Rethinking biopolitics: COVID-19, differential vulnerabilities and biopolitical rights

Abstract

In this article, I develop a critique of the forms of differential vulnerability produced by biopolitical technologies of power which became particularly salient during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, I address some conceptual and methodological questions linked to Foucault’s work on biopolitics, and I argue that one of his most promising insights is the claim that biopolitics necessarily entails a politics of differential vulnerability. I then develop an immanent critique of this politics of differential vulnerability and show that it should be construed as a form of injustice. Finally, I argue that some of the most fundamental human rights can be conceived as ‘biopolitical rights’, that is, as rights whose normativity stems from the biopolitical mechanisms of power that manage our biological lives. I conclude by suggesting that a critical theory of biopolitical rights constitutes an effective strategic response to the current injustices created – before, during and after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic – by the biopolitical production of the differential exposure of citizens to health, social and environmental risks.