Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Terrorism in the Classroom pp 61–76Cite as

Governmentality and Managing Security Risks

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 505 Accesses

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society ((PSRCS))

Abstract

After briefly exploring different theoretical models of power, this chapter provides an overview of the radical model of power put forward by Michel Foucault, placing a specific focus on his ‘third modality’—governmentality. The chapter moves on to demonstrate how the Prevent Duty operates as an extension of a broader strategy of neoliberal governance that seeks to manage the population through an encroachment of the national security agenda into sections of civil society such as education. To demonstrate how this has been achieved, the chapter discusses how the productive discourses of radicalisation, vulnerability, and resilience work within (and constitute) a ‘dispositif of precautionary risk’ to contribute towards the entrenchment of a particular ‘risk knowledge’, elevating it to the status of truth and legitimising this unprecedented expansion of counter-terrorism powers into education. The chapter concludes by arguing that this expansion, which has been presented as ‘common sense’ and necessary, is instead a worrying development directed at a section of the population and motivated by an enhanced ability to manage potential risks that puts further strain on already stretched practitioners, limits expression and thought within education, and broadens notion of suspicious populations to include students and young people.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Foucault speaks of a dispositif as ‘a thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions – in short, the said as much as the unsaid. Such are the elements of the apparatus. The apparatus itself is the system of relations that can be established between these elements’ (Foucault 1980b: 194).

References

  • Allen, J. 2004. “Power in its institutional guises”. In G. Hughes and R. Fergusson (eds,) Orderly Lives, Family, Work and Welfare. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amoore, L. 2009. “Algorithmic war: Everyday geographies of the war on terror”, Antipode 41(1): 49–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. 2007. “Hope for nanotechnology: Anticipatory knowledge and the governance of affect”, Area, 39(2):156–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. 2010. “Preemption, precaution, preparedness: Anticipatory action and future Geographies”, Progress in Human Geography, 34(6): 777–798.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aradau, C. and van Munster, R. 2007. “Governing terrorism through risk: Taking precautions, (un)knowing the future”, European Journal of International Relations, 13(1): 89–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aradau, C. and Van Munster, R. 2008. “Taming the future: The dispositif of risk in the war on terror”. In L. Amoore and M. De Goede (eds.) Risk and the War on Terror. Abingdon: Routledge: 23–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachrach, P. and Baraz, M. S. 1970. Power and Poverty: Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barmaki, R. 2014. “Security, life, and death: governmentality and biopower in the post 9/11 ear”, Global Change, Peace & Security, 26(2): 229–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackwood, L., Hopkins, N. and Reicher, S. 2016. “From theorizing radicalization to surveillance practices: Muslims in the cross hairs of scrutiny”, Political Psychology, 37(5): 597–612.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borovoy, A. 2017. “Japan’s public health paradigm: governmentality and the containment of harmful behaviour”, Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, 36(1): 32–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, K. E. and Saeed, T. 2015. “Radicalisation and counter-radicalisation at British Universities: Muslim encounters and alternatives”, Ethnic Racial Studies, 38(11): 1952–1698.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, D. M. 2017. “(De)constructing difference: a qualitative review of the ‘othering’ of UK Muslim communities, extremism, soft harms, and Twitter analytics”, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 9(1): 21–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coppock, V. 2014. “‘Can you Spot a Terrorist in Your Classroom?’ Problematising the Recruitment of Schools to the ‘War on Terror’ in the United Kingdom”, Global Studies of Childhood, 4(2): 115–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coppock, V. and McGovern, M. 2014. “‘Dangerous Minds’? Deconstructing Counter-Terrorism Discourse, Radicalisation and the ‘Psychological Vulnerability’ of Muslim Children and Young People in Britain”, Children & Society, 28(3): 242–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, R. A. 1957. “The concept of Power”, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 2(3): 201–215.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, M. 1996. “Foucault, government and the enfolding of authority”. In Barry, A., Osbourne, T. & Rose, N. (eds). Foucault and political reason: Liberalism, neo-liberalism and rationalities of government. Chicago: Chicago University Press: 209–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, M. 1999. Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. Gateshead: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Goede, M. and Simon, S. 2013. “Governing Future Radicals in Europe”, Antipode, 45(2): 315–335.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Education. 2013. “Citizenship programmes of study: Key stages 3 and 4”. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239060/SECONDARY_national_curriculum_-_Citizenship.pdf.

  • Department for Education. 2014. “Promoting fundamental British value as part of SMSC in schools”. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/380595/SMSC_Guidance_Maintained_Schools.pdf.

  • Educate against Hate. 2018. “The Prevent Duty”. Available at: https://educateagainsthate.com/about/.

  • Elshimi, M. 2015. “De-radicalisation interventions as technologies of the self: a Foucauldian analysis”, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 8(1): 110–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell, F. 2016. “‘Why all of a sudden do we need to teach fundamental British values?’ A critical investigation of religious education student teacher positioning within a policy discourse of discipline and control”, Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, 42(3): 280–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell, F. and Lander, V. 2018. “‘We’re not British values teachers are we?’: Muslim teachers’ subjectivity and the governmentality of unease”, Educational Review (early access).

