ABSTRACT
The green state is a notion that engenders largely positive associations for many actors with an interest in sustainable development (cf. Eckersley 2004; Chapter 1, this volume). Yet like any other academic concept, the green state needs to be approached critically for there is a danger that such positive associations obfuscate power dynamics and political practices that may be less progressive. This chapter examines climate policy within the State of California using governmentality. This is as an analytical perspective on power that has proven particularly strong at focusing attention on the specificity of the operation and effects of public policy. The application of governmentality surfaces how the values, beliefs and world views of parts of the polity are discursively constituted by actors in positions of relative authority in purposeful attempts to ‘conduct conduct’ through climate policy. Such attempts constitute a phenomenon known as subjectification in governmentality scholarship.
