Civic Governmentality and Its Discontents : Rethinking Agency, Resilience, and the Reconfiguration of INGOs in India
(2026) In LUND DISSERTATIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 74.- Abstract
- This thesis interrogates the contemporary unmaking of civil society in India through the analytic of civic governmentality, arguing that the crisis of civic space is not merely a story of repression but of the deeper remaking of civic subjectivity under conditions of authoritarian neoliberal rule. Against narratives that cast international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) as either heroic resistors or passive victims of state encroachment, the thesis demonstrates how they are increasingly governed through their own adaptive manoeuvres: practices of precaution, institutional self-censorship, managerial depoliticisation, and the internalisation of state rationalities. Civic space does not simply “shrink”, it is reconfigured through... (More)
- This thesis interrogates the contemporary unmaking of civil society in India through the analytic of civic governmentality, arguing that the crisis of civic space is not merely a story of repression but of the deeper remaking of civic subjectivity under conditions of authoritarian neoliberal rule. Against narratives that cast international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) as either heroic resistors or passive victims of state encroachment, the thesis demonstrates how they are increasingly governed through their own adaptive manoeuvres: practices of precaution, institutional self-censorship, managerial depoliticisation, and the internalisation of state rationalities. Civic space does not simply “shrink”, it is reconfigured through anticipatory modes of governance that compel INGOs to survive by becoming governable. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork and grounded in Foucauldian analytics, the study shows how regulatory, discursive, and postcolonial governmental techniques operate less as coercive instruments than as subtle mechanisms that shape what civic actors recognise as possible, permissible, and prudent. These techniques inherit and reanimate long-standing postcolonial state rationalities in which suspicion, developmentalism, and national belonging are constituted as conditions of civic legitimacy. Within this terrain, compliance becomes culture: a political rationality sedimented into organisational routines and imaginaries. INGOs perform resilience less as a strategy of resistance but more as a modality of rule, reproducing the very constraints they seek to navigate. The thesis therefore, advances civic governmentality as a conceptual realignment of governmentality theory adequate to the postcolonial democratic present, where authoritarianism emerges incrementally from within liberal-democratic institutions. Yet, the thesis also traces the limits of this transformation. It argues that the erosion of political imagination (what is thinkable, sayable, actionable) constitutes the deepest violence of authoritarian neoliberalism. Recovering agency thus demands not a return to civil society as we have known it but an iconoclastic refusal of the images through which it is rendered governable. In this tension between adaptation and counter conduct lies the future of civic possibility. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Denna avhandling undersöker den samtida nedmonteringen av civilsamhället i Indien genom begreppet civic governmentality. Avhandlingen hävdar att krisen för det civilas handlingsutrymme inte enbart är en berättelse om förtryck, utan om hur förutsättningarna för det civila på ett genomgripande sätt förändrats och nu präglas av auktoritär nyliberal styrning. I kontrast till dominerande narrativ som framställer internationella icke-statliga organisationer (INGOs) antingen som heroiska motståndsaktörer eller som passiva offer för statligt intrång, visar avhandlingen hur dessa organisationer i allt högre grad styrs inifrån, genom att vaksamhet och anpassning blivit norm, och genom självcensur och avpolitisering i både språk och verksamhet. Det... (More)
- Denna avhandling undersöker den samtida nedmonteringen av civilsamhället i Indien genom begreppet civic governmentality. Avhandlingen hävdar att krisen för det civilas handlingsutrymme inte enbart är en berättelse om förtryck, utan om hur förutsättningarna för det civila på ett genomgripande sätt förändrats och nu präglas av auktoritär nyliberal styrning. I kontrast till dominerande narrativ som framställer internationella icke-statliga organisationer (INGOs) antingen som heroiska motståndsaktörer eller som passiva offer för statligt intrång, visar avhandlingen hur dessa organisationer i allt högre grad styrs inifrån, genom att vaksamhet och anpassning blivit norm, och genom självcensur och avpolitisering i både språk och verksamhet. Det civilas handlingsutrymme krymper inte bara; det omformuleras genom påtvingade styrningsformer som INGOs måsta anamma för att överleva. Med utgångspunkt i kvalitativt fältarbete och förankrat i foucauldiansk analys uppmärksammar studien hur regulatorisk, diskursiv och postkolonial styrning påtvingas utifrån. Men, styrning sker även genom subtila mekanismer som formar vad civila aktörer uppfattar som möjligt, tillåtet och rådigt. INGOs anpassning sker i form av att man antar nya perspektiv på omvärlden och formar nya verksamhetsrutiner. INGOs utvecklar på så vis en strategi för motstånd som samtidigt reproducerar de begränsningar strategierna är tänkta
att hantera.
