Biopower, Life and Left Politics

Abstract

This paper seeks to make connections between Foucault's conception of 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 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.