Cover not available
Part of
Studies of Discourse and Governmentality: New perspectives and methods
Edited by Paul McIlvenny, Julia Zhukova Klausen and Laura Bang Lindegaard
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 66] 2016
► pp. 353–386

Revealing the governmentality of demographic change in Germany with the manifold discourse-analytical ‘toolbox’ of Foucault

German discourses of demographic change are characterised by alarmism. A continuously growing number of publications in the mass media address population aging and shrinking by depicting mostly dystopian future scenarios. Some governmental strategies employ demographic discourse to prompt individuals to react to ‘objective’ scientific facts in their everyday life. If the state is allegedly no longer able to provide social security systems and the society is doomed to suffer from a ‘generation-conflict’, citizens as ‘entrepreneurs of the self ’ are expected to endorse private social insurances and later retirement. Michel Foucault’s early to late works are used to analyse the underlying orders of knowledge in textual, numerical, and graphical forms in order to examine the governmental rationale that relies on this knowledge.

Published online: 29 June 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.66.12mes
References
Angermuller, Johannes
2010 “Wissenschaft zählen. Regieren im digitalen panoptikum [Counting science. Governing in the digital panopticon].” In Leviathan. Berliner zeitschrift für sozialwissenschaft., ed. by Leon Hempel, Susanne Krasmann, and Ulrich Bröckling, 174-190. Sonderheft 25: Sichtbarkeitsregime. Überwachung, Sicherheit und Privatheit im 21. Jahrhundert.Google Scholar
Barlösius, Eva
2007 “Demographisierung des Gesellschaftlichen. Zur Bedeutung der Repräsentationspraxis [Demographyzation of the social. About the relevance of representation practices].” In Demographisierung des Gesellschaftlichen. Analysen und debatten zur demographischen zukunft Deutschlands [Demographisation of the social. Analyses and debates on the demographic future of Germany], ed. by Eva Barlösius, and Daniela Schiek, 9-36. Wiesbaden: VS.Google Scholar
2010 “Bilder des demografischen wandels [Pictures of demographic change].” In Zukunftswissen. Prognosen in wirtschaft, politik und gesellschaft seit 1900, ed. by Heinrich Hartmann, and Jakob Vogel, 231-248. Frankfurt: Campus.Google Scholar
Birg, Herwig
2001 Die demographische zeitenwende [The demographic turn of an era]. München: Beck.Google Scholar
2005 Die ausgefallene generation [The failed generation]. München: Beck.Google Scholar
Bohk, Christina
2012 Ein probabilistisches bevölkerungsprognosemodell. Entwicklung und anwendung für Deutschland [A probabilistic model of population prognoses. Development and application on Germany]. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bongaarts, John, and Griffith Feeney
1998 “On the Quantum and Tempo of Fertility.” Population and Development Review 24 (2): 271-291. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bröckling, Ulrich
2007 Das unternehmerische selbst. Soziologie einer subjektivierungsform [The enterpreneurship of the self. Sociology of a form of subjectivation]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Bröckling, Ulrich, Susanne Krasmann, and Thomas Lemke
(eds) 2010 Governmentality. Current Issues and Future Challenges. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Denninger, Tina, Silke van Dyk, Stephan Lessenich, and Anna Richter
2014 Leben im ruhestand. Zur neuverhandlung des alters in der aktivgesellschaft [Life in retirement. The re-negotiation of age in the active society]. Bielefeld: Transcript. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Desrosières, Alain
1998 The Politics of Large Numbers: A History of Statistical Reasoning. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
2009 “How to be Real and Conventional: A Discussion of the Quality Criteria of Official Statistics.” Minerva 47 (3): 307-322. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Etzemüller, Thomas
2007 Ein ewigwährender untergang [A permanent nemesis]. Bielefeld: transcript. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 “‘Dreißig jahre nach zwölf?’ Der apokalyptische bevölkerungsdiskurs im 20. jahrhundert [‘Thirty years past twelve?’ The apocalyptic population discourse of the 20th century].” In Apokalypse. Zur soziologie und geschichte religiöser krisenrhetorik, ed. A.K. Nagel, B.U. Schipper and A. Weymann, 197-216. Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus.Google Scholar
Federal Statistical Office
2009 Germany’s Population by 2060. Results of the 12th coordinated population projection. Wiesbaden: Statistisches Bundesamt. Available at: [URL] (Accessed January 5, 2014).Google Scholar
2012 Press Release 255 / 2012-07-25. Germany’s Population Increasing in 2011 for the First Time since 2002. Wiesbaden: Statistisches Bundesamt. Available at: [URL] (Accessed January 5, 2014).Google Scholar
2013 Press Release 354 / 2013-10-22. Number of Foreigners in the Central Register Increases 4.1% in 2012. Wiesbaden: Statistisches Bundesamt. Available at: [URL] (Accessed January 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel
1972 The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
2007 Security, Territory and Population (Lectures at the Collège De France 1977-78), ed. by Michel Senellart. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
2008 The Birth of Biopolitics (Lectures at the Collège De France, 1978-1979), ed. by Michel Senellart. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
2010 The Government of Self and Others (Lectures at the Collège De France, 1982-1983), ed. by Frédéric Gros. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
2011 The Courage of the Truth (The Government of Self and Others II: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983-1984), ed. by Frédéric Gros. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gros, Frédéric
