yes thank you very much thanks to the

organizers for inviting me to what

promised to be a very inspiring

conference here in Dublin at Trinity

College I'm very honored to be part of

this conference and pleased to be with

you in the next days as my talk is the

first one in this conference and given

that I've written an introductory book

on bio politics I assume that the

conference organised assigned the duty

of the task to me to give a brief and

precise overview on the notion of bio

politics and especially fucose National

bio politics in some central lines of

reception arriving from it pointing to

problems as well as perspectives of

analytics of bio politics

I'm quite happy with this assignment and

my hope is that my talk would serve as a

good basis for the debates and

discussions in the next three days the

talk consists of two parts

the first one will be mostly

reconstructive drawing on arguments

developed in my books in my book on bio

politics and elsewhere and the second

part in the second part I will try out

some new ideas based on points that are

raised in recent publications I will

proceed as follows I will start with a

brief presentation of fuko's concept of

bio politics and will then distinguish

between two important lines of reception

emerging from it the first line has its

home in philosophy sociology and both

social and political theory and is

oriented toward the question of the mode

of politics

how does biopolitics function and what

counter forces does it mobilize how it

is different analytically and

historically from other epochs and

political forms the second line has its

starting point in Science and Technology

studies medical sociology and the

history of science cultural anthropology

feminist theory and Gender Studies its

focuses of a matter of life how have the

representation and the intervention in

life forms been altered

new technological options and the

conception of living bodies as texts

that can be read and we rewritten this

won't be a very elaborate PowerPoint

presentation I will only give you the

opportunity follow some lengthy

quotations so when I read them out so

that's easier to follow for you I would

suggest in the second part that it is

possible to tithe the two research

perspectives more closely together and

to react to collate them within an

analytics of government I will try to

show that such an theoretical

perspective is informed by elements in

focus writings but it was never

systematically developed by him it

necessitates going beyond the original

framing of bio politics in Foucault and

aims the systematic linkage and the

theoretical reconsideration of the

concepts of bio politics and government

allottee as assets in the first part the

first part of my talk will be mainly

reconstructed into theories I will

review as well as many of the arguments

will be familiar to many of you

especially those who have read my book

on bio politics however the

reconstructive part is necessary since

the second part of my presentation is

based on it and it's also my hope that

would serve as a good basis for further

discussions in this conference one more

thing before before I start I originally

planned in this talk to explore in

greater detail promising areas of

research that have so far received

little attention and work on bio

politics and I wanted to focus

especially on two of them first the

so-called new materialism that shifts

the accent from life to vibrant matter

to use the concept coined by Jane Bennet

and secondly the work on bio economy or

bio capital that investigates the

systemic relations between neoliberalism

or contemporary capitalism on the one

hand and changing concepts of life

systemic links between vitality and

value

new relations between production and

reproduction and the emergent of the

biotech industry on the other both are

important debates for a rethinking of

the notion of bio politics since they

address the two questions that the

notion and Kasper lates what is the

matter of life and what is the meaning

of politics roughly I wanted to review

the theoretical movement that leaves

from bio politics to bio economics and

from bio power to what Bennett has

termed think power however I have not

yet managed to develop this argument

substantially enough and one of the

reasons for this is that I have come to

realize that they do not fit easily into

the general argument linking bio

politics and government charity they

therefore needs to be the subject of a

separate talk as a consequence I will

only briefly deal with a new materialism

in the later part of my presentation by

arguing from for an analytics of

government that shifts and modifies the

notion of bio politics so let me start

with the first part and the observation

that the concept bio politics has had a

remarkable career while until recently

the only a small number of specialists

were familiar with it it is now used in

many different disciplines and

discourses and this conference

assembling scholars from a variety of

disciplines and from very heterogeneous

to disciplinary backgrounds and

theoretical interests documents effects

this fact pretty well while the concept

has become a buzzword recently is not it

is not so well known that the term has a

very long history it already saw phases

in the beginning of the 20th century

initially an organist ik concepts of the

state and later in nazi techs in which

the regulation of life and race took a

prominent role in the 1960s a new

research field called bio politics

emerged in anglo-american political

science its basic tenant being that

Polly that political action rests on

Biological laws that consequently need

to be taken into account

by political scientists and by social

scientists but this approached the

analysis of political structures and

processes demands application of

knowledge from the behavioural Sciences

social biology and evolutionary theory

in the face of this naturalism Michel

Foucault proposed a relational and

historical concept of bio politics in

his work the term infected notes an

explicit break with the effort to derive

political processes and structures from

