ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses both the theories behind Nudge and the way in which they have been taken up by the political classes. Nudge's popularity is not due to it offering a new theoretical or political framework with which to understand individual and group behaviour, rather its current popularity reflects a process of the degradation of the radical, emancipatory roots of empowerment. Nudge theory is heavily influenced by academic research from behavioural economics and psychology being to utilise these theories within social policy and related services. Jones et al. that in many ways Foucault's work, whilst seemingly mainly concerned with the workings of power, was primarily about the formation of the subject. In relation to the way the behaviour change agenda is discussed via 'nudge', 'think' and 'steer' that sociological, cultural and political analyses are marginalised. Nevertheless, this is to forget that the focus on the self has been the trajectory of empowerment long before 'steer' came along.
