Localism and neo-liberal governmentalit

This commentary offers a Foucauldian-inspired interpretation which conceptualises localism within the framework of neo-liberal governmentality. It argues that although localism represents a continuation and intensification of previous neo-liberalism trends in Britain, it introduces three distinct features related to: the underlying political philosophy of government; the shift of emphasis in government technologies from performance to agency; and the increased visibility of the spatial dimension in the neo-liberal understanding of the ‘social’.