A concept of M. Foucault (2003) to encompass the mentalities, rationalities, and techniques used by governments, within a defined territory, actively to create the subjects (the governed), and the social, economic, and political structures, in and through which their policy can best be implemented. In other words, governments try to produce the citizen best suited to fulfil their policies: ‘a national form of biopower directed not so much at the management of individual human bodies as at populations and their territories’ (M. Hannah 2000). ‘Governmentality points at the techniques and rationalities involved in both governing the self and governing others’ (Cupers (2008) Cult. Geogs. 15). Governmentality also includes ways in which spaces and places are created, and used, in order to pursue policies; see Airriess (2005) J. Hist. Geog. 31, 4 on politically contested space in Hong Kong’s New Territories. Colonial governmentality aimed to construct a wage-earning, property-owning, taxpaying, and literate subject (Legg (2006) Soc. & Cult. Geog. 7, 5).