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Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society Advance Access originally published online on February 11, 2009
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 2009 16(1):111-131; doi:10.1093/sp/jxp004
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Work–Life Balance: A Case of Technical Disempowerment?

Ruth McManus

Work–life balance (WLB) is an emblematic strategy to achieve well-being for Third Way governments around the world and an exercise in nurturing self-actualizing and entrepreneurial citizens. By reading a case study of New Zealand's Labour WLB project through a poststructuralist perspective, I demonstrate that Third Way WLB policy projects are technical exercises in ethicalization. These practices serve to de-contextualize and de-politicize the terrain of well-being. This analysis highlights a contradiction in Third Way agendas to address the well-being of the needy because they disempower those they seek to empower.


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