Biopolitics
The term "biopolitics" or "biopolitical" can refer to several different yet often compatible concepts.
Contents |
[edit] Definitions
- In the work of Michel Foucault, the style of government that regulates populations through "biopower" (the application and impact of political power on all aspects of human life).[1][2]
- In the works of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, anti-capitalist insurrection using life and the body as weapons; examples include flight from power and, 'in its most tragic and revolting form', suicide terrorism. Conceptualised as the opposite of biopower, which is seen as the practice of sovereignty in biopolitical conditions.[3]
- The political application of bioethics.[4][5]
- A political spectrum that reflects positions towards the sociopolitical consequences of the biotech revolution.[4][5]
- Political advocacy in support of, or in opposition to, some applications of biotechnology.[4][5]
- Public policies regarding some applications of biotechnology.[4][5]
- Political advocacy concerned with the welfare of all forms of life and how they are moved by one another.[6]
- The politics of bioregionalism
[edit] Politics and the life sciences
[edit] History
Biopolitics refers to the application of theories and methods from the life sciences toward the scientific understanding of political behavior. The term “biopolitics” was first used in political science by Lynton Caldwell in 1964.[7] As a field of the academic discipline of political science, biopolitics is also known as "politics and the life sciences".[8] The Association for Politics and the Life Sciences was formed in 1981 and exists to study the field of biopolitics as a subfield of political science. APLS owns and publishes an academic peer-reviewed journal called Politics and the Life Sciences (PLS). The journal is edited in the United States at the University of Maryland, College Park’s School of Public Policy, in Maryland.[9]
By the late 1990s and since, biopolitics research has expanded rapidly, especially in the areas of evolutionary theory,[10] genetics,[11] and neuroscience.[12] These researchers start from the premise that humans are by nature "political animals," meaning that many of the behaviors that appear distinctly political - such as status rivalry, leadership, and coalitional positioning - can be better understood by investigating the role of human biology in shaping such behavior. From this perspective, researchers may ask many questions regarding the biological bases of political phenomena, such as: To what extent are political attitudes heritable? Do Republicans and Democrats display different patterns of brain activation when facing a political decision? How has the evolutionary history of human coalitional aggression shaped the way people think about warfare today?
This research has become increasingly prominent in general science academic journals, as well as in the popular press.[13] Topics addressed in political science from these perspectives include: public opinion and criminal justice attitudes,[14] political ideology,[15] voting behavior,[16] and warfare.[17] Nevertheless, debates persist inside the field and out, regarding genetic and biological determinism.[18] Important recent surveys of leading research in biopolitics have been published in the journals Political Psychology and Science.[19]
[edit] Institutional research
Many universities and political science departments now offer courses, emphases, or full programs in this area. For example, research in biopolitics is conducted at universities across the world, including Aarhus University, Brown University, Claremont Graduate University, Harvard, University of King's College, London School of Economics, Northern Illinois University, University of California - San Diego, University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of Iowa, University of Nebraska, and University of Oregon. See external links below for specific research centers.
[edit] External links
- Aarhus University
- Brown University
- Center for Evolutionary Psychology
- Claremont Graduate University
- Harvard
- University of King's College
- London School of Economics
- Northern Illinois University
- University of California, San Diego
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of Iowa
- University of Nebraska
- University of Oregon
- Praktyka Teoretyczna nr 2-3/2011 "Biopolityka"
[edit] Notes
- ^ Michel Foucault, edited by Jeremy R. Carrette (1999). Religion and culture: Michel Foucault. ISBN 0-415-92362-X.
- ^ Michel Foucault: Security,Territory,Population p.1 (2007)
- ^ Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (2005). Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. Hamish Hamilton.
- ^ a b c d Hughes, James (2004). Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-4198-1.
- ^ a b c d Rifkin, Jeremy (January 31, 2002). "Fusion Biopolitics". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020218/rifkin. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
- ^ Tiqqun, translated by Alexander R. Galloway and Jason E. smith (2010). Introduction to Civil War. ISBN 978-1584350866.
- ^ Caldwell, Lynton. 1964. “Biopolitics.” Yale Review 56:1-16.
- ^ Blank, Robert H., and Samuel M. Hines. 2001. Biology and Political Science. New York: Routledge; Somit, A., and S. A. Peterson. 1998. "Review article: Biopolitics after three decades - A balance sheet." British Journal of Political Science 28:559-71; Masters, Roger D. 1989. The Nature of Politics. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- ^ "Association for Politics and the Life Sciences". http://www.aplsnet.org/.
- ^ Sidanius, Jim, and Robert Kurzban. 2003. "Evolutionary Approaches to Political Psychology." In Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, ed. D. O. Sears, L. Huddie and R. Jervis. New York: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Alford, J. R., C. L. Funk, and J. R. Hibbing. 2005. "Are political orientations genetically transmitted?" American Political Science Review 99 (2):153-67; Hatemi, Peter K., Carolyn L. Funk, Hermine Maes, Judy Silberg, Sarah E. Medland, Nicholas Martin, and Lyndon Eaves. 2009. "Genetic Influences on Political Attitudes over the Life Course." Journal of Politics 71 (3):1141-56.
- ^ Schreiber, Darren. 2011. “From SCAN to Neuropolitics. In Man is By Nature a Political Animal, edited by P. K. Hatemi and R. McDermott. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- ^ McDermott, Rose, Dustin Tingley, Jonathan Cowden, Giovanni Frazetto, and Dominic D. P. Johnson. 2009. "Monoamine Oxidase A Gene (MAOA) Predicts Behavioral Aggression Following Provocation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (7):2118-23; Sapolsky, Robert M. 2006. "A natural history of peace." Foreign Affairs.
- ^ Petersen, Michael Bang. 2009. “Public Opinion and Evolved Heuristics: The Role of Category-Based Inference.” Journal of Cognition and Culture. 9:367-389
- ^ Charney, Evan. 2008. “Genes and Ideologies.” Perspectives on Politics 6 (2):299-319; Alford, John R., Carolyn L. Funk, and John R. Hibbing. 2008. “Beyond Liberals and Conservatives to Political Genotypes and Phenotypes.” Perspectives on Politics 6 (2):321-8; Hannagan, Rebecca J., and Peter K. Hatemi. 2008. “The Threat of Genes: A Comment on Evan Charney's 'Genes and Ideologies.'”
- ^ Fowler, James H. and Christopher T. Dawes. (2008). "Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout." Journal of Politics 70 (3): 579–594.
- ^ Thayer, Bradley A. 2004. Darwin and International Relations : On the Evolutionary Origins of War and Ethnic Conflict. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky; Rosen, Stephen Peter. 2005. War and Human Nature. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press; Gat, Azar. 2006. War in Human Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press; Lopez, Anthony C. 2010. "Evolution, Coalitional Psychology, and War". http://www.h-net.org/~diplo/ISSF/roundtables/rt-1-1-lopez.html. H-Diplo ISSF Roundtable on "Biology and Security"
- ^ Bell, D. 2006. "Beware of false prophets: biology, human nature and the future of international relations theory." International Affairs 82(3)
- ^ Fowler, J. H., and D. Schreiber. 2008. "Biology, Politics, and the Emerging Science of Human Nature." Science 322 (5903):912-4; Political Psychology, Special Issue on “Neurobiological Approaches to Political Behavior” (Forthcoming).
