※ Governmentality as a Genealogical Toolbox in Historical Analysis

Janicke Andersson

 

Governmentality as a Genealogical Toolbox in Historical Analysis

 

 

European Education, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2013 pp.61-74.

 

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show how governmentality may be used to analyze historical events and discourses, and how this historical analysis can be used as a perspective to problematize contemporary discourses. The example used in this article is from my research on life-extension handbooks published in Sweden 1700-1930, and by this I stress handbooks as a noninstitutional educative arena. I am advocating governmentality as a toolbox to analyze how various forms of power operate and how different levels of power integrate and conflict in this arena. In doing so, I recommend governmentality as a critical and empirical approach to analyze various forms of power relations and governance. I exemplify the flexibility of the toolbox by using genealogy and governmentality in combination with linguistic tools from Critical Discourse Analysis and Norman Fairclough. In this way, I want to stress the critical gaze and the importance of situation in time and space by arguing for greater respect for the variants of the concepts of genealogy and governmentality.

 

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/EUE1056-4934450405