Biopower, Life and Left Politics

Matthew G. Hannah

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00840.x

Biopower, Life and Left Politics

Matthew G. Hannah

Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

43 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1034-1055
Number of pages	22
Journal	Antipode
Volume	43
Issue number	4
Early online date	05 Jan 2011
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00840.x
Publication status	Published - Sept 2011

Keywords

biopower
biopolitics
nostalgia
life
neoliberalism
futurism

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10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00840.x

http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7638

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title = "Biopower, Life and Left Politics",

abstract = "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.",

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author = "Hannah, {Matthew G.}",

note = "This paper seeks to make connections between Foucault's conception of {"}biopower{"} and other left-progressive research traditions in the social sciences and humanities. Such connections have been difficult to forge because of seeming incompatibilities between the concepts anchoring the different traditions. The approach taken in the paper systematically explores the possibility of defining the human {"}life{"} that is the object of biopower in such a way as to highlight how the government of life can dovetail with progressive agendas. The conceptualisation of biopolitical life is examined in terms of its proper geographical scope, its vital nature and its orientation toward the future. In each case the paper argues for specific definitions of life that encourage a biopower in the service of social justice. The argument has the potential to appeal to a wide range of scholars familiar with one or more of the various research traditions treated in the paper. Hannah, M. G. (2011). Biopower, Life and Left Politics. Antipode, 43 (4), 1034-1055. ",

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Biopower, Life and Left Politics

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