Source: Jan Bachmann, Deadline: 15.08.2007.

During the last ten years, Foucault’s concept of ‘governmentality’ has received considerable attention from scholars working in disciplines as diverse as sociology, education, criminology and politics, and been adapted and applied to various topics of enquiry. ..
Its heuristic value derives for the most part from its focus on interrogating familiar programmes and ideas (e.g. good governance, empowerment, security) and on scrutinising the recommended strategies which have made possible an array of regulatory interventions into the different spheres of the social.  Although the approach has mainly been applied to changing styles of liberal rule within Western nation-sates, it has recently begun to be used by those interested in studying the nexus of power/knowledge that governs the Global South.

While critical studies in North-South relations have studied governmentalities in relation to colonialism, development, geopolitics, transnational security, refugees and poverty, numerous questions and criticisms persist.  To what extent, for example, does this Eurocentric approach contribute to an understanding of power effects within contemporary North-South relations?  Does neo-liberal governmentality produce universal effects for the targeted societies?  How do we conceptualise non-Western governmentalities?  To what extent are ‘the governed’ able to alter, resist or subvert Western techniques of government and the ascribed subjectivities?  Who are the strategic brokers in the middle and what techniques are they enabled to apply?
 
This one-day workshop for postgraduate research students aims to critically evaluate the application of the concept of ‘governmentality’ to the study of North-South relations in different contexts and research areas at macro, meso and micro levels. Given the inter-disciplinary character of ‘governmentality’, the workshop aims to bring together postgraduate research students from a wide range of disciplines including but not restricted to anthropology, sociology, history, geography, politics and international relations, economics, and law. The workshop invites postgraduate research students to present current research which utilises the concept of ‘governmentality’ and/or which discusses advantages and limitations of adopting the concept as an analytical framework. Papers are invited to explore a number of themes which may include any of the following:
•    What’s in a name? Governance, governmentality, regulation, social control – theoretical and methodological questions
•    Illiberal and/or Non-Western governmentalities
•    Securitisation of the global South
•    Local strategies of appropriation and resistance to hegemonic regulation
•    Technologies of government and techniques of the self in global perspective
•    Development as a relation of liberal governance
•    International political economy and governmentality
•    Colonial governmentality and post-colonial critiques
•    International crime regulation

Programme
The workshop will include two plenary sessions with speakers including Mark Duffield (University of Bristol, Politics) and Wendy Larner (University of Bristol, Geography) (tbc), and three consecutive panel sessions. The last session will include significant discussion time to reflect on the themes that emerge throughout the course of the workshop.

Venue
The workshop will take place on Wednesday 26th September 2007 in the Department of Politics, University of Bristol, 10 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU.

Call for papers and registration deadline
The deadline for abstracts is 15th August 2007. Papers should be submitted to the workshop organisers by 19th September 2007, in order to provide discussants with time to prepare their response. The deadline for registration is 10th September 2007.

Output
The workshop organisers plan to approach a small selection of journals to canvass interest for a guest edited special issue of postgraduate research on governmentality.  A selection of papers from the workshop will be invited for submission as contributions to this issue.


The workshop is open to postgraduate research students from universities in the UK and overseas. Opportunities to present will be restricted to postgraduate research students but other interested individuals are also welcome to attend. Places are restricted however and will be allocated on a first come first served basis, prioritising postgraduate research students up until the registration deadline.

Registration for the workshop is free and lunch and refreshments will be provided.

We hope to be able to provide financial assistance to presenters to help cover travel costs from within the UK.  Please indicate when sending abstracts if you are likely to want this kind of financial assistance.

Please email all abstracts (200-300 words) to Jan Bachmann (j.bachmann@bristol.ac.uk) by 15th August 2007.

Workshop convenors
Jan Bachmann
Carole Spary
Karen Tucker

Department of Politics, University of Bristol