Synopses & Reviews
The literature on governmentality has had a major impact across the social sciences over the past decade, and much of this has drawn upon the pioneering work by Peter Miller and Nikolas Rose. This volume will bring together key papers from their work for the first time, including those that set out the basic frameworks, concepts and ethos of this approach to the analysis of political power and the state, and others that analyse specific domains of the conduct of conduct, from marketing to accountancy, and from the psychological management of organizations to the government of economic life.
Bringing together empirical papers on the government of economic, social and personal life, the volume demonstrates clearly the importance of analysing these as conjoint phenomena rather than separate domains, and questions some cherished boundaries between disciplines and topic areas. Linking programmes and strategies for the administration of these different domains with the formation of subjectivities and the transformation of ethics, the papers cast a new light on some of the leading issues in contemporary social science modernity, democracy, reflexivity and individualisation.
This volume will be indispensable for all those, from whatever discipline in the social sciences, who have an interest in the concepts and methods necessary for critical empirical analysis of power relations in our present.
Review
“A convincing and disturbing account of the hegemonic power of the economy, government and public life in our modern world.”
Tribune
“This book explores the nature and form of governmentality in an intriguing and challenging way. It asks how it is that some things appear as problems that need management and regulation. It explores what constitutes the basis of these ‘problems’ and the processes which underpin them. This is sociology at its best and the results are fascinating.”
Ulrich Beck, Universität Munchen
“Miller and Rose present analyses of the expanded modern controls over, and recognition of, the individual. The imagery comes from Foucault, the studies focus on the professional analysts, and the conclusions suggest comparisons with earlier time periods. The book will interest all those concerned with modern rationalized individualism.”
John Meyer, University of Stanford
“Over the last decade Peter Miller and Nikolas Rose have opened up a new continent in the social sciences, the material and discursive constitution of the modern individual human subject. Governing the Present is a brilliant account of this exploration. After it, social theory will never be the same again.”
Michel Callon, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation, Paris
Review
"Offers an admirably accessible and succinct survey of the main contours of Western political thought, from the ancient Greek city-state to today's global village."
Terence Ball, Arizona State University
"Bruce Haddock tells the story of the history of Western political thought from its beginnings to the present in all its rich diversity in a wonderfully engaging and intelligent manner. He combines enormous erudition with an accessible style and wise judgement, to show how the best political thinking has always been a response to hard choices, provoked by particular historical circumstances, while also transcending those circumstances. The book will be an illuminating and provoking read whether this is one's first introduction to the subject or even if you think you know it all already.
John Horton, Keele University
Synopsis
exciting and groundbreaking new book by Nikolas Rose and Peter Millerbrings together for the first time the authors pioneering literature on governmentality which has had a major impact across the social sciences over the past decadecasts a new light on some of the leading issues in contemporary social science modernity, democracy, reflexivity and individualisationlikely to be read and referenced by a wide range of academics and students across the social sciences, but especially sociology, politics and economics
Synopsis
This volume brings together for the first time key papers from the the work of influential social theorists Peter Miller and Nikolas Rose, including those that set out the basic frameworks, concepts and ethos of their approach to the analysis of political power and the state.
Synopsis
This book is a comprehensive introduction to the history of political thought, tracing the development of arguments and controversies from ancient Greece, through different forms of community, state and empire, to today's global concerns. Bruce Haddock highlights the bewildering variety of contexts that have framed political thinking, yet also displays structural features that have proved to be remarkably stable over time. An important theme in the book is the need to see political philosophy, even in its most abstract formulations, as a response to historically contingent circumstances, without limiting its relevance to those circumstances. The emphasis throughout is on political thinking as a response to hard choices. Major thinkers covered include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Grotius, Locke, Spinoza, Montesquieu, Hume, Kant, Rousseau, Burke, Hegel, Marx, Mill, Lenin, Schmitt, Nietzsche, Foucault, Oakeshott and Rawls.
The book treats political philosophy and theory as a tentative engagement with a fractured and controversial past. Yet political thinking remains the exercise of a burden of a responsibility that is inescapable for us. Haddock introduces a history that continues to shape our understanding of ourselves as political and historical creatures.
A History of Political Thought will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, history and philosophy.
Synopsis
Lori Smolin received her B.S. degree from Cornell University, where she studied human nutrition and food science. She received her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Her doctoral research focused on B vitamins, homocysteine accumulation, and genetic defects in homocysteine metabolism. She completed postdoctoral training both at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where she studied human obesity, and at the University of California at San Diego, where she studied genetic defects in amino acid metabolism. She has published in these areas in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Smolin is currently at the University of Connecticut, where she teaches both in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Courses she has taught include introductory nutrition, lifecycle nutrition, food preparation, nutritional biochemistry, general biochemistry, and introductory biology.
About the Author
Nik Rose is Convenor of the Department of Sociology and Peter Miller is Professor of Management Accounting at The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter One: Introduction: Governing Economic and Social Life
- Chapter Two: Governing Economic Life
- Chapter Three: Political Power Beyond the State: Problematics of Government
- Chapter Four: The Death of the Social? Refiguring the Territory of Government
- Chapter Five: Mobilising the Consumer: Assembling the Subject of Consumption
- Chapter Six: On Therapeutic Authority
- Chapter Seven: Production, Identity and Democracy
- Chapter Eight: Accounting and Objectivity: The Invention of Calculating Selves and Calculable Spaces
- Chapter Nine: Governing ‘Advanced’ Liberal Democracies
- Bibliography: Consolidated reference list