Governmentality

Definition

Governmentality is Foucault's term for the ensemble of institutions, procedures, analyses, calculations, and tactics that allow the exercise of power over populations, with political economy as its form of knowledge and apparatuses of security as its technical instruments. It is the "conduct of conduct" — the art of governing that works through the freedom of subjects rather than against it. In architecture, governmentality illuminates how the built environment functions not merely through repressive control but by shaping the choices, behaviors, and self-understandings of populations — from the entrepreneurial self in neoliberal housing markets to the "responsibilized" citizen in sustainability discourse. As Fontana-Giusti notes, "in a moment when representative democracy, government and governability are being marginalized by the global financial world," Foucault's analyses have renewed urgency.

Key Thinkers

• Michel Foucault — governmentality as the "conduct of conduct"; the integration of discipline, biopower, and security.
• Gordana Fontana-Giusti — the renewed relevance of Foucault's analytics of government in the age of financialized globalization.

Related Concepts

• Biopower — governmentality targets populations through life-management (health, reproduction, housing).
• Discipline — governmentality incorporates but exceeds disciplinary techniques.
• Panopticon — the architectural model absorbed into the broader art of government.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Foucault for Architects — governmentality and the "distribution of people in space."