The government of life: Managing populations, health and scarcity

TY - JOUR

T1 - The government of life

T2 - Managing populations, health and scarcity

AU - Villadsen, Kaspar

AU - Wahlberg, Ayo

PY - 2015/2/2

Y1 - 2015/2/2

N2 - Abstract: 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 - Abstract: 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

SN - 0308-5147

VL - 44

SP - 1

EP - 17

JO - Economy and Society

JF - Economy and Society

IS - 1

ER -