Powers of Freedom
Reframing Political Thought

A 1999 review of governmentality literature, derived from Foucault, which broke new ground in ethics and politics.

Nikolas Rose (Author)

9780521659055, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 May 1999

334 pages
22.6 x 15.3 x 2.3 cm, 0.45 kg

'… well researched and rewarding. It can also serve as a good summary of the field.' Byron Kaldis, University of Athens

Powers of Freedom, first published in 1999, offers a compelling approach to the analysis of political power which extends Foucault's hypotheses on governmentality in challenging ways. Nikolas Rose sets out the key characteristics of this approach to political power and analyses the government of conduct. He analyses the role of expertise, the politics of numbers, technologies of economic management and the political uses of space. He illuminates the relation of this approach to contemporary theories of 'risk society' and 'the sociology of governance'. He argues that freedom is not the opposite of government but one of its key inventions and most significant resources. He also seeks some rapprochement between analyses of government and the concerns of critical sociology, cultural studies and Marxism, to establish a basis for the critique of power and its exercise. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in political theory, sociology, social policy and cultural studies.

Introduction: reframing political thought
1. Governing
2. Freedom
3. The social
4. Advanced liberalism
5. Community
6. Numbers
7. Control
Conclusion: beyond government.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA]