How to decenter neoliberalism in the analysis of contestation and change? Reflections on the usefulness of Foucault's (extended) governmentality approach

Abstract

Neoliberalism has been key term of political and academic debate since the 1990s. Nevertheless, in spite of this centrality, the concept remains vague and highly contested. An influential approach to grasp neoliberalism is the governmentality approach. Nonetheless, academics have pointed to the limitations of using Foucault’s oeuvre on governmentality for understanding neoliberalism. In particular, they have urged to develop a more sober assessment of the theoretical possibilities of using Foucault’s method and concepts to understand (the hegemony of) globalized neoliberalism. In this article, I argue that Foucault’s method on governmentality is far from a limitation in social science. The latter deals with the study of social change. Scholars who want to study social change have to deal with an important epistemological problem: how to study social change without presupposing a certain outcome. Or how to study social change without feeding the hegemonic beast (neoliberalism) you want to slay in the first place? Starting from the argument that we have to go beyond neoliberalism in social theory, this article deals with the question how this could be achieved. I argue that Foucault’s (extended) notion of governmentality (taking into account the notion of counter-conduct) is a methodological concretization of the work of Leitner and colleagues who developed a research agenda in order to decenter neoliberalism in the analysis of contestation and change.