Jessica Pykett

Governing temptation: Changing behaviour in an age of libertarian paternalism

This paper critically examines new modes of behaviour change promoted by the contemporary British state, providing a critique of libertarian paternalism as an emergent form of government in the UK. We analyse the multivalent principles and mechanisms associated with libertarian paternalism. We consider the contribution of Foucauldian theories of governmentality and psychological power within human geography to a critical analysis of libertarian paternalism. Reflecting on the example of Manual for Streets (DfT, 2007) for re-designing residential roads in the UK, we conclude by explaining why libertarian paternalist policies could lead to the formation of more, or less deliberative public spaces.

Making citizens governable? The Crick Report as governmental technology

This paper considers the recent introduction of Citizenship Education in England from a governmental perspective, drawing on the later work of Foucault to offer a detailed account of the political rationalities, technologies and subjectivities implicated in contemporary education policy in the formation and governance of citizen‐subjects. This is understood in terms of making citizens ‘governable’, but importantly not unproblematically ‘governed’. I illustrate my account with interviews with members of the Crick Advisory Group and an analysis of the Crick Report, in order to explore the discourses and practices of educational policy‐making. Trends are identified in education policy research which serve to de‐politicise the policy realm and narrow the scope of ethical and political consideration. I therefore make use of Derrida’s poststructuralism to argue for an expanded conceptualisation of education and politics, and for further interrogation of the purpose, scope and temporal imperatives of education, in a theoretical–empirical approach which takes seriously the geography of power in education policy and practice.

Governing Irrationality, or a More Than Rational Government? Reflections on the Rescientisation of Decision Making in British Public Policy

It appears that recent debates within human geography, and the broader social sciences, concerning the more-than-rational constitution of human decision making are now being paralleled by changes in the ways in which public policy makers are conceiving of and addressing human behaviour. This paper focuses on the rise of so-called Behaviour Change policies in public policy in the UK. Behaviour Change policies draw on the behavioural insights being developed within the neuro-sciences, behavioural economics, and psychology. These new behavioural theories suggest not only that human decision making relies on a previously overlooked irrational component, but that the irrationality of decision making is sufficiently consistent to enable effective public policy intervention into the varied times and spaces that surround human decisions. This paper charts the emergence of Behaviour Change policies within a range of British public policy sectors, and the political and scientific antecedents of such policies. Ultimately, the paper develops a geographically informed, ethical critique of the contemporary Behaviour Change regime that is emerging in the UK. Drawing on thirty in-depth interviews with leading policy executives, and case studies that reflect the application of Behaviour Change policies on the design and constitution of British streets, the analysis claims that current strategies are predicated on a partial reading of new behavioural theories. We argue that this partial reading of human cognition is leading to the construction of public policies that seek to arbitrarily decouple the rational and emotional components of human decision making with deleterious social and political consequences.

Framing the Good Citizen

This article interrogates the norms of good citizenship invoked in and across different social domains, using the example of citizenship education in the UK as one field in which good citizenship is constituted. It is possible to make visible the political struggle inherent in the mechanisms of framing the good citizen by unpacking the differences between citizenship as acts, status and virtues. This is a necessary step in assessing good citizenship claims in the absence of moral and political absolutes. We deploy a two-tiered account of Butlers theory of performativity to examine how ordinary citizenship acts are preceded by elite rhetorical framing. We conclude that citizenship, like democracy, is always enacted in particular contexts in which positioning, method and motives play an important part.

Making Citizens in the Classroom: An Urban Geography of Citizenship Education?

This paper considers the construction of young peoples experiences in city schools through a new curriculum subject, Citizenship Education, in secondary schools in England. It demonstrates how citizen identities are constructed through discursive practices in the classroom and are shaped by geographies of education. The place-based identities formed within urban schools both reflect and refute the inequalities inherent in the selective education system which pertains in many UK cities today. A discussion of the urban context in which the research was undertaken is followed by an analysis of empirical research in two schools in and around Bristol, south-west England. This explores the ways in which particular place-based subjectivities are actively and knowingly enacted by teachers and pupils in the classroom through their talk about what constitutes the ideal citizen.

Citizenship Education and narratives of pedagogy

This paper argues that the concept of the ‘pedagogical state’ (Hunter 1994, Kaplan 2007) can be employed to better understand the cultural practices of governing through pedagogical means, and the evolving pedagogical relationship between state and citizen. The introduction of statutory Citizenship Education lessons in secondary schools in England in 2002 is used as a case study through which to develop the idea of the pedagogical state. It is argued that Citizenship Education makes manifest practices of citizen-formation, opens up a space in which teachers and pupils actively negotiate the tensions between freedom and government, and evokes a response which is often characterised by public scepticism. In this sense, it is inadequate to identify educational reforms and resultant citizen subjectivities as straightforwardly neoliberal without paying attention to the deeper and wider characteristics of pedagogical power.

