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Global governmentality

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Global governmentality refers to the ways in which global governance structures and practices shape and regulate populations, behaviors, and policies across nations. It examines the interplay between power, knowledge, and authority in the context of transnational issues, emphasizing how global norms and institutions influence local governance and individual conduct.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Global governmentality refers to the ways in which global governance structures and practices shape and regulate populations, behaviors, and policies across nations. It examines the interplay between power, knowledge, and authority in the context of transnational issues, emphasizing how global norms and institutions influence local governance and individual conduct.

Key research themes

1. How do neoliberal and Foucauldian governmentality frameworks explain global governance and state transformation in the context of globalization?

This research theme explores the application of governmentality theory, especially Foucauldian notions of power as 'conduct of conduct', to understand transformations in state sovereignty, authority distribution, and governance practices in a globalized world. Emphasis is placed on neoliberal governmentality as a rationality re-shaping political and social orders, the diffusion of governance beyond the nation-state, and the implications for both liberal and illiberal contexts. It matters because understanding these shifts in power rationalities offers nuanced insights into global political reorganization beyond traditional state-centric or realist frameworks.

Key finding: This paper articulates governmentality not as a rigid theory but an analytical perspective focusing on empirical inquiry into the global arena. It argues that neoliberal governmentality involves creating constructed market... Read more
Key finding: The paper identifies 'resilience' as a neoliberal governmental rationality and a guiding telos that shapes disaster risk reduction policies by producing 'resilient subjects' through normative control mechanisms. Drawing from... Read more
Key finding: Through a neo-Foucauldian lens, this study conceptualizes 'uberization' as a modality of neoliberal governmentality that displaces state authority by reconfiguring citizenship and governance via private-sector technological... Read more
Key finding: This article reveals that the principle of 'local ownership' in international interventions is driven by the political rationality of advanced democracies and operates as responsibilization of local actors for externally... Read more

2. What are the dynamics and challenges of disaggregated authority and governance practices in the global political order?

This theme investigates how globalization leads to multiple overlapping and fragmented spheres of authority that complicate traditional models of governance based on centralized state authority. It addresses how governance emerges through informal processes, norm diffusion, and complex networks rather than hierarchical government structures. Understanding these dynamics is vital for grasping the evolving nature of global governance—beyond state-centric or hegemonic models—and the practical implications for policy and institutional design in a multi-actor, multi-level world.

Key finding: This paper conceptualizes 'spheres of authority' (SOA) as loci where legitimate directives are issued and complied with, emphasizing that authority in global affairs no longer emanates from a single hegemon or centralized... Read more
Key finding: The article identifies a core set of globally recurring governance practices—hosting global conferences, accrediting NGOs, mandating expert groups, and forming multistakeholder partnerships—and analyzes their politics,... Read more
Key finding: This empirical study maps publishing patterns in global governance research and reveals rapid growth and increasing thematic diversity alongside persistent gaps and geographical imbalances, with limited representation from... Read more

3. How is global memory politics and transnational narratives employed as modalities of governmentality to shape subjectivities and legitimize global governance?

This theme focuses on the intersection of memory politics, human rights, and global governance, analyzing how global narratives—especially about events like the Holocaust—function as mechanisms of power that produce normative citizen-subjects and shape collective identities. It investigates the governance effects of remembrance practices, including their roles in structuring inclusion, exclusion, and political struggle at global and local levels. This area matters for understanding how cultural and mnemonic practices are embedded within broader governmental rationalities and power relations in an interconnected world.

