Governmentality and rights and responsibilities in urban policy

We deploy aspects of Foucault's concept of governmentality to discuss the a rgument that the recent shift towards a 'rights and responsibilities' agend a in urban policy is part of broader transformations in the rationalities a nd techniques of government. Following Rose, we characterise the emergent f orms of urban policy as part of 'advanced liberalism' or strategies which s eek to activate citizens, individually and collectively, to take greater re sponsibility for their own government. Such strategies are, as Rose notes, seeking to govern through the instrumentalisation of the self-governing pro perties of the subjects of government themselves in a whole variety of loca les. We develop the argument in three parts. The first part justifies the u se of a Foucauldian framework in seeking to understand the new political an d policy agenda on 'rights and responsibilities'. In a second part, we inve stigate the changing nature of governmental rationalities and techniques of governmentality primarily through the context of the Single Regeneration B udget. In so doing, we consider two interrelated dimensions of the rational ities and techniques of government which seek to shape and guide what Fouca ult refers to as 'the conduct of others' or those that are the objects of g overnment, that is, active citizens. These dimensions are government throug h community and the specification of subjects of government. We conclude by specifying the importance we attach to using a Foucauldian framework for t he analysis of urban policy and policy processes more generally.