The well-tempered self: citizenship, culture, and the postmodern subject

Abstract

This Fouauldian analysis of political identity- formation, social ethics, and cultural policy in advanced capitalist societies is a timely addition to democratic theory. Miller contrasts the ethic of 'incompleteness' which produces an accelerated and self-policing citizens to the 'autoinvention' exemplified by (some) new social movements and hinted at Foucault's later works. The middle, substantive chapters are the strongest; Miller marshalls a wealth of original data on the deep schism between selfless citizen and self-serving customer underlying much Australian and Brittish Public Policy; the politics of incivility (again, in Australia); and the issue of 'cultural imperialism' under the General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade. These imaginative discussion denaturalize such classic concepts as national identity, state sovreignty, individual autonomy, self-discovery, and civic virtue. — Choice