biological determinants instead of

presuming originally and timeless laws

he diagnoses historical says ora a

discontinuity of political praxis in

this respect biopolitics signifies

specific modern form of the exercise of

power historically and analytically

Foucault distinguished between two

dimensions of this life oriented power

on the one hand the disciplining of the

individual body on the other hand

regulation of the population a bio

politics in fuko's work signals a break

in the order of politics I quote the

entry of phenomena peculiar to the life

of the human species into the order of

knowledge and power into the sphere of

political techniques and of broad fuko's

concept of biopolitics assumes the

dissociation and abstraction of life

from its concrete physical barriers the

object of bio politics are not singular

human beings with the biological

features measured and aggregated excuse

me the object of bio politics are

singular are not singular human beings

but their biological features measured

and aggregated on the level of

populations the procedure makes it

possible to define norms establish

standards and determinate and determine

average values as a result life has

become an independent objective and

measurable factor as well as a

collective reality that can be

epidemiologically and practically

separated from concrete living beings

and thus in

clarity of individual experience for

cost concert of our politics Orient's

itself not against not only against the

idea of processes of life as the

foundation of politics it also maintains

a critical distance from theories that

you live as the object of politics

according to Foucault bio politics does

not supplement traditional political

competences and structures through new

domains and competences it does not

produce an extension of politics to

include environmental policies or bio

technological issues rather it

transforms its core in that it

reformulates concept of political

sovereignty and subjugates them to new

forms of political knowledge biopolitics

stands for a constellation in which the

modern human and natural sciences and

the normative concepts that emerge from

them structure political action and

determine its goals for this reason bio

politics for Foucault has nothing to do

with the ecological crisis on increasing

sensibility for environmental issues nor

could it be reduced to the development

of new biological technology our

technologies rather bio politic stands

for a fundamental transformation in the

order of politics now this lengthy quote

that probably all of you know for the

first time in history biological

existence was reflected in political

existence but what might be called a

society's threshold of modernity has

been reached when the life of the

species is wagered on its own political

strategies for millennia men remained

what it what he was for a Aristotle a

living animal with the additional

capacity for political existence modern

man is an animal whose politics places

his existence as a living being in

question end of quote

as you know to commute the combination

of the disciplining of the individual

body and the regulation of the

population as the essential premise for

establishing modern capitalism and

constituting the National State

that combinatory process he argued

allowed the creation of economically

productive military useful and

politically obedient body a separation

of the birth of bio politics from the

emergence of capitalism is thus

impossible Foucault also stressed that

within this bio political constellation

modern racism is of central significance

it establishing it establishes an

analytical grid distinguishing what must

live from what must die

good higher and descending races from

those deemed bad inferior and descending

thus along

thus allowing for higher opposition and

fragmentation of the social fucose

concept the via politics is complex and

has been assessed in highly viral ways

very schematically two central lines of

reception can be distinguished

the first has its home and philosophy

and social and political theory focuses

on the meaning of politics how does by a

politics and form a function and what

counter force doesn't mobilize how does

it separate itself is totally and

analytically from other political forms

the extreme poles of this debate

represent its most prominent

contributions the writing of Georgia are

gunmen on the one side those of Michael

Hart and Antonio Negri on the other the

second line of reception has its

starting point in the sociology of

Science and Technology the history of

science and medicine and cultural

anthropology together with feminist

theory and Gender Studies its main

interest is the matter of life as a

result of biotechnology developments the

living body is now understood as a

readable and rewritable text and then

the question of bio politics is posed in

a different way what is life within this

new political technological

constellation in the following I will

trace revisions and refinements of the

concept of bio politics that have been

formulated in these two lines of

reception in the second part of my

presentation I suggest tying the two

research perspectives closer together

my main argument is that Foucault

further pursues the question of bio

politics within the grit of government

allottee initially his analysis of bio

political mechanisms in this bin and

punished and the will to knowledge fell

short since it concentrated on

disciplinary processes and ways of

regulating the population thus being

brought broadly reduced to a kind of

body politics in contrast the concept of

government Foucault develops in this

lecture of 1978 and 1979 at the

collegiate of horse directs our

attention to the relation between forms

of self direction and the government by

others allowing an investigation of

moral political modes of existence in

top of the project outlined here is

aimed at synthesizing two central

concepts from fucose work government

ality and biopolitics such an analysis

would make possible to formulate a

series of questions that usually remain

outside the pertinent academic and

