Governmentality through intertextuality

In this chapter I analyse texts composed and exchanged within the New Zealandtertiary education domain in order to explore the “will to govern” (Miller andRose 2008: 29) in its contemporary manifestation. Using intertextuality as theprinciple framework, the analysis is grounded in a detailed case study of the useof strategic planning as a technology of government. The investigation revealsthe considerable extent to which governments can govern through textualmeans, notwithstanding a tightening of control over the period studied throughchanges in regimes of compliance. Notable also in the universities’ enforcedadoption of strategic planning is the extent to which the discursive practicesthat characterise strategic planning in a complex, multi-levelled environmentcan enhance a liberal rationality of rule.