Avhandlingen utvecklar civic governmentality som begrepp, sprunget ur teorier om governmentality och anpassad till en postkolonial, demokratisk
samtid, där liberaldemokratiska institutioner kommit att präglas av auktoritära normer. Avhandlingen argumenterar att detta lett till en urholkning av organisationers förmåga till politiska visioner, det vill säga förmågan att tänka, säga, göra annorlunda. Det går inte att återvinna handlingsförmåga genom en återgång till civilsamhället i dess tidigare form. Istället krävs ett så kallat ikonoklastiskt avståndstagande från de begränsande idéer som styr nu. I denna spänning mellan anpassning och counter-conduct ligger det civilas framtiden. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/deff273a-7ad1-4eb5-915c-22fbb5b9636e
- author
- Banerjee, Soumi LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Professor Reid, Julian, University of Lapland
- organization
- alternative title
- Civic Governmentality och dess motsättningar : Att ompröva handlingskraft, resiliens och omkonfigureringen av internationella icke-statliga organisationer i Indien
- publishing date
- 2026-05
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Governmentality, Postcolonial state, Shrinking civic space, Authoritarian neoliberalism, Political imagination, Governmentalitet, Postkolonial stat, Krympande civilt utrymme, Auktoritär nyliberalism, Politisk föreställningsförmåga
- in
- LUND DISSERTATIONS IN SOCIAL WORK
- volume
- 74
- pages
- 137 pages
- publisher
- Lunds universitet, Socialhögskolan
- defense location
- LUX aula (nedre), Helgonavägen 3, Lund
- defense date
- 2026-06-15 14:00:00
- ISSN
- 1650-3872
- ISBN
- 978-91-89604-82-7
- project
- Civic Governmentality: Rethinking Agency, Resilience, and the Reconfiguration of INGOs in India
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- deff273a-7ad1-4eb5-915c-22fbb5b9636e
- date added to LUP
- 2026-05-12 13:31:20
- date last changed
- 2026-05-19 08:12:34
@phdthesis{deff273a-7ad1-4eb5-915c-22fbb5b9636e,
abstract = {{This thesis interrogates the contemporary unmaking of civil society in India through the analytic of civic governmentality, arguing that the crisis of civic space is not merely a story of repression but of the deeper remaking of civic subjectivity under conditions of authoritarian neoliberal rule. Against narratives that cast international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) as either heroic resistors or passive victims of state encroachment, the thesis demonstrates how they are increasingly governed through their own adaptive manoeuvres: practices of precaution, institutional self-censorship, managerial depoliticisation, and the internalisation of state rationalities. Civic space does not simply “shrink”, it is reconfigured through anticipatory modes of governance that compel INGOs to survive by becoming governable. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork and grounded in Foucauldian analytics, the study shows how regulatory, discursive, and postcolonial governmental techniques operate less as coercive instruments than as subtle mechanisms that shape what civic actors recognise as possible, permissible, and prudent. These techniques inherit and reanimate long-standing postcolonial state rationalities in which suspicion, developmentalism, and national belonging are constituted as conditions of civic legitimacy. Within this terrain, compliance becomes culture: a political rationality sedimented into organisational routines and imaginaries. INGOs perform resilience less as a strategy of resistance but more as a modality of rule, reproducing the very constraints they seek to navigate. The thesis therefore, advances civic governmentality as a conceptual realignment of governmentality theory adequate to the postcolonial democratic present, where authoritarianism emerges incrementally from within liberal-democratic institutions. Yet, the thesis also traces the limits of this transformation. It argues that the erosion of political imagination (what is thinkable, sayable, actionable) constitutes the deepest violence of authoritarian neoliberalism. Recovering agency thus demands not a return to civil society as we have known it but an iconoclastic refusal of the images through which it is rendered governable. In this tension between adaptation and counter conduct lies the future of civic possibility.}},
author = {{Banerjee, Soumi}},
isbn = {{978-91-89604-82-7}},
issn = {{1650-3872}},
keywords = {{Governmentality; Postcolonial state; Shrinking civic space; Authoritarian neoliberalism; Political imagination; Governmentalitet; Postkolonial stat; Krympande civilt utrymme; Auktoritär nyliberalism; Politisk föreställningsförmåga}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Lunds universitet, Socialhögskolan}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{LUND DISSERTATIONS IN SOCIAL WORK}},
title = {{Civic Governmentality and Its Discontents : Rethinking Agency, Resilience, and the Reconfiguration of INGOs in India}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/249938812/e-nailing_ex_Soumi.pdf}},
volume = {{74}},
year = {{2026}},
}