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Mark Whitehead Ph.D

About

Mark Whitehead, Ph.D. joined the staff of the Aberystwyth University Department of Geography and Earth Sciences in 2000 and was awarded a personal chair in 2013. His early research focused on the changing forms of urban policy under the New Labour government in the UK. His subsequent work has spanned various aspects of political and environmental studies with a particular concern for the changing nature of state power. In a recent project, which was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Mark was involved in developing the first comprehensive account of the raise of psychological forms of government in the UK state. This project resulted in the recent publication of the book Changing Behaviours: On the Rise of the Psychological State (Edward Elgar, 2013). Mark has just commenced a new research project funded by the UK government’s Economic and Social Research Council. This project is entitled Negotiating Neuroliberalism and is developing an international comparative study of the rise of psychological power within governments throughout the world.

Recent Posts
Behavioural Science Meets Data Science
The idea that integrated technologies will increasingly enable us to close the loop between learning about what people are doing and being able to shape what they are doing, at unprecedented demographic scales, surely heralds a qualitative and quantitive sea change in behavioural governance. In this post we explore the connections between behaviour change and big data
Nudge: The Real Ethical Debate?
Is all the discuss around the ethics of nudging missing the key point? In this blog I argue that it often is and suggest an alternative focus for this ethical attention.
Heuristics: Half Baked
How easy is it to control and change our behavioral heuristics. In this post we explore the emerging debate around this question and what it may mean for public policy.
Experimental Citizenship

Does the use of randomised controlled trials within public policy have implications for how we understand citizenship. In this post we claim it does.

Does the use of randomised controlled trials within public policy have implications for how we understand citizenship. In this post we claim it does.

Homo Economicus to Homer Simpson

Are new forms of psychological governance really reshaping how humans understand themselves? In this post we claim that they are and that there are costs to the overly pessimistic accounts of the human subject that are emerging.

Are new forms of psychological governance really reshaping how humans understand themselves? In this post we claim that they are and that there are costs to the overly pessimistic accounts of the human subject that are emerging.

Neuroliberalism and Redefining Freedom

Are new forms of behavioural governance really challenging established liberal ways of interpreting freedom? In this post we argue they are.

Are new forms of behavioural governance really challenging established liberal ways of interpreting freedom? In this post we argue they are.

The Psychological State II: Emotional Government

In this post we consider the emerging relationships between governments and our emotions. Exploring the notion of emotional governance, this blog post outlines how notions of the therapeutic and submerged state can help us to understand better what is going on.

In this post we consider the emerging relationships between governments and our emotions. Exploring the notion of emotional governance, this blog post outlines how notions of the therapeutic and submerged state can help us to understand better what is going on.

Introducing the Psychological State

Have we entered a new period of government within which the psychological is a new vector for public policy design and intervention? This post explores the origins and nature of what we term the psychological state.

Have we entered a new period of government within which the psychological is a new vector for public policy design and intervention? This post explores the origins and nature of what we term the psychological state.