ChristineYoung

DebateNovice
Mrs.Ferguson
20February2015

BiopowerResearch

Biopower

1.
Biopower is a form of power that regulates social life from its interior, following it,
interpretingit,absorbingiteveryindividualembracesand reactivatesthispower ofhisorher
ownaccord. Its primarytaskistoadministerlife.Biopowerthusreferstoasituationinwhich
whatisdirectlyatstakeinpoweristheproductionandreproductionoflifeitself
."(24)

2. Biopolitical power is expressed as acontrolthatextends throughthe depthsofconsciousness

andbodiesofthepopulationandacrosstheentiretyofsocialrelations.(p24)

a. An exampleofthisisthecontroloflifeatthemolecularlevelmadepossible by
the sequencing of the Human Genome and recombinant genetics. A
consequence of Assisted Reproductive Technologies is that the female body
hasbecomeapreeminentlaboratoryforalucrativepharmaceuticalindustry.

3. Biopoliticalpower comprisesthe wholeofsocietyitproducesthesocialbody,andour

individual bodies. It is the groundof all productivity andtherefore thegroundoflife.
Within the society of control "power is exercised through machines that directly
organizethebrains(in communicationsystems,informationnetworks,etc.)andbodies
(through welfare systems, monitored activities, etc) toward a state of autonomous
alienationfromthesenseoflifeanddesireforcreativity."(23)

a. Under globalcapital,Biopowermostlycreateswealthandpowerforothersand
isnotunderindividualcontrol.

b. Our labor and what we do for a "living"whether manual or bodily

(agricultural,factory),mental/intellectual(knowledge work,immateriallabor),
and affective (emotional, service, maintenance of self, family,
community)canbesaidtobeaproductorexpressionofBiopower.

4. Biopowercreatesmaterializedlaborinwhichithidesthelifeproducing,lifesustaining
production, reproduction and maintenance labor largely done by female, poor,
immigrant, and minority populations. It is to "think like computers" and our bodies
become machine like parts controlled by invisible information and immaterial
processes.


Foucault

1. Foucault firstusedthe termbiopowerto describe awayinwhichastatecanexerttotalcontrol

overitsconstituents.

2. Foucaultarguedbiopowerto be inwhichcapitaliststatesexertedcontrolover peopletobetter

promotelife.Major meansofcontrolwerethrough statisticsandprobabilities.States,meaning
countries, analyzed likely responses to actions by the government and waysinwhich people
could most probablybecontrolledanddirectedinallaspectsoflife.Eveninademocraticstate,
thismarriageof thesocialsciencesto politicalsciences affects ahighdegreeofcontrolovera
population,asFoucaultclaims.

3. Power suchasthatsuggestedinbiopowerisusedforthegoodofthestatetoprotectthelivesof
itspeople.Suchthingsasmanaging medicalcaremightbepartofastateemployingbiopower
rulingtechniques.
a.
Foucault takes this further, suggesting that best control can be achieved through
eugenics
. Eugenicsisthe theoryrifewith racismandclassism,wherehumansapplythe
conceptsofnaturalselectiontobenefitthehumanrace
.

A. Thus thosewith traits undesirable tothe societyare selectedout, by notallowingpeoplewith

poorbackgroundsorsignificanthealthissuestoreproduce.

B. Aswell asemploying
population controlthroughselectivereproduction,protectionofthestate
inorder tomaintain powerisanessentialportionofbiopower.Thisincludesthedestructionof
anythreateningelementstothestateandjustifiesanyactionstakenbythestate.

a. An exampleofthistypeofbiopowercanbeevaluatedbythecurrent USrelationship to
several Arabic nations. There are some that argue that the best action would be to
destroy all Arabic nations and rid theworldthusof terrorism.Thisisbiopower inits
mostuglyand extremeform,and itisjustifiableaccordingtotheconceptsofFoucault.
Such an exercise has been seen before in history in the mass extermination of Jews
duringWWIIandinthemorerecentmassgenocidesintheSudan.

C. In Foucaultsview,biopower is thenatural trendawayfromsovereign statesthatgovernedby

threatening death to opposers or those who would not obey the law. However, we see both
biopowerandthreatofdeathpowerinmostcountries,regardlessoftheirpoliticalstructure.

D. Foucault identifies and names biopower should not be taken as endorsement of behaviors
associatedwithsuch.


Itseemsto methatpowermustbeunderstoodinthefirstinstanceasthemultiplicityofforcerelations
immanent in the sphere in which they operate and which constitute their own organization as the
process which, through ceaseless struggles and confrontations,transforms, strengthens, or reverses
themas thesupportwhich these forcerelations findinoneanother, thus forminga chainorasystem,
oronthecontrary,thedisjunctionsandcontradictionswhichisolatethemfromoneanotherandlastly,
as the strategies in which they take effect, whose general design or institutional crystallization is
embodiedinthestateapparatus,intheformulationofthelaw,inthevarioussocialhegemonie
s
(Foucault,1990,pp.9293
).

ResearchadaptedFrom:
http://www.cyberfeminism.net/biopower/bp_aboutbp.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/whatisbiopower.htm