Managerialism,governmentality and the state: a neo-Foucauldian approach to local economic governance

After decades of relative stability, the 1980s and 1990s witnessed a radical restructuring of local–central relations in Britain. This paper draws on neo-Foucauldian writings on ‘governmentality’ to argue that local state restructuring is a product of the ascendancy of neo-liberalism as a distinct political rationality. Material drawn from empirical research on local economic governance in the Scottish Highlands shows how the functioning of a distinct set of managerial ‘technologies’ — embedded in specific practices such as budgetary management, audit and targeting — is instrumental in giving the central state the capacity to shape local institutional practice. At the same time, however, local institutional actors retain some scope to adapt and ‘translate’ central directives to their own particular purposes. Whilst recent neo-Gramscian contributions argue that local governance must be seen as a product of national state restructuring, the neo-Foucauldian emphasis on governmental technologies specifies the precise mechanisms which give central state authorities the reach and capability to monitor and steer the activities of local institutions. In conclusion, the paper suggests that focusing on the reception of governmental technologies within sub-national institutional sites may offer a productive line of inquiry which can expose the internal contradictions and fissures of neo-liberal programmes.     

From work to welfare: the response of the Peruvian state to the feminization of emergency work

This paper explores the ways in which the convergence of economic crises and gendered processes of globalization have created a new role for states and new scenarios for women's paid work. It focuses specifically on one of these scenarios—the emergence of state-backed employment programmes in the 1980s and early 1990s and examines the feminization of such programmes in Latin America. Through a detailed case study of emergency work in Peru the paper analyses the relationship between feminization and the state. Specifically, the paper interrogates the contradictory conceptualizations of work embodied in such state-backed initiatives. The example of the APRA government of Peru and its nation-wide employment programme (PAIT: Programme of Support and Temporary Income 1985–1990) is used to illustrate the ways in which states have responded to processes of feminization. The paper highlights the relationship between feminization and a shift in state rhetoric. Through empirical archive and interview based research¹ it examines the implications of APRA's move from a rhetoric of providing work for men to one that emphasized welfare aid for women.     

Bringing politics into class analysis: state power and class formation in post-Mao China

Traditional class theories invariably embrace the ‘proposition of economism’, either extruding politics from the causality of class formation or treating politics as epiphenomenal. Similar ideas of class inform much of the literature on class in the People's Republic of China (PRC). This article contends that social stratification and class formation in post-Mao China cannot be fully understood without recognising state power as a critical determinant of life chances and a major organising principle in the country's class map due to the authoritarian nature of the Party-state and the ubiquity of state power in the economic sphere. It proceeds to illustrate the part that state power plays at the macro and micro levels in the production and reproduction of class.     

Nationalists rejecting statehood: Three case studies from Wales,Catalonia, and Slovakia

While many nationalism theorists define nationalism in terms of the desire for an independent state, empirical study shows that many nationalists make demands that not only fall short of statehood, but explicitly abjure claims to political independence. We document non‐state‐seeking nationalism with three case studies: Welsh national politics in the decades before the First World War, Catalan national politics related to the 2006 Status law, and Slovak national politics in response to Magyarization at the time of the 1867 Settlement. The phenomenon of non‐state‐seeking nationalism calls into question the utility of initial definitions in nationalism studies. Instead of imposing definitions by fiat, we argue that nationalism theorists should analyze the explicit or implicit definitions of historical actors.     

The circulatory panopticon: Real names,rail infrastructure and Foucault's realist turn

This article examines the contemporary Chinese rail system as a circulatory panopticon: an apparatus that uses the “natural” movements of the population to render them legible and safe. The panoptic effect of rail space has emerged only recently. The Chinese state's introduction of the “real-name system” has made a state-legible identity an inextricable part of everyday life, and recent transformations in ticketing and station entry have placed it at the center of mobility practices as well. Synthesizing Foucault's apparatus of security with Karen Barad's realist conception of the apparatus, this article examines how the more-than-human elements of the rail system realize a panoptic assemblage out of the movements of passengers. Based on participant observation and interview data, this article examines three key elements of the rail system: the national identity card, the ticket, and the station entrance. Drawing on Barad's account of diffraction, I analyze how the particular material characteristics of these things both function to realize the circulatory panopticon and also to introduce novel discontinuities and fractures. This paper makes two contributions. First, it argues for a greater attention to the question of reality in Foucault's thinking: just as the art of government increasingly recognizes and calibrates itself against ‘reality,’ Foucault's analysis of governmentality becomes increasingly realist. Second, it shows how infrastructure is simultaneously a font of state power and a source of problems for the state—a contradiction deeply relevant in China today.     

