Political Pedagogy of Technical Assistance: A Study in Historical Ontology of Russian Postcommunism

Abstract

Political Pedagogy of Technical Assistance is a study of the effects of EU technical assistance to socioeconomic reforms in contemporary Russia on the formation of postcommunist forms of government. Taking its point of departure in the work of Michel Foucault and the contemporary studies in governmentality, the study poses the question of how the new social order is instituted in local and mundane processes of the transfer of European professional and managerial practices to the Russian counterparts.

The empirical focus of the book is on three EU Tacis projects undertaken in the Russian Republic of Karelia during 1997-2002. The analysis of these EU practices comprises three dimensions that correspond to Foucauldian axes of historical ontology: archaeology, genealogy and ethics. Firstly, the author undertakes an archaeological analysis of the discourse of technical assistance in order to reconstitute the structure of the mode of governmentality, actualized in these practices. The second part of the study features a genealogical interpretation of the historical conditions of the emergence of this mode of governmentality and discusses its integration into the overall field of socioeconomic reforms implemented in contemporary Russia. Finally, the study ventures an ethical critique of technical assistance as a governmental practice and raises the question of the possibility of a concept and practice of freedom that is not tied to governmental subjectification. These three analytical strategies serve to enhance the understanding of the role of EU technical assistance in the Russian politics of the emergence of postcommunist forms of state-society relations.

Political Pedagogy of Technical Assistance is a study of the effects of EU technical assistance to socioeconomic reforms in contemporary Russia on the formation of postcommunist forms of government. Taking its point of departure in the work of Michel Foucault and the contemporary studies in governmentality, the study poses the question of how the new social order is instituted in local and mundane processes of the transfer of European professional and managerial practices to the Russian counterparts.

The empirical focus of the book is on three EU Tacis projects undertaken in the Russian Republic of Karelia during 1997-2002. The analysis of these EU practices comprises three dimensions that correspond to Foucauldian axes of historical ontology: archaeology, genealogy and ethics. Firstly, the author undertakes an archaeological analysis of the discourse of technical assistance in order to reconstitute the structure of the mode of governmentality, actualized in these practices. The second part of the study features a genealogical interpretation of the historical conditions of the emergence of this mode of governmentality and discusses its integration into the overall field of socioeconomic reforms implemented in contemporary Russia. Finally, the study ventures an ethical critique of technical assistance as a governmental practice and raises the question of the possibility of a concept and practice of freedom that is not tied to governmental subjectification. These three analytical strategies serve to enhance the understanding of the role of EU technical assistance in the Russian politics of the emergence of postcommunist forms of state-society relations.