In this paper I endeavor to prise open the theoretical closure of the conceptualization of culture in contemporary human geography. Foucault's later work on government provides the basis for a useable definition of culture as an object of analysis which avoids problems inherent in abstract, generalizing, and expansive notions of culture. The emergence of this Foucauldian approach in cultural studies is discussed, and the distinctive conceptualization of the relations between culture and power that it implies are elaborated. This reconceptualization informs a critical project of tracking the institutional formation of the cultural and the deployment of distinctively cultural forms of regulation into the fabric of modern social life. It is argued that the culture-and-government approach needs to be supplemented by a more sustained consideration of the spatiality and scale of power-relations. It is also suggested that this approach might throw into new perspective the dynamic behind geography's own cultural turn.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenJ, 1997, “Economies of space and power”, in Geographies of Economies Eds LeeRWillsJ, (Arnold, London) p 59–70.
2.
AllenJ, 1998, “Spatial assemblages of power: From domination to empowerment”, in Human Geography Today Eds MasseyDAllenJSarreP, (Polity Press, Cambridge) pp 194–218.
3.
BarnettC, 1998, “The cultural turn: Fashion or progress in human geography?”Antipode30379–394.
4.
BarnettC, 1999, “Culture, government, and spatiality: Re-assessing the ‘Foucault effect’ in cultural-policy studies”International Journal of Cultural Studies2363–397.
5.
BarryAOsborneTRoseN, (Eds), 1996Foucault and Political Reason (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL).
6.
BennettT, 1990Outside Literature (Routledge, London).
7.
BennettT, 1992a, “Putting policy into cultural studies”, in Cultural Studies Eds GrossbergLNelsonCTreichlerP, (Routledge, London) pp 23–37.
BennettT, 1993, “Being ‘in the true’ of cultural studies”Southern Review26217–238.
10.
BennettT, 1995, “The multiplication of culture's utility”Critical Inquiry21861–889.
11.
BennettT, 1996, “Out in the open: Reflections on the history and practice of cultural studies”Cultural Studies10133–153.
12.
BennettT, 1997, “Towards a pragmatics for cultural studies”, in Cultural Methodologies Ed. McGuiganJ, (Sage, London) pp 42–61.
13.
BennettT, 1998a, “Cultural studies: A reluctant discipline”Cultural Studies12528–546.
14.
BennettT, 1998bCulture: A Reformer's Science (Sage, London).
15.
BennettTTurnerGVolkerlingM, 1994, “Introduction: Post-colonial formations”Culture and Policy6(1).
16.
BhabhaH, 1994The Location of Culture (Routledge, London).
17.
BhattacharyyaG, 1991, “Cultural education in Britain”Oxford Literary Review134–19.
18.
BobbioN, 1987, “Gramsci and the conception of civil society”, in Which Socialism? Marxism, Socialism and Democracy (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN) pp 139–161.
19.
BovéP, 1990, “Power and freedom: Opposition and the humanities”October5378–92.
20.
BrennerN, 1994, “Foucault's new factionalism”Theory and Society25679–709.
21.
British Studies Now1996, “Geography re-invented”, number 7 (British Council, London).
22.
CastreeN, 1999, “Situating cultural twists and turns”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space17257–260.
23.
ChrismanL, 1996, “Appropriate appropriations: Developing cultural studies in South Africa”, in Transgressing Boundaries: New Directions in the Study of Culture in Africa Eds CooperBSteyneA, (University of Cape Town Press, Cape Town) pp 184–195.
24.
CohenJ LAratoA, 1994Civil Society and Political Theory (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
25.
CraikJ, 1994, “Crashing in on cultural studies”Culture and Policy6(2) 23–43.
26.
CraikJ, 1995, “Mapping the links between cultural studies and cultural policy”Southern Review28190–207.
27.
CunninghamS, 1993, “Cultural studies from the viewpoint of policy”, in Nation, Culture, Text-Australian Cultural and Media Studies Ed. TurnerG, (Routledge, London) pp 126–139.
28.
DaviesI, 1995Cultural Studies and Beyond: Fragments of Empire (Routledge, London).
29.
DeleuzeJ, 1992, “Postscript on the societies of control”October593–7.
30.
DriverF, 1985, “Power, space and the body: A critical appraisal of Foucault's Discipline and Punish”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space3425–446.
31.
DriverF, 1992, “Geography and power: The work of Michel Foucault”, in Critical Essays on Michel Foucault Ed. BurkeP, (Scolar Press, Aldershot, Hants) pp 147–156.
32.
