The shifting territory of government: Some insights from the Rural White Paper

In this paper it is proposed that the territory of governance is currently being reconfigured by the state. The state is pulling back from a universalist, welfare role, which entailed comprehensive government of the whole national territory. Now a much more selective form of government is coming into being, concerned with 'community', 'diversity' and 'locality'. This is not, however, simply a belated recognition by the state that these are ever move important features of socio-spatial life: rather, it is part of the reconfiguration of the territory of government as the state involves these characteristics in order to modify its ways of governing. Using Foucault's concept of governmentality-that is the means used by the state to 'problematise' life within its territorial borders and their net on the basis of these problematisations-the recent case of the Rural White Paper is examined. It is proposed that this is a very clear example of a governmental retreat from a comprehensive role in the governance of rural areas and shows hero the state now seeks to govern 'through communities'.