The Governmentality of Master Planning: Housing Consumption, Aesthetics and Community on a New Estate

The emergence of advanced liberalism as a political rationality has been accompanied by a trend towards more privatized forms of governing, in which market actors assume many of the responsibilities that were formerly state-provided. As a result, the problems of rule regarding who or what to govern and by what means are increasingly preoccupying private actors. This paper examines the privatized governmentalities of rules posed by a property developer of a master planned estate, as it seeks to govern the ethical conduct of local residents by governing through community so that they voluntarily maintain the aesthetic standards of the estate, not only for their own benefit, but also out of a sense of commitment to others.