political discussions it also allows an

explorations of the systemic ties

between liberal forms of government and

bio political problems so let me come to

the first line of reception Georgia

Agamben has outlined one of the most

important revisions of the concept

biopolitics a gunman in fact presumes

that all Western politics since

antiquity should be characterized as bio

politics in order to justify this thesis

he takes up ideas from transmit but a

Benjamin Hannah Arendt Martin Heidegger

and George but I along with Foucault

according to a gamba the main difference

between the rearm or the political is

not that between friend or enemy as

cosmic thought but that between naked

life Zoe and political existence bias

natural being and the human beings legal

existence the constitutional sovereign

power does only begin made possible

the production of the biological body

the application of law is inseparable

from the suspension of bare life

inclusion in the political community

from the exclusion of human beings

denied the status of legal subjects in

this manner for agamben the present

period is the catastrophic end point of

a political tradition that originated in

Greek antiquity and led to the death

camps in his work agamben declared the

camp's to be the I quote bio political

paradigm of the west end of quote since

they were the locus of a disappearance

of the border between the rule and the

exception however his discussion of the

camps is not primarily related to past

horror but to present sites marked by

the state of exceptions places were law

and where law and fact rule and

exception in distinguished lis intermesh

he are not legal subjects but bear life

can be encountered the state of

exception is permanently in play

alongside death camp inmates the

examples government introduces a

stateless people refugees and comatose

patients however a government is less

interested in life than its in its

nakedness a percent of his reflection

stands not drills and disciplined life

normalization and endowment with norms

but rather the threat of death as the

establishment and materializing of a

border for Agamben biopolitics is thus

above all tentative politics in their

work Michael Hart and Antonio Negri

arrived at an entirely different

conclusion they tried to give the

concept of biopolitics positive meaning

tying their arguments to the italian

movements for workers autonomy ideas

from classical political and legal

theory post structural critiques

centered on identity and the subject and

the Marxist tradition where a gunman

criticizes Foucault for failing to see

that modern bio politics rests on the

solid foundation of a pre-modern

sovereign power Hardin neatly criticised

the fan

thinker for failing to recognize the

transformation of modern into postmodern

biopolitics

for hot and neatly biopolitics does not

involve an international rule and

exception but rather a dissolution of

the boundaries between economics and

politics reproduction and production

thus marking nothing less than a new

stage of capitalism and a new political

order they call empire in their view the

creation of life is no longer something

both limited to the rearm of

reproduction and subordinated to the

labor process to the contrary life now

determine its production itself the bio

politics they designate the constitution

of a political regime that in the end

embraces the totality of the individuals

existence thus preparing the way for a

new revolutionary subject a creative and

living entity the multitude hence the

political order that harden a Creed

daleney delineate possesses the material

requirements for forms of associated

cooperation potentially going beyond the

structural constraints of capitalist

production a quote formed from their

work Empire the Empire creates a greater

potential for a revolution then did the

modern regimes of power because it

presents us alongside the Machine of

command with an alternative the set of

all the exploited and subjugated

a multitude that is directly opposed to

Empire with no mediation between them

and dr. code for these two offers

biopolitics stands for an entire series

of fractures and border displacements it

signifies the transition from modernity

to postmodernity imperialism to Empire

and also marks a new relation between

nature and culture it signifies a

civilization of nature nature here

meaning everything previously external

to the production process this diagnosis

the basis for the imminent perspective

defining the analysis of how to make

once economics and politics societal

production and ideological legitimation

have become more or less conflated we no

longer have an external stand part of

life or truth that can be set against

Empire the Italian philosopher Alberto

Esposito has developed his own conserve

biopolitics at a critical distance from

both a garments project and the analysis

of hard innately BIOS bio politics and

philosophy is the last part of a tri

ology taking up and developing ideas

from his two previous books as positives

main thesis is that modern West Western

political thinking is ruled by what he

called the paradigm of immunization

through a wreck induction reconstruction

of political theories since Hobbes

he argues that modern concepts of

security property and freedom can only

be understood within a logic of immunity

a logic characterized by an inner

connection between life and politics in

which immunity preserves and developed

life by limiting its expensive and

productive force at the center of

political action and thinking stands the

safeguarding and protection of life an

objective and objective that in the end

produces self-destructive effects to the

degree that the logic of immunization

protects and preserves it negates the

singularity of life processes reducing

them to biological existence the

immunity dialectic leads as positive

argues from a point from a project to

preserve life to negate a form of

protecting life and onwards to its

negation the paradigm of immunity allows

an understanding of the opposing aspects

and dimensions of biopolitics promotion

and developing the life on the one hand

