Globalizing Governmentality ─ Sites of Neoliberal Assemblage in the Americas

Globalizing Governmentality analyses processes of globalization and global governance, through a critical examination of the dynamics of neoliberalism in the Americas.

The work employs and develops a Foucauldian governmentality analytical framework, demonstrating how such a framework contributes to our understanding of world politics. Weidner argues that discourses and practices of globalization, global civil society, and global governance represent a fundamental transformation in the way that contemporary social and political reality is understood, and that this has significant consequences for the kinds of political practices and relations that are possible. Moreover, the book’s research suggests that the global proliferation of a neoliberal form of competitive subjectivity that can be applied to a broad range of actors—from individuals to nation-states and international organizations—is reshaping contemporary world politics.

Seeking to push governmentality studies further in the direction of an engagement with political economy and demonstrating how neoliberal globalization is shaping contemporary social and political reality, this work will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations theory, global governance, and international political economy.

Jason Weidner received his Ph.D. in international relations at Florida International University in July, 2010. He has taught international relations theory, international organization, and the international relations of Latin America at FIU, and currently teaches international relations theory and global governance courses at Virginia Tech, where he is a visiting assistant professor. His research interests include international relations theory, globalization, global governance, international law, and the politics of Latin America. An article that explores themes addressed in the proposed book, entitled "Governmentality, Capitalism, Subjectivity," appeared in a special issue of the journal Global Society devoted to Foucauldian perspectives on world politics. A revised version of that article appears in Nicholas J. Kiersey and Doug Stokes, eds., Foucault and International Relations: New Critical Engagements (Routledge, 2010).