Abstract
The starting point for this book is that modern Western childhood cannot be properly understood without appreciation of the concept of governmentality. Equally it is difficult to understand the concept of governmentality and its importance to the analysis of the exercise of power in Western liberal democracies without also looking at childhood. The aim of this chapter is to set out in detail the origins and meaning of the concept of governmentality as it was developed in the work of Michel Foucault. While this chapter is thus not directly concerned with the government of childhood, it represents a necessary preliminary to the more focused discussion which unfolds over the remainder of the book. I first examine what is meant by the term governmentality and explore key terms such as ‘rationality of government’ and ‘technology of government’ deployed in the post-Foucauldian governmentality literature. The following sections examine Foucault’s genealogical analysis of the ‘governmentalization of the state’ – the genesis of the concept of governmentality – in which he traces the emergence of liberal practices of governing, as well as his analysis of the distinctive characteristics of liberal forms of rule.
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Notes
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Smith, K.M. (2014). Conceptualising Governmentality. In: The Government of Childhood. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137312273_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137312273_2
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