Life, Science, and Biopower

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5337783
AutoresSujatha Raman (0000-0002-9037-5716, Institute for Science and Society (ISS), Law & Social Sciences Building West Wing, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, autor de correspondencia), Richard Tutton (0000-0002-6946-6875, Lancaster University)
Año2010
Volumen35
Número5
Páginas711-734
Fecha de publicación2010-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243909345838
OpenAlexW2080104309
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas63
Referencias citadas45

This article critically engages with the influential theory of ''molecularized biopower'' and ''politics of life'' developed by Paul Rabinow and Nikolas Rose. Molecularization is assumed to signal the end of population-centred biopolitics and the disciplining of subjects as described by Foucault, and the rise of new forms of biosociality and biological citizenship. Drawing on empirical work in Science and Technology Studies (STS), we argue that this account is limited by a focus on novelty and assumptions about the transformative power of the genetic life sciences. We suggest that biopower consists of a more complex cluster of relationships between the molecular and the population. The biological existence of different human beings is politicized through different complementary and competing discourses around medical therapies, choices at the beginning and end of life, public health, environment, migration and border controls, implying a multiple rather than a singular politics of life

Biopower · Citizenship · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Governmentality · Political science · Politics · Population · Social science · Sociology · Transformative learning · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · Law · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Philosophy · Race, Genetics, and Society