From pastoral power to paddocking power: Re-thinking Foucault’s conception of governmentality in Australia

null, Christopher Mayes (University of Sydney), Christopher Mayes

Abstract

Since Jacques Derrida critiqued History of Madness in 1963, Foucault’s analyses have come under criticism for neglecting or failing to fully attend to historical examples or cases that apparently contradict his analyses or revealed its limited European or Francophone scope. Anna Laura Stoler and others have also critiqued Foucault’s work for its inattention to European colonialism. Drawing on these and other criticisms some scholars have joined Jean Baudrillard and suggested that it is time to forget Foucault. I do not wish to forget Foucault, but we cannot solely rely on his framing of the past. 

In this paper I wish to rethink Foucault’s conception of governmentality and pastoral power in the light of literal pastoring in colonial Australia and how these early colonial manifestations of pastoral power may have shaped idiosyncratic antipodean manifestations of practices that govern and secure biological life of the population. I am particularly interested in the role of sheep in establishing Australia and the role of fences in managing transitions from shepherding to paddocking. The question I am interested in is how does pastoral power and governmentality change if the pastor uses fences and paddocks rather than a crook and open plains? In looking at the literal techniques of the settler-colonial pastor in managing sheep, does a uniquely Australian form of governmentality emerge? And can this analysis shed light on the persistent use of fences and confinement to govern unpredictable biological life in Australia: from paddocks to hotel quarantine? 

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