The Role of Governmentality in Social Studies

Abstract

The concept of "governmentality" has been widely used in social science researches over the last two decades; however, there is a lack of review on its application in social studies. This research reviews 166 relevant literatures, published between 2006 and 2019. The result shows that Europe has always been the main contributing region to governmentality literature. Governmentality mostly severs as an analytical theory for resolving social issues, but it has not been taken as the object of study. Four levels of application of governmentality are identified, based on keywords analysis. Government governance is the main field of application of governmentality. The dimensions of analysis for governmentality are then identified, including technology, rationality, knowledge, and discourse.