The geographies of policy translation: how nudge became the default policy option

This paper examines the emergence of libertarian paternalism or ‘nudge’ as a rationale of government in the UK and charts the way in which this development has been enabled by, and has enabled, a process of policy translation. We examine: the reasons for the emergence of libertarian paternalism in the UK; the processes that have enabled libertarian paternalism to become a significant way of framing policy in the UK for both the New Labour and the Coalition administrations; the way in which this set of policy initiatives has been predicated upon a process of social and spatial embedding that has seen it become interpreted as a meaningful and default solution to a whole host of social ills. We conclude by arguing that there is a need to appreciate both the political malleability of libertarian paternalism as a concept and the complex geographies that have enabled it to assume political significance in the UK.

Introduction: the pedagogical state: education, citizenship, governing

Understanding state–citizen relations involves a multitude of spaces and actors, formal and informal political practices and the intricacies of subjectivity and citizen-formation. One emerging tactic by which both ‘state’ agencies and other non-state actors manage, administer, discipline, shape, care for and enable liberal citizens is that of governing through pedagogy. Schools, universities, the voluntary sector, civil society organisations, churches, commercial education and training providers, the media, government departments and state agencies offer fruitful empirical spaces through which the pedagogies of governing are worked and reworked. This special issue therefore brings together researchers from education, human geography, sociology, social policy and political theory in order to consider the idea of the ‘pedagogical state’ as a means of understanding the pedagogic strategies employed to govern citizens, both within and outside the formal education sphere. The language of pedagogy can be useful in elaborating the sites of formal and informal education, the practices of teaching and learning and the subjectivities of teachers and learners in relation to governing tactics, with implications far beyond the immediate reach of formal education. Because pedagogy cannot be reduced to teaching, learning or education, it provokes us to consider not simply the disciplining and directive facets of education, but also the way pedagogy is used in order to develop competences and capabilities and to empower subjects in their future self-directed knowledge, experience and activities. Pedagogy also denotes a sense of the ‘science’ or ‘arts of teaching’, which prompts us to contemplate indirect and apparently contradictory modes of governing. Rather than presuming that pedagogical power will be characterised by domination and resistance, critically investigating interventions in the governability of liberal citizens can help us to reconsider the reflexive and sceptical ways in which citizens act, re-act and co-construct the cultural practices of governing. Such an approach can be useful in trying to avoid potentially simplistic critiques of bureaucracy, the ‘nanny state’, ‘teacherly’ or authoritarian state behaviours, the ‘infantilisation’ of adult citizens and the ‘schooling’ of society in so-called neoliberal times. ‘The pedagogical state’ as a concept, a theme and a research agenda requires developing and deconstructing from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, and contributors to this volume have engaged with and problematised the idea in equal measure. In the first article, Jessica Pykett introduces research which has explicitly developed the idea of the pedagogical state. Using the introduction of compulsory

Big Society's Little Nudges: The Changing Politics of Health Care in an Age of Austerity

The Conservative-led coalition has called for a new approach to public health in the UK. The nanny state is out; ‘nudging’ citizens into making sensible lifestyle choices is in. Rhys Jones, Jessica Pykett and Mark Whitehead examine what these changes mean for health policy. Can citizens be ‘nudged’ into making sensible lifestyle choices?Rhys Jones, Jessica Pykett and Mark Whitehead examine the new politics of public health in the UK.

(Re)Inhabiting awareness: geography and mindfulness

Abstract This paper opens up a dialogue between mindfulness and the discipline of geography. As a meditative practice that cultivates ‘present-centred non-judgmental awareness’, we claim that the practices and insights of mindfulness have important implications for various forms of geographical enquiry. This paper argues that mindfulness can inform geographical practices in relation to epistemology and methodology, and contribute towards geographically informed critical psychological theory and action. More specifically, we claim that mindfulness could offer a practice-based context to support the study of affects, extend the application of psychoanalytical geographical methods beyond the therapeutic, and contribute to emerging geographical studies of behavioural power and empowerment. This analysis explores these sites of interaction through a series of reflections on the Mindfulness, Behaviour Change and Engagement in Public Policy programme that was developed and delivered by the authors. This more-than-therapeutic mindfulness programme has been delivered to approximately 47 civil servants working in the UK Government.