The biopolitical economy of the COVID-19 pandemic and the possibilities for an affirmative biopolitics

Taşkale, Ali Rıza

doi:10.1080/1600910x.2022.2075026

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Predictably, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the emergence of a panoply of analyses centred on Michel Foucault's notions of biopower and biopolitics (see, among dozens of papers, Arminjon and Marion-Veyron, 2021;Cohen et al, 2022;Ioakimidis, 2020;Ristić and Marinković, 2022;Schubert, 2022;Taşkale, 2022;Van den Berge, 2020). In this article, I will not draw a distinction between the two notions, 1 and use them interchangeably to indicate the political rationalities and power mechanisms that aim to protect, manage and enhance the biological life of a population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Lorenzini

2024

Journal of European Studies

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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.

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