The biopolitics of fear
Assessing Agamben’s analysis of the Covid-19 lockdowns
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6421889 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Gorby (0000-0001-9898-2097, University of St Andrews, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 345-361 |
| Publication date | 2023-10-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Distinktion Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1600-910X • E-ISSN: 2159-9149 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1600910x.2023.2254010 |
| OpenAlex | W4387696380 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 20 |
This article provides a critical reading of Giorgio Agamben’s writings on the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures imposed by Western states. Taking the theme of fear to be central to Agamben’s interventions on this topic, it constructs a genealogy of the political theology of fear through The Book of Job to Thomas Hobbes and up to the work of Agamben. Contrary to readings which treat Agamben’s pandemic texts as examples of conspiracy theorizing, this article takes them seriously as works of political thought. Nonetheless, they ultimately fall victim to their own politics of fear: what Michel Foucault has termed ‘state-phobia’. Against this state-phobia, the article turns to Antonio Negri’s reading of The Book of Job in order to gesture towards a politics of solidarity grounded in a shared understanding of suffering which overcomes the weaknesses of Agamben’s interventions
Biopower · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Epistemology · Linguistics · Pandemic · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Reading (process · Sociology · Solidarity · State (computer science · State of exception · Theme (computing · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Psychology
Stasis
Biomedical technocracy, the networked public sphere and the biopolitics of Covid-19
The State of Exception
Agamben and Politics
What World Is This
The Figure of This World
The Kingdom and the Glory
State Phobia and Civil Society
Homo Sacer
The biopolitical economy of the Covid-19 pandemic and the possibilities for an affirmative biopolitics
Giorgio Agamben's political formalism
Towards Affirmative Economic Theologies
A Farewell to Homo Sacer? Sovereign Power and Bare Life in Agamben’s Coronavirus Commentary
The labor of Job
The Birth of Biopolitics
Political Theology and Covid-19
The Immeasurably Creative Politics of Job
Agamben's Philosophical Trajectory
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |