Indicators as a Governmental Technology? The Lessons of Community-Based Sustainability Indicator Projects

Abstract

There has been much interest in the neo-Foucauldian framework of governmentality as a way of understanding contemporary policy processes. In this paper I examine evidence from a case study of local sustainability indicators in the light of this framework. The role of indicators as a potential governmental technology is addressed, covering issues of their ability to objectify sustainability the scope for altered subjectivities, their positioning within central–local government relations, and the construction and responsibilisation of communities, particularly in urban regeneration contexts. I conclude that the use of indicators at the community level may tell us more about central–local relations within contemporary governance than about the construction of subjects and objects to enable governance with regard to sustainable development.