Introduction
The concept of governmentality (French original gouvernementalité) was first introduced by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in a series of lectures held at Collège de France in 1978 and 1979. The notion derives from the French word gouvernemental, meaning “concerning government” (Lemke, 2007). However, Foucault generated a novel concept of what he would call “the conduct of conduct” – meaning the Western liberal advanced state subtle way of controlling its citizens through a set of empowering techniques like autonomy, self-actualization, self-realization, and self-esteem.
Definition
Foucault defines governmentality in brief as “the conduct of conduct” or “the art of government” where “government” includes a wide range of control techniques that makes subjects governable. Therefore, one might approach governmentality basically as a regulated field of power in the overlay between “self” and “society” where the ideas of government (gouvernement) and mentality (mentalité...
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Madsen, O.J. (2014). Governmentality. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_126
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