Changing Behaviours

Psycholog的崛起ical State

Rhys Jones, Professor of Human Geography, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, UK, Jessica Pykett, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, UK and Mark Whitehead, Professor of Human Geography, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, UK

Changing Behaviours charts the emergence of the behaviour change agenda in UK based public policy making since the late 1990s.

By tracing the influence of the behavioural sciences on Whitehall policy makers, the authors explore a new psychological orthodoxy in the practices of governing. Drawing on original empirical material, chapters examine the impact of behaviour change policies in the fields of health, personal finance and the environment. This topical and insightful book analyses how the nature of the human subject itself is re-imagined through behaviour change, and develops an analytical framework for evaluating the ethics, efficacy and potential empowerment of behaviour change.

‘This volume is well-written and engaging from the start and is based on a detailed analysis of policy making (although international examples are drawn upon). . . I highly recommend this readable and well-informed book to all those interested in policy making and the influence of psychology.’
– Alan Lewis, Journal of Economic Psychology
‘This groundbreaking book provides a meticulously-researched history of the rise of a new state that aims to govern people by changing their behaviour through influencing (or at least claiming to influence) their psyche. With examples from finance, transport, health and environment, it also illustrates the struggles of citizens who fight against this new agenda of government. The book shows how deeply the psyche has become a different site of power and hence a different object of knowledge over the last two or three decades.’
– Engin Isin, the Open University, UK

‘A really interesting and engaging account of the ways that diverse and contradictory ideas from psychology, neuroscience and economics have influenced successive behaviour-change projects across UK public policy since the early 2000s. Apparently we lead the world in all this, and 51 other countries are now following in Britain’s wake.’
– Professer Kathryn Ecclestone, Times Higher Education