The disciplinary effects of communicative planning in Soufriere, St Lucia: governmentality, hegemony and space-time-politics

Communicative planning initiatives are being increasingly implemented across both the North and South of the globe. Influenced by Habermas' theory of communicative rationality, this form of planning concentrates upon consensus building between different signified interest groups. The paper explores how communicative planning in the eastern Caribbean country of St Lucia disciplines people's conduct from the perspectives of Foucault's concept of governmentality and Laclau and Mouffe's theorization of hegemony. Linking the latter to an analysis of Massey's non-bounded conceptualization of the local, it is argued that, as geographers, we may do better to concentrate less upon the deterministic effects of common styles of government and more upon the moments which bring their themes temporarily and spatially into being. In doing so, some initial steps are made toward proposing the concept of space-time-politics, drawing upon Wittgenstein's work on 'aspect-seeing'. In concluding, I argue that we should not see terms such as 'consensus', 'empowerment' and 'the local' as pre-existing moral justifications for political action, but instead as the product of relations of space-time-politics.     

衣及权力:明代中国的礼仪、服装与国家权威

As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, assumed the throne, he and his Confucian assistants imposed a system of clothing regulation on the court and society in order to create a hierarchical power structure. As an important aspect of Chinese civilization, the clothing system functioned to form a social hierarchy, to regulate people’s activities, to harmonize the relations among the people, and finally to make a stable society under the close control of the state. The state control in the Ming remained effective until the reigns of Hongzhi (1488–1506) and Zhengde (1506–1521), when commercialization released people’s consumption desires and economic dynamics and caused deregulation of the Ming clothing system, which eventually undermined the state authority.     

Brazil as an intermediate state and regional power: action, choice and responsibilities

Since the early years of the twentieth century, Brazil's major foreign policy aspiration has been to achieve international recognition based upon the belief that it should assume its 'natural' role as a 'big country' in world affairs. Although the bases for an autonomous foreign policy have become more restricted in the post-Cold War period, Brazil still seeks to preserve an independent voice within the international community and a certain level of independent capacity to determine its actions. In addition, the country has demonstrated a clear intention of wanting to expand the roles that it plays and the responsibilities that it assumes in regional politics, in Third World agendas and in multilateral institutions. As democracy deepens its roots within the country, Brazil has attempted to link an increasingly activist stance in world affairs with political support at home based upon a more active partisan involvement in foreign policy. In this context, the present government's fight against poverty and unequal income distribution at home and its assertive and activist foreign policy can be viewed as two sides of the same coin. In this article the authors provide an overview of the core features of Brazilian foreign policy, focusing upon four aspects: (i) the instrumental nature of Brazilian foreign policy and its close relationship with the country's economic and development objectives; (ii) the commitment of Brazil to multilateralism; (iii) the growing importance for Brazil of regional politics and security; and (iv) the recent evolution of Brazil's relations with the United States. The conclusion reviews the main challenges facing Brazil and the difficulty of matching increased ambition with concrete results.     

Background to the Ghana empire: Archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (mauritania)

In this paper, an attempt is made to fit together various kinds of data related to the process of the formation of the Ghana empire, the earliest West African state. An overview of research on this topic outlines some of the major problems concerning state formation in this region. This is followed by a discussion of the key politicoeconomic features and their dynamic relations in the process of social differentiation. The use of this theoretical framework helps to make sense of the Dhar Tichitt archaeological record. After careful examination of the prehistoric data, it seems that, before the advent of the Ghana empire, trends towards state formation were already in motion in the Dhar Tichitt region     

Nodes and edges: A network approach to hierarchisation and state formation in Japan

This paper argues that the centralised hierarchy that emerged at the beginning of the Kofun (mounded tomb) period in Japan can be explained by the locations that the polities to be hierarchised occupy and the differences in the topological potentials that these locations generate. Previous attempts of explaining the phenomenon by attributing its cause to factors such as differential access to resources and control over their distribution have been proven not to fit with the available body of evidence. The application of social network analysis-derived concepts and methods reveals that the topological locations that polities occupied generated different centralities, i.e. different degrees of connectedness to other polities and of mediating interactions between polities, which led to the hierarchisation and centralisation of their relationships. The paper concludes that the topological structure of a social network itself can be a significant cause of its own hierarchisation, and it compares the finding with the manner in which the concepts of agency and power are applied to the explanation of social hierarchisation and centralisation.     

