Governmentality – analytical strategies for critique of power (14-16th April 2010)

Faculty
Professor Mitchell Dean, Macquarie University, Sydney, Professor Sverre Raffnsøe CBS, Associate Professor Kaspar Villadsen CBS, PhD scholar Marius Gudmand Høyer CBS

Course Coordinator
Associate Professor Kaspar Villadsen

Only PhD students enrolled in doctoral studies can participate in the course.

The course will provide the participants with an updated introduction to key analytical concepts in the Governmentality literature, and the potentials and weaknesses of these concepts will be discussed. Furthermore, a detailed consideration of the current status of governmentality studies and post Foucauldian studies will be given, in particular in light of recent claims for a crisis of critique. Finally, suggestions will by presented on how to elaborate or move beyond the framework of governmentality by activating concepts of bio-power and sovereignty, reconsidering the social and notions of society, and focusing on international dimensions of governmentality . In brief, the course aims to provide participants with a thorough understanding of the governmentality framework, that is, its analytical possibilities, its current status, and its possible directions of development.

Over the last 20 years, post-Foucauldian “governmentality studies” have come to growing prominence. These studies have been effective in critically analysing new types of liberal government, in particular by demonstrating ‘the active side of laissez faire’. They describe how the motto of ‘pulling back the state’ has been accompanied by a series of governmental strategies and technologies aimed at shaping institutions and subjects in particular ways. Perhaps most noticeably, they have presented a diagnosis of a proliferation of regimes of enterprise and accounting in new and surprising places. But a wide range of other domains have been subjected to governmentality analysis spanning from genetic screening and risk calculation, new crime prevention strategies, to health promotion by self-responsibilisation. To be sure, the concepts in governmentality studies continue to constitute effective tools for critical social analysis.

Nevertheless, in recent years critical objections have been raised against the governmentality approach. It has been noted by some observers that the Foucauldian and post-structuralist language, originally used for critical academic purposes, seems to be increasingly appropriated by ‘the powers’ that were the object of such critique. Most notably, this point has been voiced (although in different versions) by Zizek, Boltanski, and Hardt & Negri. These thinkers suggest that a post-structural ’politics of difference’ increasingly seems to be an integral part of the ways, in which institutions and companies organise themselves. If modern liberal government has begun to speak for the dissolution of binary essentials, the destabilisation of rigid power structures, the creation of space for the subject’s self-transforming work upon itself, and so on. In light of this development, we need to think of ways to revitalise the Foucauldian concepts of critique/criticism. A central theme of the PhD course is the search for effective analytical strategies for critique of power (some perhaps less noticed) in the works of Foucault and other writers in the governmentality tradition.

The course requires the submission of a paper that deals with conceptual problems or analytical designs in relation to Foucauldian inspired/governmentality studies. Furthermore, papers that apply Foucauldian concepts to empirical problems in a variety of domains are welcomed. It is also possible to participate on the basis of an abstract stating the theme of the PhD project. An abstract should be approximately 1 page, whereas a paper should be approx. 5-8 pages. In both cases, the PhD student should state his main analytical challenge/concern at his/her current stage in the project. Papers/abstracts must be in English. DEADLINE is 7th April, 2010.

Lecture plan

Time/period	Faculty	Title
Wednesday, 14th April.
10:00-12:30	Kaspar Villadsen	Analytical approaches in governmentality studies
12.30-13.30		Lunch
13:30-16:00	Mitchell Dean	Ways to move beyond the governmentality framework: Foucault and the Social Question
16:00-17:00	Kaspar Villadsen & Mitchell Dean	Papers from PhD scholars
Thursday,15th April.
10.00-12.30	Mitchell Dean	Sovereignty, Biopolitics, Governmentality
12.30-13.30		Lunch
13.30-15.00	Kaspar Villadsen	The power of Critique: On BetrayingFoucault in light of the present
15.00-17.00	Kaspar Villadsen & Mitchell Dean	Papers from Ph.D. scholars
Friday, 16th April
10:00-11:30	Sverre Raffnsøe	The dispositive of welfare: A diagnosis of the present
11:00-12:30	Roundtable debate	Sverre Raffnsøe, Mitchell Dean, Kaspar Villadsen. Questions from Ph.d. Scholars.
12.30-13.30		Lunch
13:30-15:00	Marius Gudmand-Høyer	Dispositive analysis: the key analytical strategy of Foucault?
15:00-16:00	Kaspar Villadsen & Mitchell Dean	Papers from PhD students
16:00-17:00	Kaspar Villadsen & Mitchell Dean	Concluding discussion and evaluation

The course will use lectures given by specialists in the field, roundtable discussions, and presentation of papers from PhD students. Participation in the course requires a paper with an outline of PhD project or parts of the project. See more details above.

Castel, R. (2003) ‘Preface’ to From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question. New Brunswick: Transaction.

Dean, M. (2007) Governing Societies: Political Perspectives on Domestic and International Rule. Maidenhead: Open University Press (especially Introduction and conclusion).

Dean, M. (2010) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Societies (2nd edition). London: Sage (especially Introduction to Second Edition and chapter 10)._

Foucault, M. (2007) Security, Territory, Population. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (especially lecture 5)

Foucault, M. (2008) The Birth of Biopolitics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (especially lecture 12).

Deleuze, G. (1990) Postscript on Control Societies, in: G. Deleuze: Negotiations 1972-1990. New York: Columbia University Press

Raffnsøe, S. & Gudmand-Høyer, M. The Dispositive, Unpublished article

Villadsen, K. & Karlsen, M.P. (2008) "Who Should Do the Talking? The proliferation of dialogue as governmental technology", in: Culture & Organization, no. 14, vol. 4.

Villadsen, K. (2008) "Doing without the State and Civil Society as Universals: 'Dispositifs' of care across the classic sector divide", in: Journal of Civil Society, no. 4, vol. 3.

More literature TBA

Please send your application no later than March 12th 2010 to Julie Siezing ( jsi.lpf@cbs.dk)