Individualisation Discourses in Global Neoliberal Governance and their Role in Subjectivity Production: The Case of World Development Reports

研究将指导的问题，在多大程度上个性化话语是目前在全球治理，以及在何种程度上，以何种方式，这种话语提出了一种表达和建设的“新自由主义”？答案是由以下假设提出的，即个性化话语构成了全球新自由主义治理的基石，其基础是直接告知被视为新自由主义的政策的肤浅话语，但仍被这些话语所掩盖。因此，个性化话语通过将个人生产为“新自由主义思想的原子化主体”（Paterson and Stripple 2010 p.355）来实现“无政府治理”。本研究试图从经验上识别世界银行（一个全球新自由主义治理机构）言论中的个性化话语，并揭示隐藏的个性化叙事如何促进个人将“新自由主义”议程内化，使其成为福柯意义上的“治理”新自由主义的主体。尽管“新自由主义”的概念模糊不清，而且存在着不同的理论观点，但有一些共识认为，新自由主义代表了一种通过话语主体性生产的治理模式。各种研究致力于分析全球治理中的新自由主义论述（Peet 2002）。然而，这一领域存在着需要解决的严重差距。关于新自由主义话语究竟是什么以及如何表达的讨论不够。在文献中有一种不幸的倾向，将新自由主义话语与特定的晚期资本主义政策或信仰联系起来，而不是将其分析为治理中的主体性形成，导致这些政策或政策理论的构建和内化。因此，关于新自由主义话语的文献仍然支离破碎，不同的研究侧重于这种话语的不同方面，这取决于上下文。没有找到一个使不同论述成为“新自由主义”的普遍因素。研究将解决这个问题，提出个性化的话语构成了“话语背后的话语”-一个统一的因素，使较低层次的政策相关的话语“新自由主义”彻底使他们的内化的个人。通过这种方式，研究将解决新自由主义话语的批判性文献的碎片化问题，为在不同背景下更好地了解新自由主义话语的整体分析开辟道路。此外，通过专注于通过个性化来构建主观的新自由主义意识，研究将有助于弥合社会学和政治经济学对个性化的解释之间被忽视的差距，并建立跨学科的联系，以实现对新自由主义的多维度理解。最后，该项目将有助于了解世界银行的发展议程，并阐明与发展政策有关的问题。特别是，它将这些归因于某些社区和文化无法内化个性化话语。研究将是理论和实证的性质。理论部分将建立在重要的国际政治经济学、治理研究和社会学文献的基础上，为《世界发展报告》的CDA经验分析建立概念框架。精确的理论目标和方法定义如下：1）通过话语将新自由主义概念化为一种治理模式，同时认识到它与特定政策的联系。2）发展一个框架，将个性化概念化为“新自由主义”的一部分，并将其确定为新自由主义治理中的“话语中的话语”。

The research will be guided by the question to what extent individualisation discourse is present in global governance and to what degree and in which ways this discourse presents an expression and construction of the "neoliberal"? The answer is suggested by the hypothesis that individualisation discourse constitutes a cornerstone of global neoliberal governance by underlying but also remaining concealed by superficial discourses directly informing policies regarded as neoliberal. As such, individualisation discourse enables "governing without government" through production of individuals as "atomised subjects of neoliberal thought" (Paterson and Stripple 2010 p.355). The research attempt to empirically identify individualisation discourse in the rhetoric of World Bank - an institution of global neoliberal governance - and uncover how the hidden individualisation narrative fosters internalisation of "neoliberal" agendas by individuals making them subjects of neoliberalism in the Foucauldian sense of "governmentality". Despite ambiguity of the concept of "neoliberalism" and existence of varying theoretical perspectives of what it entails, there is some convergence that neoliberalism represents a mode of governance through discursive subjectivity production. Various studies have been devoted to analysing neoliberal discourses in global governance (Peet 2002). However, a serious gap within this area exists that needs to be addressed. There is an insufficient discussion on what exactly constitutes a neoliberal discourse and how it is expressed. There is an unfortunate tendency within the literature to link neoliberal discourse to particular late-capitalist policies or beliefs, instead of analysing it as a subjectivity formation in governance leading to the construction and internalisation of these policies or policy rhetorics. As a result, the literature on neoliberal discourse remains fragmented with different studies focusing on different aspects of such discourse depending on the context. There is a failure to identify a universal element that makes different discourses "neoliberal". The research will address this problem by suggesting that the discourse of individualisation constitutes the "discourse behind discourses" - a unifying factor that makes lower-level policy-related discourses "neoliberal" thorough enabling their internalisation by individuals. This way the research will address the issue of fragmentation of the empirically-oriented literature on neoliberal discourses, opening up pathways for better informed holistic analyses of neoliberal discourses in different contexts. Furthermore, by concentrating on the construction of subjective neoliberal consciousness through individualisation, the research will be relevant in bridging the neglected gap between sociological and political-economic accounts on individualisation and establishing interdisciplinary links for multidimensional understanding of neoliberalism. Finally, the project will contribute to the understanding of the World Bank's development agenda and shed light on development-policy related problems. Particularly, it will attribute those to the inability of internalisation of individualisation discourses by certain communities and cultures. The research will be both theoretical and empirical in nature. The theoretical part will build upon literature within critical IPE, Governance studies and sociology towards establishing conceptual frameworks for the empirical CDA analysis of the World Development Reports. Precise theoretical objectives and methods are defined as follows:1) Arriving at a conceptualisation of neoliberalism as a mode of governance through discourse, while recognising its links to particular policies.2) Developing a framework conceptualising individualisation as a part of "neoliberal" and for identifying it as a "discourse within discourses" in neoliberal governance.