(N23 Yor. Na Never 885 Governance and failure: on the limits of sociology SRO SOCIONOBY Jett talpas: and Gary Wickham Spon hagarera Ses Poararene Moot ity Abstract Fat so oqutos and caval ex of sob Me, Yetmchiacicees nay lites ot on ante bt on sscean Th pet opine cemes sppotch 0 scclgca thor sdvrcng an aceite neces sco nauy and aeening Ie Ss fara far eee trons nat tough the examsatan cls sacchgee:ssroee cones droping sound ine Foucaian ee at govemaniys i Seco, ‘weugh 9 more general phtozophelconsgertion ol the eaeebors benno posts gorce a fone, Inedution see ny econ ceo sont cet em Sic ichcefoveapmt arge Tet en oat et cna th oan eal tact tceacc fat ag Socal te ay alee empire uence tte ‘pelt yneei tele seeb seer al Swe eh hk ean hp Te cm anemmrnaents mereef Mobs ind ary Wom india sci a being progeny ede others father and tha cls daons re appear nd Halen 1999 9) “he pth of oa quae dersuncing of toe sonal dpe See an one Sl a ceeds peg ena Ree ata, ™ oo Sociology may have had ie setback, but the underlying view that resented in ther paveger char el hl ae the Press os eat understanding ofthe vase areay of practices ad of the inves nd Insicaons tht are enmeshed i hoe paces, which conse te roc ‘And just asi offers understanding of these pacoces ad the structs chat terme them, s 00 i ofles rome hope of our beng beter able only toalimted exten co dice sndcontrl them, li late tespetseilogy ‘may itl be taken to have as primacy objeive the goal of inprovag ‘cial oatome, of enabling us tebe more success inthe usu oe many a varied projects wh which we, a socal ator, sre engaged OF our sear as we may be more scsi we can ao be leat Saha sense ftlre may be said f be that which in art, romps noctologeal Inguiry. Yes prompts it noe benno ome recognition athe none ‘of failure and the limitations that failure brings to ur attentions ‘cogninon which might endo = conception of socology ex concemed wih ‘he charting of those Iimits—but becnuse of «desire to overcome nich faire ths tha she practice even of acadencsosslogy 26 cea {ied 0 politcal and socal reormiim ond raccliem, Indeed, some of he ‘estroge of sociology axa dain sre illecual movements Comtean positivism and Maexism, for example-that were feted o understanding social proceses and truer i the service of ¥brondee, Project of scl improvemest or even stoioss Tm being imbued wh eommicment and confidence in the possibiiy of nernsed succes in socal ie, the vaca wold 0 which sociology dete it atention is one concepusled forthe meet pac interme of pacts, Projects and proceses that operate relatively unprobemarellyrs word ‘which is onsite in the ordinary, usspectacalr yee neverholen legey succesful, careying through of tultudeof actives and operations Indeed, socal insutions might even be si, fom thi perspecve, be built on sucest—succes in establishing ané maintsaing themselves 3¢ social catiies—and something similar could be ssid with respect #0 ‘ndvidual soil actors and rom fncinalic penpectv, with pet {0 sriey at lage. Failure, then an abecrason, eset) hsb thin the system ee tearm the sta abi aloes tee hat he ase of the many small faisres that figure in ow individeal lth, may ‘moune to lle more than a pulled tes We have severe doubse about this conceatraton on success and the more signiiane downplaying of faure ht goes wih tnt arele we do two things with thee doubrs. Fst, we explore she possibility thar * cera s2ciology curently developing acound some of Fuca’ work specie ally that wok organised around hs nealogsn ‘govenmentalgy- might sllow a more balanced pire by brnging fl ore othe ote Ta dngthis we may be said 0 be catouly dicen sciology’s attention co the ropostion that much rwene-entary western fey including the conduct Df scilgy, characterise bys velo ecopive the cent of aloes 2nd theineviailyofincomplerenst, Thus, fare i seen othe aceon father than the cle, and a something to be eventually overcome though inprovemensin hnowedge or echnigue In stesing ove Oomcstion hee, ‘we ae oaly foo well awate ofthe relive methodological pola tat the task ws set ourselves i this accle most itll suffer from the seme ‘completeness any oer take are not offering «eure fr flor, ‘merely seeking to draw attention coi Second, we offer phicroptical ‘igument in support of «greater eonentaton On failuee, sn segment whichis decidedly sceptical about the epistemological conden of muck contemporary socilogy-—particulrly s+ exemplified in the quotations stove Inthe proces of presenting ths plosopical