Foucault and Governmentality: Living to Work in the Age of Control

The book critically examines the dynamics, culture, and forms of subjectivity of neo-liberalism, drawing on historical, sociological, and cultural studies. It explores the genealogy of the capitalist subject, focusing on the neo-liberal governmental context of the last four decades. Michel Foucault's notion of governmentality is employed as an hermeneutic key to historically situate and critically analyse the regimes of subject-formation characteristic of neo-liberal capitalism. The current crisis in capitalism is surveyed, along with earlier forms of capitalism, and the transition in power from discipline to control is explored. The study concludes by tracing the changing face of Homo Economicus in relation to resistance levelled against neo-liberal capitalism and the resultant metamorphoses it has undergone.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 11 July 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Using empirical research, this book critically analyses the dynamics, culture, and forms of subjectivity of neo-liberalism. It draws upon existing historical, sociological, and cultural studies to excavate the genealogy of the capitalist subject with specific emphasis on the neo-liberal governmental context of the last four decades. Michel Foucault's notion of governmentality, which he developed in his Collège de France lectures of 1978 and 1979, is employed as an hermeneutic key to historically situate and critically analyse the regimes of subject-formation characteristic of neo-liberal capitalism. The current crisis in capitalism is surveyed, along with earlier forms of capitalism, and the transition in power from discipline to control is explored. The study concludes by tracing the changing face of Homo Economicus in relation to resistance levelled against neo-liberal capitalism and the resultant metamorphoses it has undergone.

Benda Hofmeyr presents a comprehensive Foucaultian analysis and historical contextualisation of the rise of neo-liberal governmentality.

Weight: 458g
Dimension: 224 x 166 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781786611727