it sticks its destruction on the other

as two constitutive moments of

shared perspective as opposed to abuse

the Nazi racial program as the most

radical expression of an imminent or

irrationality in which life centered

politics becomes inverted into its

negative a politics of death like

Foucault and agamben he insists that

that Nazism is part of a continuum of

modern political thought but unlike them

he locates its specific characteristics

neither in a principle of sovereignty

nor in the primacy of a state of

exception rather is positive and this

course the medical therapeutic aims of

Nazism the programmatic significance it

describes - the struggle against illness

degeneration and death now let me come

to the second line of reception this

addresses recent research in the

Biosciences analyzing technological

developments that allow to access what

Sarah Franklin has once called life

itself it starts with the observation

that as a result of biotechnological

practices the idea of a natural origin

of all living beings is beginning to be

replaced by the idea of an artificial

plurality of living beings that are more

techno techno chol artifacts than

natural entities various technological

innovations such as to name only a few

the redefinition of biological of

molecular biology of life as text by a

medical progress involving new

techniques extending from brain scans to

DNA analysis and transplantation

medicine and reproductive technologies

have broken with the idea of an integral

body the body is increasingly viewed not

as an organic substrate but as a kind of

a molecular software that can and

suggest that we both read and rewritten

Sarah Franklin and Margaret Locke

described this transformation of Zoe as

follows

I quote genealogical

is to the new biology where the live

orchestra is to digital recording end of

quote

molecular ization and digitalization

mark recombinant bio politics as Michael

Dillon and Julian Reed called it it

opens up new levels of intervention

within that body at the same time

allowing new combinations of

heterogeneous elements into previously

unknown life-forms the art of molecular

engineering differs in a distinct way

from traditional forms of biological and

medical intervention in that it is aimed

not only at modifying metabolic

processes but at reprogramming them as

well no longer control of out in nature

but transformation of inner nature

stands at the center of that political

epidemiological epidemiology of life as

a consequence biology cannot be defined

as discovery based science registering

and documenting life processes rather it

operates as a transformational science

that creates life forms and alters

living beings this instrumentalization

of life cannot be separated from its

capitalization instead of functioning as

a supplier of raw material for

production in the age of genetic

diversity nature can be understood as a

source and creator of values the

reproduction and transformation of life

processes can create what Katherine wort

B has caught by a value which forms the

basis of for developing new products and

services within the capitalist economy

biological knowledge and life forms can

be patented and marketed in that way a

political economy of life emerges in

which biological life value and

capitalist exploitation established an

organic connection when it comes to the

Foucauldian concept of biopolitics this

reassessment of life suggests three

lines of criticism in the first place it

is clear that the Foucauldian

cons

largely at Hearst the idea of an

integral body fucose analysis of

techniques of power aimed at forming and

dividing up the body itself postulates

self-contained and in closeable body

today bio technologies allow the

dismantling and recombination of the

body that Foucault did not foresee the

body no longer appears as a self-evident

starting point and organic substrate the

technologies attach themselves so in

order to form it but is the effect of

technologies of embodiment the new level

of intervention established by the

above-mentioned techno scientific

advances is located beneath the

classical biopolitics bio political

polls of individual and population

anatomic politics and population

regulation our club complemented by a

molecular popular politics with regard

for individual persons no longer

anatomically and physiological but

genetic and Chimel taneous lee locates

them within the gene pool in the second

place this expanded grip on the body has

led to a new relationship shaped between

life and death although in both of the

clinic Foucault treats death as an

integral part of modern medicine in

other texts he sees it as the outer

border already or the other side of bio

politics at present living and dying are

more closely and systemic systematically

interconnected that Foucault assessed

for one thing human material transcends

the living human body

humans who die are often no longer

really dead with portions of their body

their cells or organs Bloods narrow and

so forth continuing to exist in the

bodies of others whose quality of life

is thus improved or whose life is

prolonged life material is not subject

to the same biological rhythm as the

organic body it can be stored as

information in DNA databases and

banks are cultivated in potentially

immortal stela stem cell lines and the

death of one person can guarantee life

and survival of another in the

productive cycle furthermore death has

been broken up and rendered flexible the

definition of brain death and the

emergence of reanimation techniques

together with a subsequent splitting of

death into various corporate regions and

points in time have allowed for a

development and expansion of

transportation medicine not so much

state sovereignty but rather medical

administrative authorities now make

decisions about life and death they

define what human life is when it begins

and when it ends in an entirely new way

tentative politics has been become part

of bio politics and finally despite his

diagnosis of the death of man for

Foucault bio politics remains oriented

toward human individuals and populations

which results in two problems on the one