Key finding: This monograph advances a novel theoretical approach connecting Holocaust memorialisation with global governmentality studies. It demonstrates how Holocaust memory within human rights museums operates as an exercise of power... Read more
Key finding: The chapter analyses the entry of the global anti-violence against women (VAW) framework into occupied Palestine as a form of global governmentality that produces statistical knowledge ('statistical apartheid') which frames... Read more

All papers in Global governmentality

The E.U.'s role as an international player began to upgrade alongside the effort to coordinate its external action by adopting a common foreign and security policy (CFSP). As a result, the E.U. has developed a wide range of activities... more
Several scholars have criticized the predominant post-political representations of our current era, particularly with regard to climate change. However, what happens when a movement explicitly aims at repoliticizing the present in an... more
The African state, unlike its European counterpart is often naively described as lacking the attributes sovereignty, hence it is variously described as the hollow state, the managerial state, the enabling state, the surveillance state,... more
Ethics in organizations, raising concerns, and whistleblowing have been previously theorized through Foucault's work on the power/knowledge bond. However, approaching these issues through the work from Foucault's third period on... more
This paper takes a post-structural approach, examining what and how issues are framed in the parenting policy, Incredible Years, through Foucault’s (1977, 1980, 1991, 2003, 2004) notion of  governmentality  and  discursive normalisation .... more
Este artigo analisa e compara a alteração constitucional e seu projeto de regulamentação do Chile e as propostas de regulamentação sobre os dados mentais no Brasil a partir dos avanços da neurotecnologia e da proteção crescente dos... more
Cybersecurity in national and international security is frequently discussed in an existential register. However, most cybersecurity activities are normal and routine, including diverse practices of cyber risk management. The intricacies... more
Considerando o crescente número de vítimas contaminadas pela COVID-19 no Brasil, bem como demais impactos no âmbito social, objetivamos, por meio do presente estudo, discutir a condição do trabalhador frente ao contexto de fragilidade que... more
…and the Market created the student to its image and likening. Neo-liberal governmentality and its effects on pedagogy and course design in Higher Education in Ireland. The article looks at two important documents in the context of... more
This article responds to issues raised about global governmentality studies by Jan Selby, Jonathan Joseph, and David Chandler, especially regarding the implications of 'scaling up' a concept originally designed to describe the... more
Conducting Presentations 343 Speaking Techniques 344 appendix d. Legal Considerations 347 Authority to Assist a Foreign Government 347 Authorization to Use Military Force 349 Rules of Engagement 350 The Law of War 351 Internal Armed Confl... more
Resilience as a term has gained prominence nowadays, especially after 9/11 and the 2008 Financial crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the strength and durability of our economic, political, social, and legal systems. Several... more
This paper performs a critical examination of the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF), which was accompanied by an Inspection Handbook for Further Education and Skills, and argues that this policy document reinforces the... more
Cultural knowledge and warfare are inextricably bound. Knowledge of one’s adversary as a means to improve military prowess has been sought since Herodotus studied his opponents’ conduct during the Persian Wars (490–479 BC). T.E. Lawrence... more
In 1942, the director of the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) received a memo entitled The Conference with the Social Anthropologists and Resulting Operations, Jan. 10, 1942, which laid out the... more
Based on fieldwork among Roma/Gypsy groups in Slovakia, this essay explores the concept of 'activation (to) work' along the shifting lines of economic precariousness and the new politics of social assistance targeting formally unemployed... more
In the wake of the recent Arab revolutions, the European Union (EU) has sought to provide genuine and substantial support to a range of Arab social movements in the region’s emerging polities. Yet the EU’s recent democracy-promotion... more
It is often argued that ideology plays an important role in determining countries' foreign policies. However, the received definition of ideology, which sees it as a set of beliefs or ideas about the world, makes for insuperable problems... more
This work is a book review considering the title UNESCO on the Ground: Local Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage edited by Michael Dylan Foster and Lisa Gilman.
An extensive bibliography highlights the political, budgetary and organizational difficulties that public administration faces in Mexico. However, existing ways to overcome these challenges have not been examined in a systematic or... more
No poca bibliografía apunta las dificultades políticas, presupuestales y de organización, que tiene la administración pública en México. Sin embargo, no se ha observado ni de manera sistemática ni suficiente las formas existentes para... more
