The governmentality of network governance: Collaboration as a new facet of the liberal art of governing

Abstract

Network governance often signifies an institutionalized, but informal and self-regulating relationship between public and private actors who work together to address various political problems. A common view is that network governance makes it possible to enhance pluralism and disperse political power by transferring such power from the sovereign state to a wider set of private actors and concerned stakeholders. This approach has grown in popularity as scholars, politicians, and public administrators have vigorously explored and promoted networks as a new way in which to address public problems (

Network concepts in social theory: Foucault and cybernetics

“…Secondly, critical approaches often use Foucault’s concepts to interrogate modes of reflexive, cybernetic or technological governance without sensing that their own concepts bear a similar signature (e.g. Bröckling, 2003; Larsson, 2020). Exploring the impact of cybernetics on Foucault, and on social theory in general, will help to detect and tackle those methodological challenges (Sprenger, 2019, pp.…”

Understanding HPV Vaccination Policymaking in Rwanda: A Case of Health Prioritization and Public-Private-Partnership in a Low-Resource Setting.

“…To understand the rationalization of the government's actions, the concept of governmentality and its implication on governance is applied. Michel Foucault, in his analysis describes governmentality (from the two words, government and rationality together), as the process whereby governments exercise rational and carefully considered programs meant to be undertaken by diverse agencies and entities with the liberty to employ techniques and other forms of knowledge deemed suitable for the societal good (23). In this view of governmentality, citizens are perceived as willing participants to be governed by the elite and legitimize this participation through constituted norms.…”

Why More Civil Society Will Not Lead to Less Domination: Dealing with Present Day State Phobia through Michel Foucault and Neo-Republicanism

“…A central aspect of these organizational structures is the 'decentralization' of authority through participatory approaches and the 'classical liberal state-society distinction is thereby supplanted by the image of a multiplicity of "self-governing communities"' (Prozorov 2004, p. 274). Through governance reforms, civil society and its organizations explicitly engages in political and social problems thereby giving rise to specific forms of dispositifs, or apparatus of security (Larsson 2020). Prozorov maintains in his critical engagement with governance that (co-)governance give rise to a specific type of governmentality (Prozorov 2004: 272, see also Larsson 2020).…”

“…Through governance reforms, civil society and its organizations explicitly engages in political and social problems thereby giving rise to specific forms of dispositifs, or apparatus of security (Larsson 2020). Prozorov maintains in his critical engagement with governance that (co-)governance give rise to a specific type of governmentality (Prozorov 2004: 272, see also Larsson 2020). This makes possible an incorporation of civil society and its organizations into governance structures that in reality undermines the possibility of civil society serving as a 'counterforce' to the state (Prozorov 2004, p. 272).…”