    Google Scholar 

  • Flyverborn, M., Madsen, A. K. and Rasche, A. 2017. “Big data as governmentality in international development: Digital traces, algorithms, and altered visibilities”, Information Society, 33(1): 35–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, K. 2017. “Developing a peace perspective on counter-extremist education”, Peace Review, 29(2): 144–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Translated from French by Alan Sheridan. London: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1980a. “The eye of power”. In Colin Gordon (ed.) Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977. Translated from French by Colin Gordon, Leo Marshall, John Mepham and Kate Soper. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf: 78–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1980b. “The confessions of the flesh”. In Colin Gordon (ed.) Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977. Translated from French by Colin Gordon, Leo Marshall, John Mepham and Kate Soper. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf: 194–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1991. “On Governmentality”, Ideology and Consciousness, 6: 5–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 2001. Dits et ecrits I, 1954–1975. Paris: Quatro Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 2007. In Michel Senellart (ed.) Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the College de France 1977-1978. Translated from French by Graham Burchell. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. 1981. “Foucault on modern power: Empirical insights and normative confusions”, Praxis International, 3(1): 272–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamson, W. A., Croteau, D., Hoynes, W., & Sasson, T. 1992. “Media images and the social construction of reality”, Annual review of sociology, 18: 373–393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaventa, J. 2003. Power after Lukes: a review of the literature. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardy, K. 2015. “Resilience in UK counter-terrorism”, Theoretical Criminology, 19(1): 77–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heath-Kelly, C. 2012. “Reinventing prevention or exposing the gap? False positives in UK terrorism governance and the quest for pre-emption”, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 5(1): 69–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heath-Kelly, C. 2013. “Counter-Terrorism and the Counterfactual: Producing the ‘Radicalisation’ discourse and the UK Prevent Strategy”, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 15(3): 394–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • HM Government. 2012. “Channel: Vulnerability assessment framework”. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/118187/vul-assessment.pdf

  • HM Government. 2015. “Prevent duty guidance”. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2015/9780111133309/pdfs/ukdsiod_9780111133309_en.pdf

  • HM Government. 2016. “Prevent: Training Catalogue”. Available at: https://educateagainsthate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Prevent_Training_catalogue_-_March_2016.pdf

  • Home Office. 2018. “Home Secretary announces new counter-terrorism strategy”. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-announces-new-counter-terrorism-strategy

  • Huysmans, J. 2006. The politics of insecurity: Fear, migrations and asylum in the EU. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kundnani, A. 2012. “Radicalisation: the journey of a concept”, Race and Class, 54(2): 3–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lukes, S. 2005. Power: A Radical View. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, T. 2014. “Governing an unknowable future: the politics of Britain’s Prevent Policy”, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 7(1): 62–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, T. 2018. “Identifying potential terrorists: Visuality, security and the Chanel project”, Security Dialogue, 49(4): 254–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mavelli, L. 2013. “Between normalisation and exception: The securitisation of Islam and the construction of the secular subject”, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 41(2): 159–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuinness, F. 2018. “Poverty in the UK: statistics, house of Commons Library”. Available at: https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN07096#fullreport

  • Mitchell, T. 2002. Rule of Experts. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mythen, G. and Walklate, M. 2005. “Criminology and terrorism: Which thesis? Risk society or governmentality?”, The British Journal of Criminology, 46(3): 379–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ofsted. 2017. “Amanda Spielman’s speech at the Festival of Education”. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/amanda-spielmans-speech-at-the-festival-of-education

  • Puwar, N. 2004. Space invaders: Race, gender and bodies out of place. Berg: King’s Lynn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, A. 2011. “The problem with “radicalization”: The remit of “Prevent” and the need to refocus on terrorism in the UK”, International Affairs, 87(1): 143–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, P. 2008. “Contesting and Preventing Terrorism: On the Development of UK Strategic Policy on Radicalisation and Community Resilience”, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, 3(2): 38–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumsfeld, D. 2002. “Press Conference by U.S. Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld”. Available at: https://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2002/s020606g.htm

  • Taylor, L. and Soni, A. 2017. “Preventing radicalisation: a systematic review of literature considering the lived experience of the UK’s Prevent strategy in educational settings”, Pastoral Care in Education, 35(4): 241–252.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, J. and Cooper, M. 2011. “Genealogies of resilience: From systems adaptation to the political economy of crisis adaptation”, Security Dialogue, 42(2): 143–160.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Applied Criminology, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK

    Imran Awan

  2. Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK

    Keith Spiller & Andrew Whiting

Authors
  1. Imran Awan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Keith Spiller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Andrew Whiting
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Awan, I., Spiller, K., Whiting, A. (2019). Governmentality and Managing Security Risks. In: Terrorism in the Classroom. Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01710-1_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01710-1_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01709-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01710-1

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation