Governmentality, Social Policy and the Social Construction of Old Age in England

Abstract

This article looks in more detail at the incidence and consequence of social policies for older people through the distinctly French post-structuralist lens of governmentality (Foucault, 1977). This will enable us to consider the implications of the re-figuring of the relationship between the state, older people and social work. This re-figuring constructs an ambiguous place for older people: they feature either as a resource -captured in the idea of the 'active citizen', as affluent consumers, volunteers or providers of child care -or as a problem in the context of poverty, vulnerability and risk. In many ways, policy provides three trajectories for older people: first, as independent self-managing consumers with private means and resources; second, as people in need of some support to enable them to continue to self-manage; and third, as dependent and unable to commit to self-management. Governmentality provides the theoretical framework through which to view policy and practice that is largely governed by discourses of personalisation, safeguarding, capability and risk.

Fragmentation in Australian Commonwealth and South Australian State policy on mental health and older people: A governmentality analysis

“…As Powell (2014) has discussed, the relationship between older people and the state has been reconfigured within a neo-liberal governmental rationality in such a way as to construct an ambiguous place for older people where they are viewed as both a resource (active citizens participating in work/work-like activities) and as a problem (in terms of poverty, vulnerability and risk). As a resource, they are governed as ‘independent self-managing consumers’; when viewed as a problem, they are governed as ‘dependent and unable to commit to self-management’ (Powell, 2014: 109). These are the forms of subjectification associated with the problematisation of older people and mental health in Australian policy.…”

“…A number of social determinants of mental health problems have been identified, such as poverty, housing instability, social exclusion or isolation and poor access to quality health care, and addressing these could have a substantial public health impact (Shim et al, 2014). A consequence for older people who are considered unable to meet the commitment to the market, either through assumptions about their (economic) value or about the capacity of older people with mental illness to be active participants in their care and recovery, is that they are governed in ways that ‘are often oppressive and impersonal’ (Powell, 2014: 112). This includes the failure to adequately fund mental health services for older people and a failure to address mental health recovery.…”