Biopower, Life and Left Politics

Bibliographic Data

ID5823541
AuthorsMatthew G Hannah (0009-0009-9738-0268, Aberystwyth University, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume43
Issue4
Pages1034-1055
Publication date2011-01-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAntipode (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-4812 • E-ISSN: 1467-8330
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00840.x
OpenAlexW2135212275
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited30

The terms biopower and biopolitics have been deployed in widely varying ways in recent critical political analyses. This essay seeks to rescue from the welter of its deployments a general understanding of biopower potentially useful to left political projects. First, recent iterations of the concept of biopower are surveyed. In the main body of the paper, a series of interventions in recent critical debates are used to trace out a critical re-mapping of the concept of "life" that names the ends of biopower. Biopolitically relevant life is reconsidered in terms of its proper geographical scope, its gender, racial and ethnic specificities, its distinguishing vital qualities, and its relation to temporality (particularly the future). Through this exercise the notion of biopower is redefined so as to provide potential "docking points" for Marxist, feminist and green discourses, and conceptual resources for left struggles against global injustice

Biopower · Injustice · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access