Governing the Present: Administering Economic, Social and Personal Life

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.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements vi 1 Introduction: Governing Economic and Social Life 1 2 Governing Economic Life 26 3 Political Power beyond the State: Problematics of Government 53 4 The Death of the Social? Re-figuring the Territory of Government 84 5 Mobilizing the Consumer: Assembling the Subject of Consumption 114 6 On Therapeutic Authority: Psychoanalytical Expertise under Advanced Liberalism 142 7 Production, Identity and Democracy 173 8 Governing Advanced Liberal Democracies 199 Bibliography 219 Index 239

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.

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