Considerations on biopolitics in Michel Foucault

Abstract

Foucault introduced the concept of biopolitics in his works from 1976 to 1979. This concept delineates a transformation in the orientation of power that occurred between the late 17th and early 19th centuries. During this period, power began to target not only individual subjects through various disciplinary measures but also groups of subjects, collectively referred to as the population. Foucauldian biopolitics thus requires an examination of the interplay between life and power. Power permeates all facets of human existence, with biopolitics representing the control of subject through territorial biopowers that encompass aspects such as sexuality, birth, hygiene, health, the economy, security, work. In essence, biopower has seized individual subjectivity, regulating bodies and their functions through diverse mechanisms aimed at intensifying and optimizing life. This mode of governance regards individuals as integral parts of a collective the human species. The emergence of this new subject imposes novel forms of power technologies, viewing the individual as part of the collective. Consequently, state management becomes intertwined with the management of collective life. Governance, therefore, addresses the social body as a living organism, employing similar methods to record demographic and statistical data of this collective entity. This power asserts its right to make individuals live or let them die. Biopolitics, as an institutional mechanism for shaping subject and managing population, constitutes a form of sovereign power endowed with the authority over life and death. In our analysis of Michel Foucault's concept of biopolitics, we will explore these considerations in depth.