Governmentality After Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism has had a major impact on public policy but it has also perhaps obscured the equally dramatic spread of other policy tools based on significantly different forms of social science.

This book therefore explores the mixture of social technologies that have arisen since neoliberalism, sometimes alongside and sometimes in conflict with it, but generally as attempts to address problems created by the market reforms of a high neoliberalism. These have included attempts to spread networks, joining-up, and long term partnerships, and to build state capacity, social capital, and resilient communities. Thematically, each chapter is defined by its engagement with governmentality, specifically challenging governmentality theory to pay more attention to practices. The book also develops a complex and variegated account of neoliberalism and its afterlife as chapters highlight the different ways in which a range of market mechanisms and other technologies now coexist in different policy areas. Finally, the book moves beyond abstract discussions of both governmentality and neoliberalism to concrete demonstrations of this approach in action.

This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of governance, public policy, governmentality theory and more broadly to British Politics, social policy, and sociology.

Mark Bevir is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and Professor of Governance at the United Nations University, MERIT, The Netherlands. He is the author of various books including The Making of British Socialism (2011), Governance: A Very Short Introduction (2012), and A Theory of Governance (2013).