Theme 3 Integrative Project: The Nature and Limits of Liberal Government
Convenors:
Tony Bennett (Tony Bennett@open.ac.uk)
Francis Dodsworth (F.M.Dodsworth@open.ac.uk)
Patrick Joyce (Patrick.Joyce@manchester.ac.uk)
The integrative project probes the nature and limits of liberal government from a range of different perspectives – historical, theoretical and methodological. Work to date has focused on the historical processes through which liberal subjects have been assembled and brought into the orbit of liberal practices of government; an initial workshop on this resulted in a proposal for an edited collection coordinated by Dodsworth that is currently under consideration. A second workshop focused on the methods of analysis needed to engage with the ways in which liberal practices of government operate through particular socio-material arrangements; a collection of essays edited by Bennett and Joyce is to be published under the title Material Powers as a part of CRESC’s Culture, Economy and the Social series. The integrative project has also generated an ESRC Seminar Series – Government and Freedom: History and Prospects – coordinated by Bennett, Dodsworth and Joyce in collaboration with Professor Nik Rose from LSE.