Governmentality and 'the Death of the Social'?: A Discourse Analysis of Local Government Texts in South-east England

Abstract

Writers from within the Foucauldian govern mentality school have characterised recent governmental trends, associated with neo-liberal political rationalities, as manifestations of the death of the collectivist and universalist character of the 'social'. However, the unfolding of these developments varies both between and within nation-states. Drawing upon a discourse analysis of two local government texts from a local authority district in south-east England, the paper emphasises that at this local level the 'social' is reformulated rather than displaced in the way that the grand narrative of the 'decline of the social' implies. In both documents, albeit in different ways, neo-liberal discourse operates in tension with a continuing emphasis upon appearing to maintain equitable and universally legitimate service provision. This amounts not to the death, but rather to a reformulation, of the social.