This article draws from the work of Michel Foucault to reconstruct an understanding of social
policy and ageing in contemporary Britain. In many ways, policy provides three trajectories for older
people; first, as independent self-managing consumers with private means and resources; second, as
people in need of some support to enable them to continue to self-manage and third, as dependent and
unable to commit to self-management. Governmentality provides the theoretical framework through
which to view policy and practice that is largely governed by discourses of personalisation