The Win-Win Promise of Carbon Trading? : Discursive Analysis of the European Union Emissions Trading System in the Czech Republic
so severe, the casting of the religious subject so monolithic and nefarious, that Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush are unjustly represented as two faces of the same phenomenon. References
On the basis of the results of research informed by an ethnographic approach, we examine the narratives of young people who were born and/or live in contexts of extreme urban poverty in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area in order to... more
A governmentality ethnographic approach is adopted to examine the everyday making of school in Buenos Aires slums. By addressing events at the intersection of the life of school and of the neighborhood, in this article we problematize... more
We are living in a time when large masses of workers have become large masses of the unemployed and, to borrow Butler's term, their bodies constitute an army of bodies that don't matter. This is probably one of the greatest dilemmas in... more
In recent years, a range of new indices, benchmarking and scorecard tools—also known as ‘indicators’—have been developed to influence public policy and to promote accountability. While subjected to important technical and political... more
manual. This shows an operational refocusing of US efforts in theatre. The final defining characteristic of the Afghan Surge was the attempts to increase civil-military partnership to increase the functions of the state, and train the new... more
This article uses Foucault's analysis of bio-politics to explore continuities between child-saving and child rights and the connection of both to the racial governing of childhood. It shows how the birth of the modern idea of... more
In this study, we examine the relationship between freedom and human trafficking in non-OECD countries. Countries with high levels of economic and political freedom both do a better job of prosecuting human traffickers, protecting of... more
This article develops a theory of European power as ‘governmentality’, with a particular reference to European Union (EU)’s engagement of civil society in Indonesia through a package of “civil society strengthening programs”. In contrast... more
The ultimate aim of any successful counterinsurgency approach is to defeat the insurgency and establish peace for the host country. In order for the counterinsurgent to achieve this aim, there are two approaches to adopt; simply through... more
The paper aims to present key issues in the International Romani Movement (IRM), related to the instrumentalization of ethnic identity and politicization of ethnogenesis. The main argument is that the idea of the transnational... more
is well-connected to the U.S. Special Operations community, and I have used his writings in my counterterrorism courses. 2 Shultz has done the larger counterterrorism (CT) and counterinsurgency (COIN) enterprises a favour by capturing, at... more
La gobernanza global se ha aceptado ampliamente como objeto de estudio y como forma de “ver” la política mundial. Sin embargo, todavía sabemos poco acerca de cómo ha evolucionado la publicación en lo que concierne a tal materia. Este... more
Este artigo aborda os neurodireitos, enfatizando a necessidade de proteger a dignidade humana diante dos avanços das neurotecnologias e inteligência artificial. A análise define e classifica os neurodireitos e discute a evolução dos... more
12 Nowadays, there are a lot of dangers, not only those related to the military. Particular 13 attention should be paid to the threat of guerrilla activity. Therefore, the aim of this 14 article is to indicate the essence of contemporary... more
La primera parte del artículo traza la disminución de las exportaciones mexicanas en el contexto de la creciente producción en Estados Unidos y Canadá; analiza la evolución del mercado de crudo pesado en la costa estadounidense del Golfo;... more
On the basis of the results of research informed by an ethnographic approach, we examine the narratives of young people who were born and/or live in contexts of extreme urban poverty in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area in order to... more
A la par de la creciente popularidad del concepto de gobernanza global, han surgido críticas que advierten su falta de concreción y claridad, pues adquiere significados diferentes según el contexto, las interpretaciones y los... more
This article develops a theory of European power as ‘governmentality’, with a particular reference to European Union (EU)’s engagement of civil society in Indonesia through a package of “civil society strengthening programs”. In contrast... more
This paper assesses the transferability of the concept of everyday peace, developed in the conflict and peace studies literature, to practices utilised by people experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). The relevance of everyday... more
is well-connected to the U.S. Special Operations community, and I have used his writings in my counterterrorism courses. 2 Shultz has done the larger counterterrorism (CT) and counterinsurgency (COIN) enterprises a favour by capturing, at... more
A surprising decade Foucault is synonymous with critical research in security studies, where a working knowledge of his ideas has become common currency. Yet, Foucault's concepts and methods continue to mean such different things to... more
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