I have another question here re:biopower
In the end of HS1 Foucault speaks of an "anatomo-politics of the human
body" on the one hand, and a "biopolitics of the population" on the
other, as two primary modes whereby the body as a biological entity was
incorporated into the art of governing. Both of these Foucault calls
"bio-power" a few pages later, a specific characteristic of power
relationships which focus both on the disciplining of the individual
body of the subject (albeit thru universalized models of docile
training) and the organization and management of the population (albeit
thru individualizing modes of knowledge-production).
However there's a great essay called I think "Faire vivre et laisse
mourir: la naissance du racisme" in Les Temps Moderne in which Foucault
now makes a more clear-cut distinction between, one the one hand, modes
of power concentrated on the individual body - which he calls bio-power
- and which are often manifested in institutional settings and which
work thru disciplinary strategies. On the other he talks about modes of
power concentrated on the population as a biological entity (birth/death
rates, sexual activity, health records, statistics, disease control) -
which he specifies as biopolitics - and which are often instituted via
the state and which work thru the art of government or governmentality.
Does this seem a viable clarification that Foucault makes w/ his own
work, or is it a point of confusion?
While these distinctions might seem too neat, it does make sense in his
context of the development of racism, where biopolitics speaks
specifically to forms of managing and regulating something called the
population, and it especially seems relevant w/ current debates over the
Human Genome Project, new forms of sociobiology & ethnic cleansing, and
what Vandana Shiva calls "biopiracy" or biocolonialism....
Eugene Thacker
--
]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] bio_informatics
]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] ftp_formless_anatomy ]]]]]] ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
http://www.formless.org ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
http://gsa.rutgers.edu/maldoror/index.html ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
maldoror@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
In the end of HS1 Foucault speaks of an "anatomo-politics of the human
body" on the one hand, and a "biopolitics of the population" on the
other, as two primary modes whereby the body as a biological entity was
incorporated into the art of governing. Both of these Foucault calls
"bio-power" a few pages later, a specific characteristic of power
relationships which focus both on the disciplining of the individual
body of the subject (albeit thru universalized models of docile
training) and the organization and management of the population (albeit
thru individualizing modes of knowledge-production).
However there's a great essay called I think "Faire vivre et laisse
mourir: la naissance du racisme" in Les Temps Moderne in which Foucault
now makes a more clear-cut distinction between, one the one hand, modes
of power concentrated on the individual body - which he calls bio-power
- and which are often manifested in institutional settings and which
work thru disciplinary strategies. On the other he talks about modes of
power concentrated on the population as a biological entity (birth/death
rates, sexual activity, health records, statistics, disease control) -
which he specifies as biopolitics - and which are often instituted via
the state and which work thru the art of government or governmentality.
Does this seem a viable clarification that Foucault makes w/ his own
work, or is it a point of confusion?
While these distinctions might seem too neat, it does make sense in his
context of the development of racism, where biopolitics speaks
specifically to forms of managing and regulating something called the
population, and it especially seems relevant w/ current debates over the
Human Genome Project, new forms of sociobiology & ethnic cleansing, and
what Vandana Shiva calls "biopiracy" or biocolonialism....
Eugene Thacker
--
]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] bio_informatics
]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] ftp_formless_anatomy ]]]]]] ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
http://www.formless.org ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
http://gsa.rutgers.edu/maldoror/index.html ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
maldoror@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]