hand this approach fails to illuminate

the ways in which ecological management

and environmental discourse insert

themselves into the reproduction of the

human species

it seems necessary to extend the concept

of bio politics to take in the

administration and control of the

circumstances of life in general as Paul

Rutherford has put it a quote Foucault

did not adequately deal with the way in

which the political and ecological

problematization of populations can give

rise in more recent times to a similar

public problematization of nature and

environment
end of quote that's the one problem the

other is that the reconfiguration of

bodies as texts tends to also dissolve

the epistemological and normative

borderline between humans and nonhumans

if life can be reduced to genetic

structures than the differences between

humans and nonhumans are gradual not

categorical the human being aimed at by

biomechanical optimal

optimization strategies less frequently

ill and living longer is at the same

time an animal otherwise the biological

discourse about model organisms would

make no sense since it is mice mice and

cats apes and other animals upon which

human diseases are researched and

pharmaceutical substances tried out in

this light human being human no longer

presents itself as a solid product of

evolutionary processes but rather as a

precarious product of Technology and the

object of both social negotiation and

patterns of cultural interpretation

biopolitics as an anthropologist

let me summarize the this these two

lines of reception the brief overview

points to the various lines of reception

of fucose concept of bio politics as

having been deepened and further

developed the important respects a new

bio political level is clearly present

both beyond and beneath the levels of

the individual and the population it is

ground in an expanded knowledge of the

body and biological processes within

this altered representational regime the

body is less a physical substrate or

anatomical machine than an informational

network at the same time in analyzing

bio political mechanisms the range of

modes of subjective ation need to be

considered in order to understand how

social and political life effects

individual and collective actors

resulting in new forms of identity over

recent years the Foucauldian notion of

bio politics has served as a starting

point for focus on a significant of

knowledge production on the one hand and

process of subjective ation on the other

important though such an expansion of

the analytical horizon is it is

necessary to keep in mind that for the

most part the two lines of reception's

have the

they're problematization independently

and hardly touched on each other this

leads not only to a danger of mutual

blindness but also to the risk of

reproducing and renewing an outdated

division of labour while one side is

interested in the political sphere or

the macro-level

firmly formulating questions of power

and resistance subject evasion and

subjugation the other side investigates

technologies on a micro level of them

distance or even cut off political

questions here the first line tends to

analyze political processes without

considering material technologies the

second one concentrates on technological

developments while often isolating them

from political strategies in this light

I would like to propose the third

perspective focusing neither on

processes of subjective ation normal

forms of knowledge but rather with

situating the bio political problematic

within an analytics of government bio

politics is here mens to be understood

as an art of government to quote

Foucault an art of government that takes

account of the relational network of

power processes practices of knowledge

and forms of subjective ation this

suggests this suggestion is tied to the

project net Foucault formulated while

summarizing his lecture of 1979 on the

birth of bio politics as follows I quote

the theme was to have being bio politics

by which I meant the attempt starting

from the 18th century to rationalize the

problems posed to governmental practice

by phenomena characteristic of a set of

living beings forming a population

health hygiene birth weight life

expectancy race read of quote there's a

widespread view that in the framework of

his analytics of government Foucault did

not concern himself further with the

theme of bio politics

I believe this view is mistaken the

theme was not abandoned

but experience the theoretical shift for

cool places the question of bio politics

in a more general theoretical framework

meant to allow a systematic linkage

between processes of power knowledge

practices and forms of subject deviation

comprising the relational Network

referred to above within this

perspective bio politics has more to do

with techniques of government and

self-government going beyond practices

aimed at corporal disciplines discipline

and regulating the population the birth

of bio politics is closely tied to the

emergence of liberal forms of government

the birth of bio politics being the

title of election of 1979 Foucault

understands liberalism as specific art

of leading human beings which is

oriented toward the population as a new

political figure and disposing over the

political economy as a technique of

intervention liberalism introduces a

rationality of government that differs

from both medieval concepts of rule and

Erland modern raison d'etat the idea of

a nature of society forming both the

basis and the boundaries of governmental

action the eighteenth-century emergence

of political economy and of the

population as a new political figure

cannot be separated from the beginnings

of modern biology liberal concept of

autonomy and freedom that closely

connected to biological concepts of

self-preservation and self-regulation

that come to prevail over the previously

dominant physical mechanistic model for

investigating the body originating

around 1800 biology was based on an

organ organizational principle

understanding the visible phenomenon of

life as emerging essentially at random

without a set plan internal organization

does replace an external order

