Biopower was a term originally coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault to refer to the practice of modern states and their regulation of their subjects through "an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations". Foucault first used it in his courses at the Collège de France, but the term first appeared in The Will To Knowledge, Foucault's first volume of The History of Sexuality. In both Foucault's work and the work of later theorists it has been used to refer to practices of public health, regulation of heredity, and risk regulation (François Ewald), among many other things often linked less directly with literal physical health. It is closely related to a term he uses much less frequently, but which subsequent thinkers have taken up independently, biopolitics. A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ; English-speakers pronunciation varies) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... Courtyard of the Collège de France. ... The History of Sexuality is the title of a three-volume series of books by Michel Foucault written in 1976. ... A neologism invented by Michel Foucault, the term Biopolitics or Biopolitical can refer to several different yet not incompatible concepts: In the work of Michel Foucault, the style of government that regulates populations through biopower. ...

Foucault

For Foucault, biopower is a technology of power, which is a way of exercising various techniques into a single technology of power. For Foucault, the distinctive quality of this political technology is that it allows for the control of entire populations. It is thus essential to the emergence of the modern nation state, modern capitalism, etc. Biopower is literally having power over other bodies, "an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations" (History of Sexuality, Vol.I, p.140). It relates to the government's concern with fostering the life of the population, and centers on the poles of disciplines ("an anatomo-politics of the human body") and regulatory controls ("a biopolitics of the population"). By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ... Much of the recent sociological debate on power revolves around the issue of constraining and/or enabling nature of power. ... A nation-state is a specific form of state, which exists to provide a sovereign territory for a particular nation, and which derives its legitimacy from that function. ... Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately[1] owned and operated for profit, and in which distribution, production and pricing of goods and services are determined in a largely free market. ... Disciplinary institutions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Biopower for Foucault contrasts with traditional modes of power based on the threat of death from a sovereign. In an era where power must be justified rationally, biopower is utilized by an emphasis on the protection of life rather than the threat of death, on the regulation of the body, and the production of other technologies of power, such as the notion of sexuality. Regulation of customs, habits, health, reproductive practices, family, "blood", and "well-being" would be straightforward examples of biopower, as would any conception of the state as a "body" and the use of state power as essential to its "life". Hence the conceived relationship between biopower, eugenics and state racism. Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme political (e. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ... State racism is a concept used by French philosopher Michel Foucault to designate the reappropriation of the historical and political discourse of race struggle, In the late seventeenth century. ...

With the concept of "biopower", which first appears in courses concerning the discourse of "race struggle", Foucault defines power as positive, in opposition to the classic understanding of power as basically negative, limitative and akin to censorship. Sexuality, he argues, far from having been reduced to silence during the Victorian Era, was in fact subjected to a "sexuality dispositif"¹ (or "mechanism"), which incites and even forced the subject to speak about his sex. Thus, "sexuality does not exist", it is a discursive creation, which makes us believe that sexuality contains our personal truth (in the same way that the discourse of "race struggle" sees the truth of politics and history in the everlasting subterranean war which takes place beneath the so-called peace). Philosophy of History is an area of philosophy concerning the eventual significance, if any, of human history, and speculation as to a possible teleological end to its development. ... Censorship is the removal or withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... Subject (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Furthermore, the exercise of power in the service of maximizing life carries a dark underside. When the state is invested in protecting the life of the population, when the stakes are life itself, anything can be justified. Groups identified as the threat to the existence of the life of the nation or of humanity can be eradicated with impunity. "If genocide is indeed the dream of modern power, this is not because of the recent return to the ancient right to kill; it is because power is situated and exercised at the level of life, the species, the race, and the large-scale phenomena of the population." (History of Sexuality, Vol. I in The Foucault Reader p. 137). Look up Genocide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

1. The French word `dispositif` is the same that is used for photographic slides, so perhaps this could best be thought as a 'sexual transparency' which overlays.

Other uses

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri also reinscribe the concept in their Marxist theoretical framework. Both biopower and biopolitics are crucial to the arguments advanced in their book Empire (2000), and in the sequel, Multitude, published in 2004. Michael Hardt is an American literary theorist and political philosopher based at Duke University. ... Antonio Negri (August 1, 1933- ) is a moral and political philosopher, and a former political inmate from Italy. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... A neologism invented by Michel Foucault, the term Biopolitics or Biopolitical can refer to several different yet not incompatible concepts: In the work of Michel Foucault, the style of government that regulates populations through biopower. ... {{ otheruses4|Empire (Book)|novels|Empire (2006 novel)]] or [[Empire (1987 novel) }} Cover of the Swedish edition (Imperiet) Empire is a text written by Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Multitude is a term of Spinozas taken up by political theorists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in the international best-seller Empire (2000) and expanded upon in their recent Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (2004). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Giorgio Agamben defines the classical concept of sovereignty as integrating, since its Greek beginnings, biopower, whereas for Foucault "biopower" designates the historical emergence of a certain type of "technology of power." Giorgio Agamben (born 1942) is an Italian philosopher who teaches at the Università IUAV di Venezia. ... Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme political (e. ...

References

• Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume I, "Part Five: Right of Death and Power over Life".
• Michel Foucault, The Will to Knowledge
• Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended
• Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer
• Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire
• Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Multitude

The History of Sexuality is the title of a three-volume series of books by Michel Foucault written in 1976. ... The History of Sexuality is the title of a three-volume series of books by Michel Foucault written in 1976. ... Homo sacer (Latin for the sacred man) is an obscure figure of Roman law: a person who is banned, may be killed by anybody, but may not be sacrificed in a religious ritual. ... {{ otheruses4|Empire (Book)|novels|Empire (2006 novel)]] or [[Empire (1987 novel) }} Cover of the Swedish edition (Imperiet) Empire is a text written by Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. ...

See also

• governmentality

Governmentality was a concept developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault in the later years of his life, roughly between 1979 and his death in 1984, particularly in his lectures at the Collège de France during this time. ...

External links

• Melinda Cooper, Andrew Goffey and Anna Munster, The Seventh Edition of this e-Journal focuses exclusively on biopolitics

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