No abstract

No abstract

What are the connections between personal risk‐management and governmental responsibility toward citizens? This paper argues that governments in neoliberal societies increasingly acknowledge a responsibility to help citizens make “informed choices” in order to reduce or avoid risk. A key feature within this framework is the issuing of official governmental advice to the citizens. But such advice does not merely carry information that citizens are free to accept or decline. Rather, it also consists of a conscious effort on part of governments to construct individuals as calculating, prudent, and rational persons that know how to manage risk (to “responsibilize” them). Below I examine the practice of governmental advice as an effort of responsibilization in the case of travel warnings issued by foreign offices to international travelers.

Autoethnography is a way and method to reflect on the mutual constitution of the self and the social. It allows one to consider how her/his personal and professional subjectivity was constructed and how her/his actions in the world reproduce or change this world. Autoethnography enables one to acquire an agentive role in the world by highlighting one's uniqueness and voice. It also aims to create mutual empowerment among people, ordinary individuals, by means of identification, connectivity, and empathy. In this article I explore some conceptual issues relating to autoethnography and then present my personal account of why I study International Relations (IR) and how I decided to bring myself more openly into my texts and lectures. I conclude by arguing that autoethnography made me more confident in sounding my voice in print and in class, and that, consequently, I became much more aware of the human capacity to make a difference.

Terror threats and fear of ethnic and religious outbursts, combined with the aspirations of governments to better integrate immigrants into society, have led a growing number of Western states to adopt the practice of citizenship tests as a prerequisite for full citizenship. These tests require the immigrant, usually of non-Western origin, to demonstrate advanced language skills as well as comprehensive civic and cultural knowledge of the host society. While existing literature focuses either on internal inconsistencies within civic integration policies or on the models of citizenship reflected in the exams, the present article offers a critical and power-centered approach to the subject. Using a Foucauldian perspective, we analyze the tests as a sign of authority, a technology of naturalizing authority, and a disciplinary tool. This study joins a growing body of literature on the concept of governmentality, putting the spotlight on the `microphysics of power', specifically at borders and liminal points where the state's presence is prominent.