corresponding to the plans of a higher

authority beyond life with life

functioning as an abstract

and dynamic principle inherent in all

organisms categories such as

self-preservation reproduction and

development now came to characterize

living bodies placed at a greater

distance from artificial creations that

had that has been the case before when

in the lecture zone of 1978 and 1979

Foucault defines I quote liberalism

liberalism as the general framework of

biopolitics and the quote this signals

shift of accent from his previous work

resulting not least from critical self

insight to the effect that his previous

analysis of forms of bio political power

where one-sided and unsatisfactory since

they focused mainly on processes

involving population regulation and

corporal disciplining for cause

analytics of government forms a contrast

to these expanding corporate policies

with the perspective of a vital politics

this concepts stems from Alexander Risto

one of the most important

representatives of post-war German

liberalism whom Foucault briefly touches

on in his 1979 lecture by vital politics

wisdom means a form of politics a quote

that considers all factors upon which

happiness well-being and satisfaction in

reality depend end of quote this

politics he indicates by no means is by

no means limited to the action of the

state but I quote again restore his

politics in the broadest possible sense

all social measures and experimental

arrangements end of quote

it relies on social ties and spiritual

cohesion and reactivates moral values

and cultural traditions vital politics

denotes a task of integration and

innovation needing to take into account

needing to take in all societal elements

and levels while simultaneously

acknowledging their self directing

competences for

analytic of government takes account of

this bio politic of this vital political

ambitions of neoliberal governmental

practice tying the analysis of physical

biological being to an examination of

subjective Asian processes and moral

political modes of existence following a

suggestion by last table Latin not only

to subject forms of biopolitics

individual and population can be

distinguished but also taking up a

government's own distinction two forms

of life Zoe and BIOS this analytic

distinction makes it possible to

scrutinize the ways the two by a lot bio

political dimensions are intertwined in

discipline and punish and the will to

knowledge for course concept of

biopolitics remain centered on

individual disciplining and the

regulation of the population the

analysis of subjective ation processes

essentially limits itself to subjugation

and corporal dressage hence to the

dimension of Zoe with techniques of self

Constitution receiving little notice

with the problematic of government the

perspective broadens with a question of

moral and political existence now also

emerging the problem then of bias

analysis of disciplinary and regulatory

processes is now supplemented with

analysis of another form of power the

form that I quote Foucault categorizes

the individual makes him by his own

individual individuality attaches him to

his identity imposes a law of truth on

him that he must recognize and others

have to recognize in him end of quote

beyond technologies or bodily

disciplining and the regulation of the

population attention is now also focused

on the self constitution of individual

and collective subjects accordingly

four-corner distinguishes between

political technologies of individuals

and technologies of the self

the first one political technologies of

individuals leads us I quote Foucault to

recognize ourselves as a society as part

of a social entity as part of a nation

or a state end of quote such

technologies can be designed designated

more generally and perhaps more

precisely as technologies of the social

the phrase here not meant to suggest

that that technologies have social

applications but rather referring to

practices that generate society as an

imaginary totality and effective

collective body in the first place in

distinctions to technologies of the

social technologies of the self allow

individuals to again a quote from

Foucault to effect by their own means a

certain number of operations on their

bodies on their souls on their thoughts

on their conduct and in this and this in

a manner so as to transform themselves

modify themselves and to attain a

certain state of perfection happiness

purity supernatural power and of course

in this manner for interconnected bio

political dimensions can be analytically

differentiated and they are presented on

on the slide let me come let me now come

to the to the last part of my lecture

the linkage of these four dimensions

allows us to treat the problem of bio

politics in a more complex theoretical

framework for Foucault modern bio

politics is a historical form of

articulation of a much more general

problem linkage between pastoral and

political power extending back into

Christian antiquity with the advent of

liberal government this problem took on

a specific form for one particular

question first surfaces with liberalism

how free subjects subjects of law

governed when they are simultaneously

understood as living beings Foucault

focuses on this problem when he insists

that the issue of by

critics cannot be separated and again a

longer quote from the framework of

political rationality within which they

appeared and took their intensity

this means liberalism since it was in

relation to liberalism that they assumed

the form of a challenge how can the

phenomenon of population with its

specific effects and problems be taken

into account in the system concerned

about respect for legal subjects and

individual free enterprise in the name

of what and according to what rules

cannot be managed and the quote liberal

government for kody observes developed a

specific political knowledge and new

disciplines like statistics democracy

and epidemic

yep ideology analyzing life process at

the level of population groups in order

to govern individuals through correcting

excluding normalizing disciplining

