concepts and ideas have become significantly influential in a variety of social science disciplines. At the same time, they can be puzzling for those wishing to understand their implications for analyzing professional power and aging. Foucault was a “masked philosopher” who deliberately sought to avoid being aligned with any particular school of thought. Foucault has had a “huge impression” on criminological studies and allowed the discipline to develop a new theoretical language. Foucault is yet to have the same effect on social gerontology. Unfortunately, Foucault said little about aging, and one can only speculate as to the ingenuity of his insights on the subject had he lived into old age himself.
The implementation of governmental policies and initiatives has shown the leading role of the Chinese government in digital transformation and innovation. An overview of key governmental policies and initiatives presents the milestones of digital transformation and innovation in Chinese higher education including the timeline of national policies, national-level projects, and multilateral initiatives in digital transformation and innovation in higher education.
The chapter addresses the teacher as an epistemological problem. Building on the critique of the school outlined in previous chapters, here we consider what is perhaps the most important practice in schooling: teaching. We begin from what it is the teacher has become and the terrors of performativity to re-envisage the educator as a genuine interlocutor and part of the fundamental encounter with the other as a concrete, palpable experience. An interlocutor who nurtures risk-taking and creates a public space that encourages fearless speech—that is a parrhesiatic pedagogy (Parrhesia is a mode of discourse in which people express their opinions and ideas candidly and honestly, avoiding the use of manipulation, rhetoric, or broad generalizations. In Foucault’s conception of parrhesia, frankness, truth, danger, criticism, and duty are all essential to understanding how such a verbal activity functions in relation to the speaker.), creating dialogic relations and discomfort in relation both to the context of crisis and what it is we have become as culpable humans. An education oriented to how not to be governed, a heterotopia a cultural, institutional, and discursive space that is somehow “other”: disturbing, intense, incompatible, contradictory, and transforming. An education that entails diverse challenges and risks. Here, the role of the teacher/educator must be opened to revision, subject to problematisation, to critique, to transformation.
This chapter is the beginning of things rather than the end. Here we adumbrate four dimensions across which education and its practices might be rethought and experimented with. In each case we begin with a recognition of the ways that schools have constrained human freedom and then offer tools for thought that address these constraints. The book may have made you, the reader, uncomfortable. It is an affront. It may cause consternation and make you anxious, worried, or angry. We are angry. That anger needs to be taken seriously. There is a lot of rethinking and new thinking to do if we are to imagine education differently in relation to the possibilities of extinction and of life continuance and anger is a good place to start. As a starting point for that thinking we propose to discard the school and re-conceive education as a practice of freedom, as an ethical/aesthetic endeavour. An education oriented towards common interests and a common fate, caring for others and for other species and our shared environment. We use self-formation and commons/commoning as forms of social relations for the constitution of an ecological subject.
Michel Foucault has formed an intended awareness that disciplines; institutions and social practices operate according to logics that are at variance with the humanist visions that are assumed to be culturally embedded. In other words, the overt meanings given to activities do not correspond to their overall consequences. This has implications in terms of understanding the social policy as its base is constructed by norms, assumptions power, and they are relative to their time and space.
The key argument advanced in this chapter is that an accelerating interest in elder abuse is central to understanding it as a modern crime as a social phenomenon. It will be argued that the ‘discovery’ of elder abuse legitimises practice in which the social policymakers monitor but does not intervene. This has led to a social situation that has radically transformed crime of its traditional rationale as processing offenders who engage in elder abuse. One intended consequence of these policies has been to transfer the financial and emotional responsibilities for elder abuse to social welfare agencies rather than criminal justice agencies. Such a social policy has found resolution through an emphasis on forms of abuse perpetrated by carers on older service users. This sudden concern for the safety and financial security of older people, who are service users, legitimises a role for welfare professionals when we should be questioning why elder abuse is not seen in the same criminalised way as child abuse.
This chapter explores the author’s experience of teaching International Relations (IR) theory in Ghana, focusing specifically on his teaching on the MA in International Relations and Diplomacy (MAIRD) programme at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). Designed originally as specialised training school for Ghana’s civil service during the post-colonial period, GIMPA has evolved into full-fledged University, offering both professional training as well as academic programmes. Although being a specialised training institution for professionals and those aspiring for careers in the foreign and diplomatic services makes GIMPA and its IR programme distinctive and unique, how the author teaches IR theory on the MAIRD programme overlaps with the experiences of other scholars teaching IR theory in other African and global South contexts. The chapter highlights how the institutional context of the author, his own Critical and Post-colonial theoretical orientation and his African/global South epistemology and ontology have all influenced his teaching of IR theory, and by so doing, enable the students to appreciate the importance of non-Western and African perspectives in IR theory and practice.
This chapter represents some initial questions we asked ourselves as we began this project. We wanted to understand how, and if at all, policy frameworks have influenced the current xenophobic climate within the South African university space. Just as the Kafkian character wakes up to see itself morphed into an unrecognizable creature, we ask how the South African university finds itself implicated in issues of xenophobia. We use a short historical analysis as well as critical reading to better understand how policy developments have shaped in some way the employment patterns at South African universities. On policy we were guided by Godwin’s elaboration (in L. Markauskaite, P. Freebody, & J. Irwin (eds.), Methodological choice and design: Scholarship, policy and practice in social and educational research, Springer (2011, p. 168)) which states that ‘policy consists of a range of actions—and inactions—including, but not limited to, laws, policy statements, programs, statements of principle, processes and performances. As such, the objects of policy research and policy analysis are also various… Policy researchers analyze texts, institutions and institutional processes, as well as interactions between policy players.’ The significance of this policy reading and chapter lies in its findings. It demonstrates how the current climate is not a result of only individual actions and/or rhetoric. The problem is much wider and more institutionalized than that. The issue of xenophobia does not present as only public sentiment and street-level vigilantism. It is being institutionalized, given metrics, and normalized, casting a long shadow on the South African academic space.
Publicamos la versión en español de este capítulo, un texto que apareció publicado originalmente en inglés como el capítulo cuatro de la siguiente referencia: Lemke, T. (2021). Material-Discursive Entanglements: Grasping the Concept of the Dispositive. En The Government of Things. Foucault and the New Materialisms. Nueva York: New York University Press. Agradecemos a la editorial y al autor que nos cedieron los derechos para la publicación y difusión de la versión en español.
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