Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests important conceptual and political questions arising within research that bring the post-structuralist frameworks into conversation with various forms of feminist analysis. Feminist analysis has also been brought together with an analytic of governmentality to study gender mainstreaming initiatives and practices. The book presents material drawn from focus groups to argue that women in Sweden both comply with and challenge hegemonic discourses that constitute responsibility and vulnerability within the 'cramped spaces' available to them as they live their everyday lives in the city. It identifies both governing and resistive discourses circulating within the forms of expertise and political rationalities constituting the workplace mental health initiatives. The book argues that new forms of governance should be understood as involving not only new actors and new spheres in 'politics' but also new rationalities for governing.