COVID-19 and the genealogies of biopolitics: A pandemic history of the present

Abstract

In this paper we approach the COVID-19 pandemic through the genealogical analysis of biopolitics. We recognize two key discontinuities in the genealogy of biopolitics. First, we have the transformation of the ?old biological regime? and the emergence of the gaze as a technology of power/knowledge. This was essentially the epoch of the birth of biopolitics, and the period when life ?entered? the sphere of politics. We then note the emergent discontinuity in biopolitical technologies today, during the pandemic of COVID-19, as we are witness to the transformations of biopolitical measures on the global scale. We also recognize important lessons from the genealogy of biopolitics as a ?history of the present?. During just one historical epoch, biopolitics emerged as the power over life. That was the period of the so called ?epistemic break? and the emergence of life as the new dynamic force of productivity, power, trade, cities, urbanization, population, and capitalism. This is how the risk that was once the base of ?life function? instability became the central problem of biopolitics. It is the same concern of biopolitics today, but in completely novel social settings.