Archaeological survey,ceramic analysis,and state formation in western Uganda

Early archaeological research on the Iron Age of Uganda focused upon earthworks, such as Bigo, with the purpose of validating historians interpretations of oral traditions. Recent research has continued the emphasis upon large sites but with archaeological interpretation given precedence over historical reconstructions. This paper discusses archaeological surveys undertaken in western Uganda in 1991 with the aim of examining Iron Age settlement patterns from a regional perspective, in which the large sites form only one element. Pottery analyses permit the establishment of a tentative chronology, which in combination with data on site sizes facilitates a new perspective on state formation in the region. The proposed model of the development of social complexity is compatible with revisionist interpretations of the historical evidence. Together, they suggest that the Nyoro state emerged after several centuries characterised by competing and often unstable small polities or chiefdoms.

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Résumé Les premières études archéologiques sur l'Age de fer en Ouganda se sont concentrées sur les fortifications en terre, comme Bigo, l'objectif étant de valider les interprétations de traditions orales par les historiens. Les recherches récentes ont continué à mettre l'accent sur les sites les plus étendus, mais les interprétations archéologiques passent avant les reconstructions historiques. Cet article discute les études archéologiques entreprises en Ouganda occidental en 1991, l'objectif étant d'étudier les schémas de peuplement de l'Age de fer selon une perspective régionale, selon laquelle les sites étendus ne constituaient qu'un des éléments. L'analyse de la poterie permet d'établir une tentative de chronologie qui, avec les données sur les dimensions des sites, facilite l'élaboration d'une nouvelle perspective sur la formation de l'Etat dans cette région. Le modèle proposé de développement de la complexité sociale est compatible avec des interprétations révisionnistes des faits historiques. Ensemble, ils suggèrent que l'Etat de Nyoro est apparu au bout de plusieurs siècles, caractérisés par des petits régimes politiques ou chefferies, souvent instables et se faisant concurrence.

     

From liberating production to unleashing consumption: Mapping landscapes of power in Beijing

This article offers an analysis of two locales in downtown Beijing nominally set aside for public use, Tiananmen Square and The Place, as successively linked landscapes of power that define the shifting and relations between market and place negotiated by the Chinese Communist Party-state over time. However, whereas Zukin (1993) argues that such landscapes lack coherent values because of their subordination to capitalism’s haphazard process of “creative destruction,” a salient feature of Beijing’s shifting landscapes of power is the authoritarian Party-state’s persistent mediation of market relations, and its subordination of the contradictions between market and place to the changing needs of the regime under market reform. Despite their apparent differences in intent and design, the shopping mall has eclipsed the public square as a key urban site through which the Party-state seeks to build a self-conscious and cohesive socioeconomic class of subjects over which and for which it seeks to rule.     

Pawns,pirates or peacemakers: Fishing boats in the inter-Korean maritime boundary dispute and ambivalent governmentality

Extractive activities such as oil drilling, mining and fishing often appear implicated in international maritime boundary disputes. While natural resources' crucial role as a catalyst for conflict has been well-noted in the literature, such an approach has typically assumed a contextual and passive position of natural resources with little political agency for altering the dynamics of a confrontation. This paper provides an alternative perspective in which resource activities constitute a willful agent that works in part to govern the course of the boundary dispute. Drawing on Foucault's notion of governmentality, I look at how South Korean fishing activities near a disputed maritime border between the two Koreas, called the Northern Limit Line, may be imbued with intentionality representing an indirect arm of the state's geopolitical agenda. Mobilizing the realist narrative of an immovable border and the mundane tactics of education sessions and at-sea radio communication, I suggest that the South Korean government is seeking to create subjects in fishers to reinforce the state objectives of boundary legitimization and defense of claimed waters. The analysis, however, also demonstrates an ambivalent nature of governmentality, with fishers muddling the state interventions through their own conduct and rationale. The South Korean government thus faces a delicate task of managing the fishing operation vis-à-vis the boundary dispute. Taking the seemingly innocuous resource activity such as fishing to the center stage of power relations, this paper also tables one way of engaging with maritime boundaries, one of the understudied domains in political geography.