400016 SE Biopolitics - Thanatopolitics - Necropolitics. Theoretical Classics and current debates (2022W)

Biopolitics has long become an unavoidable theoretical concept in the social sciences. Going back to the French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault, biopolitics refers to a form of modern governance that has evolved historically since the 18th century, in which the organisation of and concern for "life" are at the centre of politics and state intervention, with regard to the population as a whole as well as with regard to individual bodies. During the Covid-19 pandemic, with its disputed political measures of infection control, biopolitical interpretative frameworks have experienced a controversial renaissance, which we will consider in the seminar.

By reading classic theoretical texts on biopolitics, thanatopolitics and necropolitics, doctoral students will gain a deeper understanding of biopolitical approaches and their diversity. The aim of the seminar is to gain an in-depth understanding of central aspects of biopolitical theories - unequal valuations of life and death in (post)colonial settings, the gendered reproduction of life, intersectional inequalities, as well as questions of making live and letting die. We will discuss the in relation to contemporary case-studies and students will be asked to reflect on such theories in relation to their own research topics. Biopolitical frameworks will thus be discussed as theoretical debates and will figure as heuristic instruments at the same time.