Introduction

One of the strengths of governance theory is that it draws attention to flows of power that traverse the boundaries of state/society, public/private and economy/civil society. It recognises that processes of governing take place in and through families, workplaces, communities, schools and other sites beyond the domain of institutional politics. As such, it seemingly connects with strands of feminist analysis that have long problematised the distinctions between public and private and that have drawn attention to forms and flows of power beyond the state. However, the study of governance has remained relatively immune to a gendered analysis. This chapter highlights some of the ways in which transformations of governance are explicitly and implicitly gendered. In doing so it draws on concepts from both political science and social policy, but especially from critical feminist perspectives from across the social sciences.

My starting point is the typology of market, hierarchy and networks that has informed the study of governance. Following Newman (2001), I want to add a fourth domain – that of self-governance – because of both its political significance and its increasing importance as a governmental strategy. The process of ‘remaking’ governance in the context of the new policy agendas discussed in Chapters Two and Three involves a shifting relationship between these domains. State power is not dissolved – hierarchical forms of governance remain significant – but the idea of the state as a unitary actor is problematised, with more emphasis being placed on market mechanisms, network patterns of coordination (governing through partnerships and collaborative strategies), and the constitution of citizens as selfgoverning, responsibilised subjects. The chapter traces the ways in which each of these domains is gendered and how each contributes to the contradictory gender order of neo-liberal governance.

However, in setting out the framework – hierarchy, markets, networks, self-governance – let me stress several important points. First, as ideal types the domains denote a logic of organising rather than a sphere of activity. Governmental policies and strategies are likely to cut across them in complex ways, and organisations and individuals may be subject to contradictory logics (Newman, 2001). Second, the domains, although often spoken about as if they are singular entities, each condense different politics, policies and orientations.