Security beyond Biopolitics

The Spheropolitics, Co-Immunity, and Atmospheres of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Bibliographic Data

ID2236656
AuthorsJaroslav Weinfurter (0000-0002-8014-3858, Prague University of Economics and Business, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume17
Issue1
Publication date2023-01-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Political Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ips/olad003
OpenAlexW4319988404
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited45

This article explores the limitations of the oft-used biopolitical frameworks of interpreting the regulatory emergency measures that have been enacted worldwide in the face of the spreading pandemic of COVID-19. Not only have the state responses to coronavirus often been beset by manner of 'biopolitical failures,' it is also the Foucauldian emphasis on the top-down formation and application of immunity that produces a view of health security that is much too narrow. In proposing an alternative framework, the article draws from the spherology of Peter Sloterdijk and suggests a transition from bio- to a distinctly sphero-political theory of immunity that is capable of integrating the ontological synergies that exist between human bodies, spaces, and atmospheres. More specifically, the spheropolitics of coronavirus are discussed in relation to the security dispositif of the household and examined through the case of the Czech Republic

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Biology · Biopower · Coronavirus · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Czech · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept) · Pandemic · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Sovereignty · State (computer science) · State of exception · Computer Science · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Virology