Governmentality in Environmental Politics
Summary
Governmentality in environmental politics draws on Michel Foucault’s notion of power as dispersed through knowledge, practices and apparatuses rather than concentrated in a sovereign authority. It examines how states, international bodies and private actors render ecological problems governable by shaping the conduct of individuals and populations. Through regulatory frameworks, market instruments, risk assessments and participatory schemes, governing bodies produce “environmental subjects” who internalise norms of resource management, conservation and sustainability. This approach highlights the interplay between expert discourses, technologies of surveillance and self-formation, and the everyday practices of communities and citizens. Research in this field explores both the modalities of environmental rule—from neoliberal carbon markets to community forestry—and the forms of resistance and co-production that emerge as subjects negotiate, contest or appropriate governing techniques. By tracing the micro-techniques of power across scales, from local initiatives to global climate regimes, governmentality studies illuminate the contested constitution of environmental governance and its social, ethical and material consequences.
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Technical terms
Governmentality: The ensemble of institutions, practices and knowledges through which conduct is shaped and regulated.
Technologies of the self: Techniques by which individuals fashion their own behaviours, attitudes and identities in line with governing norms.
Subjectivity: The process by which individuals become subjects through internalising discourses, roles and responsibilities.
Environmentality: The application of governmentality concepts specifically to environmental governance and the formation of ecological subjects.
References
- Fostering collective subjectivities: Technologies of the self and resistance in Colombian community forest initiatives. World Development (2025).
- Slowing Down Climate Services: Climate Change as a Matter of Concern. Sustainability (2023).
- Subjectivity and space on extractive frontiers: Materiality, accumulation and politics. Geoforum (2024).
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