Governing by prevention: neoliberal management of sexual health in France

International audienceIn his 1979 Collège de France lecture course on biopolitics, Michel Foucault analyses the shift from governing logics to governmentality. Through the rationalization of practices, this “conduct of conducts” creates and promotes a certain neoliberal subject, one that is proactive and adaptable to changes through the public policy on “sexual health”, and act on her own health through self-restraint. Mobilising the Foucauldian approach on neoliberalism and governmentality, this chapter analyses trends in HIV/AIDS and STD prevention through the discussion of the French national sexual health strategy and the “diversified” prevention schemes on the French policy agenda. By looking at the prevention campaigns carried out between 2010 and 2018 by the main HIV prevention agencies, the chapter examines the changes that occurred in discourses of prevention policies from 2015 onwards. The aim of the chapter is to understand their political rationale and assess the extent to which they reflect a shift to the “government of conduct” in the field of prevention that can be regarded as properly neoliberal