2011 “Course Context.” In The Courage of the Truth (The Government of Self and Others II: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983-1984), ed. by Frédéric Gros, 343-358. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hacking, Ian
2000 The Social Construction of What? Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
2002 Historical Ontology. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hajer, Maarten A
2004 Argumentative diskursanalyse. Auf der suche nach koalitionen, praktiken und bedeutung [Argumentative discourse analysis. Searching for coalitions, practices, and meaning]. In Handbuch Sozialwissenschaftliche Diskursanalyse. Band II: Forschungspraxis [Companion Social-Scientific Discourse Analysis. Part II: RResearch Practice], ed. RR. Keller, 271-98. Opladen: Leske + Budrich. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoy, David C., and Thomas MacCarthy
1994 Critical theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hummel, Diana
2000 Der bevölkerungsdiskurs [The population discourse]. Opladen: Leske & Budrich. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Katz, Stephen
1992 “Alarmist Demography: Power, Knowledge, and the Elderly Population.” Journal of Aging Studies 6 (3): 203-225. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, Franz X
2005 Schrumpfende gesellschaft [Shrinking society]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Kuckartz, Udo
2013 Einführung in die computergestützte Analyse qualitativer daten [Introduction to computer-assisted analysis of qualitative data]. Wiesbaden: VS.Google Scholar
2014 Mixed methods. Methodologie, forschungsdesigns und analyseverfahren [Methodology, Research Designs and Analyses]. Wiesbaden: VS.Google Scholar
Lessenich, Stephan
2008 Die neuerfindung des sozialen. Der sozialstaat im flexiblen kapitalismus [The re-invention of the social. Social state in flexible capitalism]. Bielefeld: transcript. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luy, Marc, and Olga Pötzsch
2010 “Estimates of the Tempo-Adjusted Total Fertility Rate in Western and Eastern Germany, 1955-2008.” Comparative Population Studies – Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft 35 (3): 605-636.Google Scholar
Mackensen, Rainer, Jürgen Reulecke, and Josef Ehmer
(eds) 2009 Ursprünge, arten und folgen des konstrukts ‘bevölkerung’ vor, im und nach dem ‘Dritten Reich’ [Origins, types, and consequences of the construct ‘population’ before, in, and after the ‘3rd Reich’]. Wiesbaden: VS. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Messerschmidt, Reinhard
2011 “Review Essay: A Discourse About Discourses of the Discoursive? Divergences and Possible Convergence of Contemporary Discourse and Governmentality Research from the Perspective of Alethurgic Discourse Analysis.” Forum: Qualitative Social Research 13 (1).Google Scholar
2014 “ ‘Garbled Demography’ or ‘Demographization of the Social’?: A Foucaultian Discourse Analysis of German Demographic Change at the Beginning of the 21st Century.” Historical Social Research, 39, H.1, 299-335.Google Scholar
Riley, Nancy E., and James McCarthy
2003 Demography in the Age of the Postmodern. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sanderson, Warren. C., and Sergei Scherbov
2007 “A New Perspective on Population Aging.” Demographic Research 16 (2): 27-58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “Remeasuring Aging.” Science 329 (5997), 1287-1288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sarasin, Philipp
2008 Wie weiter mit Michael Foucault? [How to continue with Michel Foucault?]. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition.Google Scholar
Scherbov, Sergei, Marija Mamolo, and Wolfgang Lutz
2008 Probabilistic Population Projections for the 27 EU Member States Based on Eurostat Assumptions. Vienna: Vienna Institute of Demography. Available at: [URL] (Accessed January 5, 2014).Google Scholar
Schimany, Peter
2003 Die alterung der gesellschaft. Ursachen und folgen des demographischen umbruchs [The ageing of the society. Causes and consequences of demographic change]. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.Google Scholar
Schirrmacher, Frank
2004 Das Methusalem-komplott [The Methusalem complot]. Munich: Karl Blessing.Google Scholar
Sobotka, Tomáš, and Wolfgang Lutz
2011 “Misleading Policy Messages Derived from the Period TFR: Should We Stop Using It?” Comparative Population Studies – Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft 35 (3): 637-664.Google Scholar
Taleb, Nassim N
2007 The Black Swan. The Impact of the Highly Improbable. New York, Random House.Google Scholar
Teitelbaum, Michael S., and Jay M.Winter
1985 The Fear of Population Decline. Orlando: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Teitelbaum, Michael S
2004 “The Media Marketplace for Garbled Demography.” Population and Development Review 30 (2): 317-327. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Dyk, Silke, Stephan Lessenich, Tina Denninger, and Anna Richter
2013 “The Many Meanings of ‘Active Ageing’. Confronting Public Discourse with Older People’s Stories.” Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques 44 (1): 97-115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Messerschmidt, Reinhard
2017. Demografischer Wandel und gesellschaftliche Zukunft – Deutsche Alterungsdiskurse der Gegenwart und die wachsende Kritik an deren medialer Dramatisierung. In Medien und Kulturen des Konflikts, ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Messerschmidt, Reinhard
2018. Altersaktivierungsdiskurse in deutschen Massenmedien – auf dem Weg zur ‚Abschaffung‘ des Alter(n)s?. In Arbeit im Alter, ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Wintzer, Jeannine
2017. „… Deutschlands Frauen bekommen so wenig Kinder wie fast nirgendwo in der Welt …“. In Macht in Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft, ► pp. 359 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.