Sven Bislev

Governmentality, globalization and local practice: Transformations of a hegemonic discourse

Since the 1980s, local governments in many parts of the world have undergone major institutional reforms. Shaped by a wide range of economic, political, and social trends, these changes have been driven by a particular blend of global and local dynamics. On the one hand, they have been contingent upon a globally dominant discourse that has tirelessly pointed out the devastating consequences of public-sector growth. On the other hand, the particular tracks that this discourse has followed, as well as the modes of local appropriation of its core messages, have varied and we believe will continue to vary from case to case. This article sets out to explore the correlation between governmentality, globalization, and local practice from the vantage point of the institution of local government as it is being reshaped by the global discourse known as New Public Management (NPM). Evolved from modest beginnings among international administrative experts working for the United Nations, taken up by the Carter administration, and then processed and refined by the OECD, NPM has arguably acquired the status of a hegemonic discourse: since the 1980s, most contemporary discourses in the field of public administration and management have positioned themselves in relation to elements of NPM. Though not a coherent set of values and notions and therefore not readily definable, NPM can nevertheless be distinguished despite its multiple guises and applications by (1) its clear emphasis on business-management practices, and (2) its reliance on individual rationalities and market

Globalization, State Transformation, and Public Security

Globalization changes the context, the structure, and the institutions of the nation-state. Even the traditional core area of public security is being affected, and rationalities from business and the market are being introduced to the security field. The most recent security technologies build less on public authority and more on management and markets. The San Diego region of Southern California, a region thoroughly affected by globalization, illustrates this process through its introduction of management methods in police work and the growth of gated communities as a defensive technology.

The Global Diffusion of Managerialism: Transnational Discourse Communities at Work

This article sets out to disentangle some of the organisational forms and links through which particular visions and meanings of (local) statecraft are being diffused. While ultimately concerned with the globalisation of governance, the ensuing account seizes on a very particular instantiation of this diffusion, namely the knowledge and networks provided by the myriad of transnational discourse communities (TDCs) operating with a claim to authority and expertise in the ® eld of governance. Alternative ways of conceptualising this phenomenon abound: global policy networks, policy communities, transnational advocacy networks, epistemic communities, discourse communities, communities of practice. Not really synonyms, these terms capture different aspects of the knowledge peddlers and their trade. We have chosen a term that enables us to ground our analysis in a social constructivist perspective, highlighting the correlation between knowledge, power and discourse in the ® eld of global governance. The introductory section attempts an in medias res illustration of the forces at play, as evidenced in two very dissimilar localities and the community that connects them. Not a case study proper, this sketch of globalisation at work paves the way for a more general discussion in the second section of how managerialisation, marketisation and entrepreneurialisation of governance are insinuated, across borders and policy areas, into the rationalities and governmental technologies or speci® c institutions. In the present study, we focus on the local level of government where recent developments in governmental discourse developments suggest increased interconnectedness between the local and the global. Interestingly, the growing consumption of discourses promoted by the TDCs discussed in this paper tends to be unmediated by and largely bypasses the level of national government.

Business School Teaching and Democratic Culture: An International and Comparative Analysis:

Egalitarian and participation-oriented teaching emphasizes critical discussion and informal relationships between students and professors. The authors argue that the use of egalitarian and some aspects of participation-oriented teaching at business schools differs systematically across countries according to the strength of democratic culture. Countries with high levels of well-being, strong emancipatory and civic values as well as a stable political democracy also tend to have egalitarian and, to some extent, participation-oriented teaching at their business schools. The article draws on survey data collected at Copenhagen Business School and macro-sociological data from a number of publicly available databases.

Constructing Europe: The Role of Social Solidarity

Unlike other regional integration projects, the European Community/Union1 has a social dimension. From the outset, that dimension was part of the conception of the Communities — as a pre-condition for and corollary of market-building. However, much ambivalence has surrounded the social aspect of the communities — the ‘European social model’ is regarded by some as a protectionist, inflexible burden of the past; the liberal economic regimes of the EU are there to remedy such ills. For others, the very same model is the epitome of human achievement in the field of community and state-building.