therapeutically treating and optimizing

measures Foucault emphasizes that in the

framework of the government of living

beings nature represents no autonomous

rearm in principle free of intervention

but itself depends on governmental

action no material substrate upon which

governmental practices might be applied

but rather their constant correlative

the peculiar subject object status of

the political figure of the population

plays an important role here on the one

hand that figure stands for a collective

reality essentially independent of

political intervention and distinguish

it as outlined above by its own dynamic

and self directing competency on the

other hand this autonomy does not

represent any absolute boundary for

political intervention but rather it's

privileged reference the discovery of

the populations nature for instance

through birth birth rates death rates

and rates of disease is the precondition

for the possibility of its deliberate

direction but with liberal government

ality

only biological life emerges as the

object and reference of government but

also political life liberalism is tied

to the constitution of a bourgeois

society in the public sphere that

reflects about governmental practices

inquires into their pros and cons and

criticized the possible excesses for

this reason for court understands

liberalism not only as a political

theory on economic doctrine but rather

as and again a lengthy code form of

critical reflection on governmental

practice the question of liberalism

understood as a question of too much

government has been one of the constant

dimensions of that recent European

phenomena which seem to have emerged

first of all in England namely political

life it is even one of its constituent

constituent element if it is true that

political life exists when the possible

excess of governmental practice is

limited by the fact that this is the

object of public debate regarding its

good or bad it's too much or too little

and of course the reformulation of the

concept of bio politics within an

analytics of government has a number of

theoretical advantages such as

perspective allows us in the first place

to break with bio bio logistic concepts

and constrain confront the still

enduring to the tendency in the social

sciences and the humanities to treat

bodies biology and nature as pre social

objects human bodies or the nature of

the population are not external or

ontological premises for political

government to the contrary the art of

government represents what Foucault

called the sudden emergence of the

naturalness of the human species within

the political artifice of a power

relation this analytical perspective

that also allows to go beyond the

anthropocentric and socio centric

limitations of Foucault concepts to take

into account the material term in social

theory that calls for

reconsideration of nature the new

movement no longer relies upon

definitions of matter as passive

inactive and unitary instead it

understands matter as active forceful

and plural

it also dissociates the concept of

agency and power from human

intentionality or subjectivity by

extending the idea of agency and power

to non-human nature this theoretical

perspective cause and to question the

traditional concept of life as the

political theorist Jane Bennett claims

in putting toward and putting forward

the concept of vibrant meta I quote

everything is in a sense alive and of

God and again a quote from from a

Bennett by vitality I mean a capacity of

things either both commodities storms

metals not only to impede or block the

will the designs of humans but also to

act as Kazi

quasi agents or forces with trajectories

propensities and tendencies of their own

end of quote the idea of living matter

irritates and undermines conventional

distinctions between meta and life

inorganic and organic passive object and

active subject Foucault mostly

understood government as the guidance of

human conduct

so Karen Barrett is right and

criticizing for course concept of bio

power for not providing dynamic concept

a dynamic concept of materiality that

takes into account of the

materialization of human as well as

non-human bodies however a more fruitful

reading is also possible I think in the

1978 lecture series at the collegiate of

horns fucose refers to a definition of

government provided by Guillaume de de

la pierre in an early modern tract on

the art of government here government is

conceived of as I quote the right

disposition of things it is concerned

with a complex of man and things

I quote again man in their relationships

bonds and complex involvement with

things like wealth resources means of

subsistence the territory with its

borders qualities climate dryness

fertility and so on end of quote

in this perspective government not only

focuses on governing humans and

relations between humans it also refers

to a more comprehensive reality that

includes the material environment and

the specific arrangements and technical

networks between human and non-human

actors while Foucault never

systematically addressed the question of

how things affect humans

the conceptual shift to a government of

things that only makes it possible to

extend the territory of government and

multiplies the elements and the

relations it consists of it also

initiates a reflexive perspective that

takes into account the diverse ways in

which the boundaries between the human

and the nonhuman world are negotiated

and acted and stabilized furthermore his

theoretical stance makes it possible to

analyze the sharp distinction between

the natural on the one hand and the

social on the other meta and meaning has

distinctive instrument and effect of

governmental rationalities and

technologies because writing did not so

much systematically pursue as offer

promising suggestions for this

analytical perspective he never

concreted khakhra to concretize his

remarks on the relation between bio

politics and liberalism something meant

to stand at the center of 1979 lectures

regrettably what we have is the

intention as Foucault himself conceded

self critically in the course of the

lecture on filling out this program

