SPEAKING TRUTH TO BIOPOWER

Abstract

Much of the biopolitical literature has been preoccupied with the relationship between biopolitics and economy, or bioeconomy as it is increasingly called. Although much has been said about the economical aspects of developments in biotechnology and biomedicine, the central concept of bioeconomy has been vasdy under-theorized, a situation that leads to serious confusion over the novelty of the phenomenon. This article argues that Foucault's lectures on biopolitics clearly demonstrate how intimately its origin is bound up with political economy and liberalism. Instead of seeing biotechnology as creating an unholy alliance with contemporary capitalism, we should rather see today's developments against the backdrop of an initial relationship between biopolitics and political economy; this article seeks to elaborate the genealogy of this initial relationship. Two aspects are important in this alleged genealogy of bioeconomy: first, the concept of the population and its proper form of ‘economical’ self-regulation is essential. Second, the truth-telling mechanism (veridiction) of political economy plays a central role, because it potentially subjects any political rationality to a critical test.