ElmerJ, 1996, “US cultural policy and the (deregulation of the self”Continuum9(1) 9–24.
33.
ElshtainJ, 1997, “The displacement of politics”, in Public and Private in Thought and Practice Eds WeintraubJKumarK, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL) pp 166–181.
34.
FergusonMGoldingP, 1997, “Cultural studies and changing times: An introduction”, in Cultural Studies in Question Eds FergusonMGoldingP, (Sage, London) pp xiii–xxvii.
35.
FlewT, 1996, “Cultural technologies and media studies”Australian Journal of Communication23(3)39–53.
36.
FoucaultM, 1979Discipline and Punish (Vintage Books, New York).
FoucaultM, 1981, “Omnes et singulatim: Towards a criticism of ‘political reason’”, in The Tanner Lectures on Human Values Ed. McMurrinS M, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 223–254.
39.
FoucaultM, 1983, “The subject and power”, in Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics Eds DreyfusH LRabinowP, 2nd edition (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL) pp 208–229.
40.
FoucaultM, 1986The Foucault Reader (Pantheon, New York).
41.
FoucaultM, 1988, “Technologies of the self”, in Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault Eds MartinL HGutmanHHuttonP H, (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA) pp, 16–49.
42.
FoucaultM, 1991, “Governmentality”, in The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality Eds BurchellGMillerP, (Harvester Wheatsheaf, London) pp 87–104.
43.
FoucaultM, 1993, “About the beginnings of the hermeneutics of the self”Political Theory21198–227.
44.
FoucaultM, 1997Ethics: Truth and Subjectivity: The Essential Works of Foucault 1954–1984 (The Free Press, New York).
45.
GarnhamN, 1995, “Comments on John Keane's ‘Structural transformation of the public sphere’”Communication Review1(1) 23–25.
46.
GilroyP, 1993The Black Atlantic (Verso, London).
47.
GordonC, 1991, “Governmental rationality: An introduction”, in The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality Eds BurchellGMillerP, (Harvester Wheatsheaf, London) p 1–52.
48.
GramsciA, 1971Selections from Prison Notebooks (Lawrence and Wishart, London).
49.
GreenhalghL, 1998, “From arts economy to creative economy”Media International Australia8784–94.
GregoryDLeyD, 1988, “Culture's geographies”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space1115–116.
52.
HallS, 1990, “The emergence of cultural studies and the crisis of the humanities”October5311–23.
53.
HallS, 1997, “The centrality of culture: Notes on the cultural revolutions of our time”, in Media and Cultural Regulation Ed. ThompsonK, (Sage, London) pp 207–238.
54.
HalperinD, 1995Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
55.
HannahM, 1997, “Space and the structuring of disciplinary power: An interpretative review”Geografiska Annaler79B(3) 171–180.
56.
HardtM, 1995, “The withering of civil society”Social Text4527–44.
57.
HindessB, 1995, “Great expectations: Freedom and authority in the idea of a modern university”Oxford Literary Review17(1–2) 29–50.
58.
HindessB, 1996Discourses of Power: From Hobbes to Foucault (Blackwell, Oxford).
59.
HindessB, 1997, “Politics and governmentality”Economy and Society26257–272.
60.
HirschkopK, 1993, “Optimism of the intellect: Language and democracy in cultural studies”, paper presented at Raymond Williams Memorial Conference, Oxford, January; copy available from the author, Department of English and American Literature, University of Manchester, Manchester.
61.
HunterI, 1988a, “Setting limits to culture”New Formations4103–123.
62.
HunterI, 1988b, “The occasion of criticism: Its ethics and pedagogy”Poetics17159–184.
63.
HunterI, 1988cCulture and Government (Macmillan, London).
64.
HunterI, 1990, “Personality as a vocation: The political rationality of the humanities”Economy and Society19391–430.
65.
HunterI, 1992, “Aesthetics and cultural studies”, in Cultural Studies Eds GrossbergLNelsonCTreichlerP, (Routledge, London) p 347–372.
66.
IvisonD, 1997The Self at Liberty: Political Argument and the Arts of Government (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY).
JohnsonR, 1991, “Frameworks of culture and power: Complexity and politics in cultural studies”Critical Studies3(1) 17–61.
69.
JonesP, 1994, “The myth of ‘Raymond Hoggart’: On ‘founding fathers’ and cultural policy”Cultural Studies8394–416.
70.
KantI, 1979The Conflict of the Faculties (Abaris Books, New York).
71.
KraniauskasJ, 1998, “Globalization is ordinary: The transnationalization of cultural studies”Radical Philosophy909–19.