developing it and making useful

contemporary theoretical debates and

political struggle is the challenge

facing current research on the console

of bio politics thank you very much

well for me it's mostly relate to what I

call the second line of reception with

with feminist scholar like Sarah

Franklin or Donna Haraway for example

was about dotty but also it this in this

line of reception where the question how

the concern for example one one area of

research would to link the interest in

in analyzing reproductive technologies

and they impact on on gender relations

for example you have I mean not sure how

concrete I have to be what exactly the X

stands for or how how how agenda the

general perspective on on reproductive

technologies for example takes place and

how this is related not know biopolitics

itself so there there you would have the

I think it's more explicit in this area

then I what but then oh what the

what I call the first line of reception

you know so concerned with technologies

and especially reproductive technology

stem cell research and how how the

engagement with the technology is how

they are enacted is connected to a

certain general division of labor

certain concepts of maleness and and so

I would see this this as that's the

essential line of reception right but

then what gender comes in at well this

was more empirical review you know I

wouldn't say that

the first in the first it doesn't play a

role you know but if I just have if I

just would analyze what has been

published and how the is the notion of

biopods used in certain disciplines and

in certain

ematic topics I would say it's more

prominent in the second line of

reception

I'm not sure if it's if it's one single

text yeah the owners and similar context

and Foucault that would help too

I mean it's a very it's a very

artificial thing I try to do I just

correct certain concept for it some of

the this idea of a political technology

of individuals no this is not developing

some in this illness in single item it's

in a different text but I thought or the

idea is to stick as far as possible with

Foucault and certain concept he

developed different places and in

different time in his work and to use

this to to make something that he didn't

explicitly do you know the linking of

bio politics and government allottee and

how is let's say earlier interest in the

in the administration of the population

the regulation of the population on the

one hand and his focus on discipline on

the other hand can be theoretically

combined with his interest in what it

meant called political technologies of

the individual and self technologies and

so I try to to to give yes

put something to help this analytical

grip

as I called to put it together certain a

dimension that you won't find really

worked out and focus on work so it's

this is an essential text but I would

say there are others where I took just

the material and certain ideas and but

as I said it still we still have of

course still have to go beyond Foucault

but there are some ideas in Foucault

like this idea of the government of

things you know I think in the light of

what I call this this perspective of the

new materialism there is something in

Foucault M said that he just it just

glossed over it no but he didn't develop

it systematically but it would be

possible I think to use the conserve of

government and to go beyond the conduct

of human conduct you know which is how

it is interpreted and used mostly as so

far

well I mean at the conference but just

from what you is saying well let's stick

with the second side with the I'm quite

hesitant concerned that this firm ative

part of a new anthology I think in in it

has to be taken into account but this

would be lets say low-level strategy

first of all I think that there's a lot

of critical potential in the new

materialism that without buying the new

ontology is very useful there may be at

a certain point I'm not ready yet

maybe I am in the future but at that

point I would say ok I recognize that

there's a lot of critical and political

potential in this movement and it points

to a lot of shortcomings in other

debates and in that in that kind it is

useful but this doesn't necessarily mean

that I have to buy the new ontology and

the affirmative part as well so I'm

hesitant concerning that but maybe at a

later point if you'd asked me in a year

or two maybe I'm I'm more open to that

I'm not sure if I understood the

question correctly but I think well in

in fuko's work he's mostly he's his

critique is mostly direct what he called

the human sciences and this in a way

exclude exclude the natural the natural

sciences there are certain scholars that

try to argue and I think convincingly

argue that fuko's it fuko's critique

could also be applied to the natural

sound and the authority and in the

contrast to the speaker this morning I

think there's a lot of authority

especially for the natural science and

especially for Molecular Genetics so I

can't but didn't really understand when

lack of authority is but anyway I think

that someone like like Joseph ruse will

try to analyze the power effects and the

authority of the Natural Sciences this

would be in line of fucose critique of

the author of the human sciences and I

think but what concerns yes of course

there's a lot of of danger from

environmental problems but I think what

Foucault what Co has to offer in terms

of the this approach of government ality

even if he himself didn't explicitly

deal with this there are other scholars

who use it to analyze what you refer to

together to to environmental problems of

the environmental question so I wouldn't

see that white it's not possible to deal

with with this problem in

along the lines that are that I try to

lay out it's this grid of government

ality or this of linking of the let's

say the original problematic biopolitics

in Foucault with a more general concern

of government ality or the integrating

of the biopolitical problematic into a

larger concept of government government

of life of life forms of which or the

the four dimension that I tried to to

different

you