The government of life: Managing populations, health and scarcity
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The government of life : Managing populations, health and scarcity. / Villadsen, Kaspar; Wahlberg, Ayo.
In: Economy and Society, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2015, p. 1-17.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The government of life
T2 - Managing populations, health and scarcity
AU - Villadsen, Kaspar
AU - Wahlberg, Ayo
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - The concepts of governmentality and biopolitics were contemporaneous and interlinked in Michel Foucault's initial analyses. These foregrounded how in the eighteenth century the population emerged as a ‘natural-cultural reality’ resulting from an integration of biological and economic knowledge. Subsequent research on biopolitics and governmentality has tended to separate the concepts, differentiating into distinct research traditions each with different intellectual pathways. We propose to bring these conceptual innovations together to understand contemporary problems of the government of life, that is, of managing, controlling and optimizing a living population. In this domain, the natural/biological continues to intersect with the social/cultural in novel and unexpected ways. Straddling the specter of biopolitics, we examine four dimensions of the concept: vital threats and the resurrection of death power, the interplay of sovereignty, discipline and security, governmentalization through medical normalization, and ‘securitization’ of life as circulations and open series. The article also introduces this special feature on the government of life in which significant scholars explores issues of population management by drawing upon, debating, and developing the conceptual heritage of Foucault.
AB - The concepts of governmentality and biopolitics were contemporaneous and interlinked in Michel Foucault's initial analyses. These foregrounded how in the eighteenth century the population emerged as a ‘natural-cultural reality’ resulting from an integration of biological and economic knowledge. Subsequent research on biopolitics and governmentality has tended to separate the concepts, differentiating into distinct research traditions each with different intellectual pathways. We propose to bring these conceptual innovations together to understand contemporary problems of the government of life, that is, of managing, controlling and optimizing a living population. In this domain, the natural/biological continues to intersect with the social/cultural in novel and unexpected ways. Straddling the specter of biopolitics, we examine four dimensions of the concept: vital threats and the resurrection of death power, the interplay of sovereignty, discipline and security, governmentalization through medical normalization, and ‘securitization’ of life as circulations and open series. The article also introduces this special feature on the government of life in which significant scholars explores issues of population management by drawing upon, debating, and developing the conceptual heritage of Foucault.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - Population
KW - Biopolitics
KW - governmentality
KW - epidemics
KW - scarcity
KW - health statistics
KW - Foucault
U2 - 10.1080/03085147.2014.983831
DO - 10.1080/03085147.2014.983831
M3 - Journal article
VL - 44
SP - 1
EP - 17
JO - Economy and Society
JF - Economy and Society
SN - 0308-5147
IS - 1
ER -
ID: 137819596