Governing (Through) Rights

This book explores the concept of rights as technologies of governmentality, examining how they are used to regulate identities and conceptions of good governance. It also investigates the potential for counter-conduct using rights language and questions whether counter-conduct can be seen as an ethos of the political, rights-bearing subject.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 184 pages
Publication date: 24 January 2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

The central premise of this book is that rights are technologies of governmentality. They are a regulating discourse that is itself managed through governing tactics and techniques – hence governing (through) rights. Part I examines the problem of government (through) rights. The opening chapter describes governmentality as a methodology that is then used to interrogate the relationship between rights and governance in three contexts: the international, regional and local. How rights regulate certain identities and conceptions of what is good governance is examined through the case study of non-state actors, specifically the NGO, in the international setting; through a case study of rights agencies, and the role of experts, indicators and the rights-based approach in the European Union or regional setting; and, in terms of the local, the challenge that the blossoming language of responsibility and community poses to rights in the name of less government (Big Society) is problematised. In Part II, on resisting government (through) rights, the book also asks what counter-conducts are possible using rights language (questioning rioting as resistance), and whether counter-conduct can be read as an ethos of the political, rights-bearing subject and as a new ethical right. Thus, the book bridges a divide between critical theory (ie Foucauldian understandings of power as governmentality) and human rights law.

The central premise of this book is that rights are technologies of governmentality.

They are a regulating discourse that is itself managed through governing tactics and techniques – hence governing (through) rights.

Part I examines the problem of government (through) rights.

The opening chapter describes governmentality as a methodology that is then used to interrogate the relationship between rights and governance in three contexts: the international, regional and local.

How rights regulate certain identities and conceptions of what is good governance is examined through the case study of non-state actors, specifically the NGO, in the international setting; through a case study of rights agencies, and the role of experts, indicators and the rights-based approach in the European Union or regional setting; and, in terms of the local, the challenge that the blossoming language of responsibility and community poses to rights in the name of less government (Big Society) is problematised.

In Part II, on resisting government (through) rights, the book also asks what counter-conducts are possible using rights language (questioning rioting as resistance), and whether counter-conduct can be read as an ethos of the political, rights-bearing subject and as a new ethical right.

Thus, the book bridges a divide between critical theory (ie Foucauldian understandings of power as governmentality) and human rights law.

Weight: 296g
Dimension: 156 x 233 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509926824