ABSTRACT
While the last chapter identified the key characteristics of a self-help approach to
rural development, this chapter problematises these discourses as a mentality of
rule that shapes the way human beings select courses of action for revitalising their
towns and communities. Within advanced liberalism, the exercise of this mode of
governing does not occur through the direct imposition of sovereign will, but in a
way that may be described as ‘at a distance’. This occurs through the implementation
of a range of mechanisms – some discursive, others more practical – which seek to
align the attitudes and behaviours of rural people with the socio-political objectives
of state agencies (Miller and Rose, 1990). Where many such mechanisms are
individualistic, and echo neoliberal policies of personal responsibility, competition,
efficiency and reduced assistance, others are ‘inclusive and social solidaristic’
(Wright, 1998: 100) and seek to act upon individuals in the context of their families
and communities (Rose, 1996a; 1996b).
