Exploring state socialist governmentality: Eastern European examples from medicine and health care

Introducing the special issue of History of the Human Sciences on ‘Socialist Governmentality’, this article sketches out the potential of transferring Foucault’s governmentality concept to the state socialist societies of Cold War Eastern Europe. In six case studies from Poland, the GDR, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and a Romanian ex-pat community in Libya, we focus on health-related practices between 1960 and 1989–1990. Given the rather diverse scope of the special issue, this introduction aims to unfold the conceptual framework and discuss the possibilities and limitations of sending Foucault across the Iron Curtain. First, it outlines some of the challenges late modernity posed to both hemispheres of the Global North: The ‘crisis’ of governability in the age of the ‘scientific-technical revolution’ and advanced welfarism seemed to call for alternative ways of governing complex societies, including a shift of responsibilities to the individual. Thus, in a second step, Foucault’s concept of the liberal ‘conduct of conduct’ is recaptured. Adaptions of his theorising for other than Western contexts are outlined, which called for inquiries into concrete, local practices of governing oneself. Following this imperative, our case studies are, lastly, situated in the multi-faceted landscape of state socialist health care and health-related self-techniques.