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ABSTRACT
In this paper I conduct a Foucauldian discourse analysis of a political speech given by Brendon Nelson in 2006 when the Australian Minister for Defence in the Howard Coalition Government. The speech connects conceptualizations of terror, globalization, education and literacy as part of a whole of government security strategy. The analysis examines this speech as an example of a liberal way of governing the conduct of diverse and unpredictable populations. My analysis suggests that the apparatus of government has been strategically used in order to biopolitically contain the rise of complex social forces and protect a set of homogenous cultural values. The purposes of education and uses of literacy are seen as instruments for the inscription of a coded set of values understood to be synonymous with civil society.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributor
Stephen Kelly completed his PhD in 2015. Stephen’s thesis is titled Governing civil society: How literacy, education and security were brought together. The thesis is a Foucauldian Genealogy investigating how the logics of liberal government work to secure civil society. Stephen is currently working as a literacy consultant in South Australia.