ABSTRACT
Governmentality – a term coined by Michel Foucault (1979, 1991) to describe a rethinking of the notion of government – has become a key concept in the humanities and social sciences since the 1990s. Defined as ‘the conduct of conduct’, that is, any more or less calculated means of directing how we behave and act, the concept of governmentality has generated a proliferating body of work on the ‘how’ of governing: how we govern; how we are governed; and the relation between the government of the state, the government of others and the government of ourselves (Dean 1999: 2). What might be called ‘governmentality studies’ thus signifies an interdisciplinary approach to examining how the government of human conduct is thought about and acted upon by authorities and individuals, by invoking particular forms of ‘truth’ and using specific means and resources (ibid.: 1-3).
