Exploring governmentality as interaction

Based on my ongoing work in relation my PhD thesis this paper examines how the Foucauldian concept of governmentality as social control can be understood as interaction among individuals in institutional settings. In theoretical terms the paper examines how governmentality can be conceptualized from an interactionistic perspective, based on Goffman’s dramaturgy. The focal point is how Goffman's concepts of interaction order, rituals, role and role performance might be an point of entry for studying the techniques the self and the techniques of domination through which governmentality operates.

The aim is to develop an interactionstic framework that may contribute to the understanding of how individuals in institutional settings resist or accept the objectifications and the techniques of power which governmentality rely on. And thereby also contribute to the understanding of how subjectification in relation to governmentality unfolds interaction among individuals.