Materiality, subjectification, and government: the geographies of Britain's Motorway Code

Merriman, P. (2005) Materiality, subjectification, and government: the geographies of Britain's Motorway Code. Environment and Planning D-Society & Space, 23 (2). pp. 235-250. ISSN 0263-7758 doi: 10.1068/s362t

Abstract/Summary

In this paper I provide a critical discussion of Foucault's work on government and governmentality. I argue that geographers have tended to overlook the ways in which practices of self-government and subjectification are performed in relation to programmes of government, and suggest that they should examine the technical devices which are embedded in networks of government. Drawing upon these observations I suggest how geographers might proceed, tracing the geographies of a specific artefact: the British government's 1958 Motorway Code. I examine how the code was designed to serve as a technology of government that could shape the conduct of fairly mobile and distant subjects, enabling them to govern their conduct and the movements of their vehicles.