underpinning of out Postion, we examine the connections between nosions af flee and [actos of contol We examin hese connect in way tat ens On {heen of known objec Befoie we proceed, some pit of darifcation about our emily sre ‘eeiay. We shortly define and exemplify Faure as 3 consequene of the Icesary incompleteness of projects of goverounce. Since we dein he raion of filare in selation oth des fs prjet—in seems ofthe flere {fprojes to achieve cerain otcomesthe way in which we cone of ‘he notion ofa projet porn As wl became Carer inthe account ofthe phiosopteal grounding of or poston Slow, we tele any atempt 'o wea projec a5 separable fom larger networks of social ation. One of ‘he teasonrscces can seem se mach more obvious tha fate tin tendeny fo eat prtcula rages of socal activity 3 conmning whe projects ‘Was ot uceeafal n geting ou of bed this morning? Ofcourse T'vas. and is that noc an example of project that was succestaly ‘omplerei—an example of «tr that an be multiplied endesy soa 0 demorsrae the wbiuity, the pamacy,of succes?” While we do not deny thar there i sensein which an si ike sting out of bed tis mang” can besidtconsiute «projet with «clear eon of sucer, we ng tharsuch frapmens of social ifeare better understood within muck water fesmes and indeed, that such fnents can ony be properly under at sigficant in elation to mech aren, ongoing projects. But such arget ois, we cam te always fling. Throvghour tht paper we make ute of the sotan, not only of alr’ bus also of incompetenese. In fcr ar we have alenay noted, we tek fate be aneceary consequence fncompleteness Bu inso fe sone forsmonly accepted wage of the word le i» lightly exanserted) ‘deption of one of the elfes of our mortal oc of our hate pscies tngeneral one ta things renin unfihed th incomplete ight be taken vo be fat anther way of eeferrng to failure, While may sometimes be seul to teat fle and incomplete rope, sec hae ‘vemight ees ute two teams interchangeably, we acu hee on flare 0 Featre ofthe engoing characte of our peje val on incorepleness ‘sa stuctrl featur those projects. The allure of os projects Ove feisthe most dramatic manfenation of ich incompleteness. sometimes we do refer othe way in which alr, aa breakdown athe careying og of some projet, involes the aomcompletion of the Projeck hs ug shold nor be taken fo iply any moce fundamental conflain of ate ie incomplete A Foucaultian sociology of failure ‘We bai or brief tur ofthe emszging Foucault sociological perspective with 3 definition of goverances definition that one of us has seeay deployed elewhere n Foucault and Law Towards a Sociology of Lanes Governance (1994 ch. §), Hort and Wickham presents dscustonof are within the conext of propositions for 2 ‘Sociology of Govereances By “governance sey mean ny atemptta control or anage a owns “They point ou that this definition combines thee dictionary defneon overinee (re of a nation state or region se-government (ona ertonal emotions and behaviou), and governor the device fed 19 ‘machines, expel inthe nneeenh cenuty, oegulate energy its and heneepecfomance). In ths way, social ie made up of fanumeable scents to control all known object, including previous seer Tiss the scene for fre to fearare nes ke payer ‘Along lines similar to thore set out in Hunt and Wickhai, we se ase tcontol, which are conte of al ie always fling her of thee targets. There is no such thing ae complete trl cnet of objector vet of object povernance is neertariyincomplste sad sha necesty consequence must sway al Thee examples wil ip cacy ‘whee we mea, Univesiy governance i our feat example,Arempt ate made a ever levels—individual, departmental, school or lacley, whole untecay, ‘exionl cational—eo contol vase of abject ude mbes oder, ali, all eaching load aff teaching pclormance stall eres oa, al research performance, provvion of proesionl qualifications fos students, wider community seeviee, ater demande of government ike taking in more school leavers o reduce youth unemployment figure et “Those ates Feature diferent technic of governance perro ead ‘ouines, use of quotas, management techniques of eicouragement red ndshment, legal regulation, ee Every aemgt fills short its eget in some see ote. In some casts the faire may be sabe a Separtment might wel chen th exact mime of sudens it sts for isl given yar, but is seigh sway concerns {© maintain that igure andor defend tage the cms of exer dpa ‘ments ee; ao, a8 no governmental quet ie ever parted im nolaton the