First, freedom of mobility is a ruse



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Governmentality Link

____ Biopower culminates in a form of governance called governmentality. This utilizes tactics such as pastoral power to normalize practices of the self, stretching beyond institutions.



Holmes and Gastaldo ’02 [Dave, assistant professor in the school of nursing at the university of ottawa, denise, assistant professor in the faculty of nursing at the university of toronto, journal of advanced nursing 38(6), june 2002, pages 559-560]

Governing life to govern society: the concept of governmentality From his later work on disciplinary power (Foucault [1975] 1995) and, subsequently, on bio-power (Foucault 1990), Foucault further developed his analysis of power, and defined his concept of 'governmentality'. Foucault's writings on biopower, or power over life, situated biological life as a political event and explored the global character of power in economic, social and historical terms (Gastaldo 1997, Moss¶ 1998). Through his historical research on sexuality, and while articulating the concept of bio-power, Foucault (1990) progressively manifested an interest in government (Hindess 1996). Exploring both the local and the general levels involved in the exercise of power, Foucault expanded the notion of governance and explained more successfully how power functions (Moss 1998). Governmentality, a term Foucault (1979) coined, describes the general mechanisms of society's governance and does not refer specifically to the term, government , as commonly used. As Gordon (1991) explained: Government as an activity could concern the relation between self and self, private interpersonal relations involving some form of control or guidance, relations within social institutions and communities and, finally, relations concerned with the exercise of political sovereignty. (pp. 2-3) According to McNay (1994), Foucault¶ considered governmentality as a complex system of power relations that binds sovereignty-discipline-government in a tripartite manner. Governing involves these three forms of power. This conception allows us to appreciate¶ how Foucault integrated the states of domination (sovereignty), disciplinary power (discipline) and the government of others and self (government). Governmentality involves domination and disciplinary techniques, as well as self-governing ethics (Deflem 1998). In his own terms, Foucault defined governmentality as: The ensemble formed by the institutions, procedures, analyses and reflections, the calculations and tactics that allow the exercise of this very specific albeit complex form of power, which has as its target population, as its principal form of knowledge political economy, and as its essential technical means apparatuses of security. (1979,p. 20) In short, government means to conduct others and oneself, and governmentality is about how to govern. 'The concept of government implies all those tactics, strategies, techniques, programmes, dreams and aspirations of those authorities that shape beliefs and the conduct of population' (Nettleton 1991, p. 99). Hence, government is an activity that aims to shape, mould or affect the conduct of an individual or a group, that is, to conduct the conducts of people (Gordon 1991). According to Foucault, this governmentalization of the state relies on a specific security apparatus that links all together in a very specific complex of procedures and techniques: diplomatic-military techniques, the police, and pastoral power, such as the care of others. Diplomatic-military techniques, the first dimension of the security apparatus, allows the state to protect itself against external threats and to preserve its territorial integrity through diplomatic representations, a permanent armed force, and established war policies (Gros 1996). In addition, to protect itself against internal threats, the state is endowed with a police force. Finally, pastoral power achieves care of others through various therapeutic regimes while ultimately helping to shape the self so that it fits within an appropriate, 'normalized' way of living (Dean 1999). The normalized way of living refers to a conformity to a set of social rules and ways of conceiving oneself and others. The power of normalization imposes homogeneity by setting standards and ideals for human beings (Rose 1998). Governing is as much about practices of government as it is about practices of the self because the concept of governmentality deals with those practices that try to shape, mould, mobilize and work through the choices, desires, aspirations and needs of individuals and populations (Rose & Miller 1992). Governmentality connects the question of government and politics to the self (Dean 1999). In our discussion, we will explore how nursing is a constitutive element of governmentality by looking at power over life as the governance of populations and individuals (Gastaldo 1997, Gastaldo & Holmes 1999).


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