Governmentality and Biopolitics: Foucault and Beyond 3102-FGAP

The concepts of governmentality and biopolitics are among key elements of the toolkit of contemporary social theory. Originally proposed by Michel Foucault, they have been variously adopted, adapted, and rearticulated by numerous other scholars since. This course explores selected approaches to governmentality and biopolitics in political philosophy and social science, as well as some of the various ways these concepts have been operationalized in social anthropology.

The course includes readings in the work of theorists including Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, Hannah Arendt, Achille Mbembe, Paolo Virno, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, in dialogue with ethnographic explorations of topics ranging from infrastructure and city-planning to public health, pandemics, and nuclear catastrophe, and humanitarian action to racism and border security.

Type of course

optional courses

Mode

Classroom

Prerequisites (description)

The course is designed primarily (though not exclusively) for graduate students (MA and PhD). Undergraduate (BA) students are welcome, yet the course represents a relatively advanced theoretical level. A general knowledge of political anthropology (e.g. my lecture course in Political Anthropology) and a background knowledge of philosophy are recommended, but not strictly required.

Course coordinators

Mateusz Laszczkowski

Learning outcomes

The students become familiar with the concepts of governmentality and biopolitics, the various ways they have been conceptualized in political philosophy and social theory, and used as tools in social anthropological research. The students are able to use these concepts as instruments in their own research, and to draw on the concepts' critical potential in analysing aspects of contemporary social reality.

Assessment criteria

Primary: written essay of approx. 2,500 words, on an individually defined topic, relevant to the course and making use of at least some of the course readings.

Secondary: activity, in-class presentation on a selected topic (voluntary).

Bibliography

Giorgio Agamben, "Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life"'
Hannah Arendt, "The Human Condition";
Timothy Campbell and Adam Sitze (eds.), "Biopolitics: A Reader"
Michel Foucault, "Governmentality";
Michel Foucault, "The Birth of Biopolitics";
Thomas Lemke, "Biopolitics: An Advanced Introduction";
Thomas Lemke, "The Government of Things: Foucault and the New Materialisms";
Adriana Petryna, "Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl"

...more TBA

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 3102-FGAP in USOSweb