72.
LacombeD, 1996, “Reforming Foucault: A critique of the social control thesis”British Journal of Sociology47332–352.
73.
LloydD, 1986, “Arnold, Ferguson, Schiller: Aesthetic culture and the politics of aesthetics”Cultural Critique2137–169.
74.
LloydDThomasP, 1995, “Culture and society or ‘culture and the state’”, in Cultural Materialism: On Raymond Williams Ed. PrendergastC, (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN) pp 268–304.
75.
LloydPThomasP, 1998Culture and the State (Routledge, London).
76.
LoesbergJ, 1998, “Materialism and aesthetics: Paul de Man's Aesthetic Ideology”Diacritics27(4)87–108.
77.
McGuiganJ, 1995, “A slow reach again for control: Raymond Williams and the vicissitudes of cultural policy”European Journal of Cultural Policy2(1) 105–115.
78.
MercerC, 1991, “Neverending stories: The problem of reading in cultural studies”New Formations1363–74.
79.
MillerPRoseN, 1990, “Governing economic life”Economy and Society191–31.
80.
MillerPRoseN, 1995, “Producers, identity, and democracy”Theory and Society24427–467.
81.
MillerPRoseN, 1997, “Mobilizing the consumer: Assembling the subject of consumption”Theory, Culture and Society141–36.
82.
MillerR E, 1994, “A moment of profound danger: British cultural studies away from the center”Cultural Studies8417–437.
83.
MillerT, 1993The Well-tempered Self Citizenship, Culture, and the Postmodern Subject (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD).
84.
MillerT, 1998, “Leavis to Beaver: Culture with power, culture as policy”, in Technologies of Truth: Cultural Citizenship and the Popular Media (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN) pp 64–97.
85.
MinsonJ, 1993Questions of Conduct: Sexual Harassment, Citizenship, Government (St Martin's Press, New York).
86.
MitchellD, 1995, “There's no such thing as culture: Towards a reconceptualization of the idea of culture in geography”Transactions of British Geographers, New Series20102–116.
87.
MitchellD, 1999, “Review of M Crang, Cultural Geography”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space17495–498.
88.
MorrisM, 1992, “The man in the mirror”Theory, Culture and Society9253–279.
89.
MorrisM, 1998Too Late, Too Soon: History in Popular Culture (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN).
90.
MulhernF, 1995, “The politics of cultural studies”Monthly Review47(3) 31–40.
91.
NelsonC, 1996, “Always already cultural studies: Academic conferences and a manifesto”, in What is Cultural Studies? Ed. StoreyJ, (Arnold, London) pp 273–286.
92.
O'ConnorA, 1989, “The problem of American cultural studies”Critical Studies in Mass Communications6405–412.
93.
O'MalleyP, 1996, “Indigenous governance”Economy and Society25310–326.
94.
O'MalleyPWeirLShearingC, 1997, “Governmentality, criticism, politics”Economy and Society26501–517.
95.
O'ReganT, 1992, “Mistaking policy: Notes on the cultural policy debate”Cultural Studies6409–423.
96.
PfisterJ, 1991, “The Americanization of cultural studies”Yale Journal of Criticism4.
97.
PhiloC, (Ed.), 1991New Words, New Worlds: Reconceptualising Social and Cultural GeographyDepartment of Geography, St David's University College, Lampeter, Wales.
98.
PhiloC, 1992, “Foucault's geography”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space10137–161.
99.
PottageA, 1998, “Power as an art of contingency: Luhmann, Deleuze, Foucault”Economy and Society27(1) 1–27.
100.
QuinbyL, 1991Freedom, Foucault, and the Subject of America (Northeastern University Press, Boston, MA).
101.
RobbinsB, 1993Secular Vocations (Verso, London).
102.
RobbinsB, 1997, “Sad stories in the international public sphere: Richard Rorty on culture and human rights”Public Culture9(2) 209–232.
103.
RoseG, 1997, “Spatialities of ‘community’, power and change: The imagined geographies of community arts projects”Cultural Studies111–16.
104.
RoseN, 1994, “Expertise and the government of conduct”Studies in Law, Politics, and Society14359–397.
105.
RoseN, 1999Powers of Freedom (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
106.
RoseNMillerP, 1992, “Political power beyond the State: Problematics of government”British Journal of Sociology43(2) 173–205.
107.
RossA, 1998Real Love: In Pursuit of Cultural Justice (Routledge, London).
108.
SchillerD, 1996Theorizing Communication (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
109.
SchwarzB, 1994, “Where is cultural studies?”Cultural Studies8377–393.
