New perspectives on discourse and governmentality

In this comprehensive introduction we familiarize readers with Michel Foucault’s publications that are relevant both to discourse studies and to studies of governmentality, including his annual lecture series at the Collège de France from 1976 to 1984, which until recently were unpublished in English (and French). We review the narrow impact that Foucault’s ideas have had on discourse studies and summarise the scant literature on discourse and governmentality across different disciplines. Then, we elucidate the new scholarly understandings of Foucault’s later work, as well as engage with the debates about governmentality that have been generated after Foucault. In particular, we give a thorough overview of the reverberations of Foucault’s later work on governmentality (and subjectivity) on scholars such as Nikolas Rose and Mitchell Dean, to clarify its contemporary relevance for discourse studies. Lastly, we introduce and contextualise the theoretical, methodological and analytical innovations in discourse studies to be found in the chapters in this volume, before concluding on the contributions that the book makes to both discourse studies and studies of governmentality.