Powers of Freedom - Reframing Political Thought

Powers of Freedom offers a compelling new approach to the analysis of political power which extends Foucaults hypotheses on governmentality in challenging ways. Nikolas Rose sets out the key characteristics of this approach to political power and analyses the government of conduct. He analyses the role of expertise, the politics of numbers, technologies of economic management and the political uses of space. He illuminates the relation of this approach to contemporary theories of risk society and the sociology of governance. He argues that freedom is not the opposite of government but one of its key inventions and most significant resources. He also seeks some rapprochement between analyses of government and the concerns of critical sociology, cultural studies and Marxism, to establish a basis for the critique of power and its exercise. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in political theory, sociology, social policy and cultural studies. Contents
Introduction: reframing political thought
1. Governing
2. Freedom
3. The social
4. Advanced liberalism
5. Community
6. Numbers
7. Control
Conclusion: beyond government.

Author/Editor Details
Nikolas Rose, Goldsmiths College, University of London