ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the moulding, regulation, and utilisation of family and family lives that have been central in neo-liberal societies. It notes how the book critically reviews different modes in how families have been and are governed, in particular in contemporary neo-liberal society through technologies of self-responsibilisation, biologisation, risk management, and predictive artificial intelligence. It explains our approach to exploring the topic of governing families through technologies underpinned by Carol Bacchi's Foucauldian-inspired analytic framework of ‘what's the problem represented to be?’ and Pierre Bourdieu's discussion of the ‘construction of the object.’ Both these lenses highlight the necessity of a critical interrogative approach that uncovers the tools and processes that construct and perpetuate the problematic object as families and their (lack of) self-governance.
