Resisting Biopolitics: Philosophical, Political, and Performative Strategies

319 Pages·2016·1.899 MB·English

by  S.E. Wilmer, Audronė Žukauskaitė

Resisting Biopolitics
As the most up-to-date representation of the state of biopolitical research,
from a wide array of disciplines and contemporary interventions in arts
and culture, the editors of this volume have chosen to err on the side of the
sheer diversity of methodological approaches and polarities that define the
reception history of Foucault’s original concept. They should be applauded
for the pedagogical clarity in reviewing the history of scholarship and the
breadth of the contributions, including new materialist and post-humanist
approaches that also belong to our biopolitical episteme, revealing a con-
certed effort to escape the consistuent and humanistic determinations of the
subjects of politics and life in favor of an entangled field of forces that would
also include the in-human and non-human as new forms of resistance.
—Gregg Lambert, Syracuse University, USA
The topic of biopolitics is a timely one, and it has become increasingly
important for scholars to reconsider how life is objectified, mobilized, and
otherwise bound up in politics. This cutting-edge volume discusses the phil-
osophical, social, and political notions of biopolitics, as well as the ways in
which biopower affects all aspects of our lives, including the relationships
between the human and nonhuman, the concept of political subjectivity, and
the connection between art, science, philosophy, and politics. In addition to
tracing the evolving philosophical discourse around biopolitics, this collec-
tion researches and explores certain modes of resistance against biopolitical
control. Written by leading experts in the field, the book’s chapters inves-
tigate resistance across a wide range of areas: politics and biophilosophy,
technology and vitalism, creativity and bioethics, and performance. Resist-
ing Biopolitics is an important intervention in contemporary biopolitical
theory, looking toward the future of this interdisciplinary field.
S. E. Wilmer is Professor Emeritus and former Head of the School of Drama,
Film and Music at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and Research Fellow at
the Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany.
Audrone˙ Žukauskaite˙ is Senior Researcher at the Lithuanian Culture
Research Institute.
Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
41 Foundations of Freedom 48 A Philosophy of Material
Welfare-Based Arguments against Culture
Paternalism Action, Function, and Mind
Simon R. Clarke Beth Preston
42 Pittsburgh School of Philosophy 49 A Philosophy of the Screenplay
Sellars, McDowell, Brandom Ted Nannicelli
Chauncey Maher
50 Race, Philosophy, and Film
43 Reference and Structure Edited by Mary K.
in the Philosophy of Bloodsworth-Lugo and
Language Dan Flory
A Defense of the Russellian
Orthodoxy 51 Knowledge, Virtue, and Action
Arthur Sullivan Essays on Putting Epistemic
Virtues to Work
44 Civic Virtue and the Sovereignty Edited by Tim Henning and David
of Evil P. Schweikard
Derek Edyvane
52 The Ontology of Psychology
45 Philosophy of Language and Questioning Foundations in the
Webs of Information Philosophy of Mind
Heimir Geirsson Linda A. W. Brakel
46 Disagreement and Skepticism 53 Pragmatism, Law, and
Edited by Diego E. Machuca Language
Edited by Graham Hubbs and
47 Philosophy in Schools Douglas Lind
An Introduction for Philosophers
and Teachers 54 Contemporary Dualism
Edited by Sara Goering, A Defense
Nicholas J. Shudak, and Edited by Andrea Lavazza and
Thomas E. Wartenberg Howard M. Robinson
55 Reframing the Intercultural 64 The Essence of the Self
Dialogue on Human Rights In Defense of the Simple View of
A Philosophical Approach Personal Identity
Jeffrey Flynn Geoffrey Madell
56 How History Matters to 65 Personal Autonomy and Social
Philosophy Oppression
Reconsidering Philosophy’s Past Philosophical Perspectives
After Positivism Edited by Marina A.L. Oshana
Robert C. Scharff
66 Domination and Global Political
57 The Affordable Care Act Justice
Decision Conceptual, Historical, and
Philosophical and Legal Institutional Perspectives
Implications Edited by Barbara Buckinx,
Edited by Fritz Allhoff and Jonathan Trejo-Mathys, and
Mark Hall Timothy Waligore
58 Realism, Science, and 67 Hate Speech Law
Pragmatism A Philosophical Examination
Edited by Kenneth R. Westphal Alexander Brown
59 Evidentialism and Epistemic 68 Music and Aesthetic Reality
Justification Formalism and the Limits of
Kevin McCain Description
By Nick Zangwill
60 Democracy in Contemporary
Confucian Philosophy 69 Beyond the Analytic-Continental
David Elstein Divide
Pluralist Philosophy in the
61 Deleuze and Pragmatism Twenty-First Century
Edited by Sean Bowden, Edited by Jeffrey A. Bell, Andrew
Simone Bignall, and Cutrofello, and Paul M. Livingston
Paul Patton
70 Science and the Self
62 Mind, Language and Animals, Evolution, and Ethics:
Subjectivity Essays in Honour of Mary
Minimal Content and the Theory Midgley
of Thought Edited by Ian James Kidd and Liz
Nicholas Georgalis McKinnell
63 Believing Against the 71 Resisting Biopolitics
Evidence Philosophical, Political, and
Agency and the Ethics Performative Strategies
of Belief Edited by S. E. Wilmer and
Miriam Schleifer McCormick Audronė Žukauskaitė

Resisting Biopolitics
Philosophical, Political, and
Performative Strategies
Edited by S. E. Wilmer and
Audronė Žukauskaitė
First published 2016
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Resisting biopolitics : philosophical, political, and performative strategies /
edited by S.E. Wilmer and Audrone Žukauskaite. — 1st [edition].
pages cm. — (Routledge studies in contemporary philosophy; 71)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Biopolitics. I. Wilmer, S. E., editor.
JA80.R43 2015
320.01—dc23 2015015910
ISBN: 978-1-138-78948-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76495-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Figures xi
Introduction 1
AUDRONE˙ ŽUKAUSKAITE˙ AND S. E. WILMER
PART I
Politics, Biopolitics, and Biophilosophy
1 From the State of Control to a Praxis of Destituent Power 21
GIORGIO AGAMBEN
2 Posthuman Affirmative Politics 30
ROSI BRAIDOTTI
3 Rethinking Biopolitics: The New Materialism and the Political
Economy of Life 57
THOMAS LEMKE
4 From Biopolitics to Biophilosophy, or the Vanishing
Subject of Biopolitics 74
AUDRONE˙ ŽUKAUSKAITE˙
PART II
Life, Bioethics, and Bioart
5 Chimerism and Immunitas: The Emergence of a
Posthumanist Biophilosophy 95
MARGRIT SHILDRICK
6 Resisting Biopolitics, Resisting Freedom: Prenatal
Testing and Choice 109
CATHERINE MILLS
viii Contents
7 Biophilosophy for the 21st Century 123
EUGENE THACKER
8 The Biopolitics of Life Removed from Context: Neolifism 135
ORON CATTS AND IONAT ZURR
PART III
Surveillance and Digital Technologies
9 Questioned by Machines: A Cultural Perspective on
Counter-Terrorism and Lie Detection in Security Zones 159
MARK MAGUIRE
10 Data Doubles and the Specters of Performance in the Bit
Parts of Surveillance 173
JAMES HARDING
11 Digital Biopolitics: The Image of Life 189
F. J. COLMAN
12 The Object of Desire of the Machine and the Biopolitics of
the Posthuman 202
MATTHEW CAUSEY
PART IV
Societies of Control
13 At the Systemic Edge: Expulsions 219
SASKIA SASSEN
14 From the “Bio” to the “Necro”: The Human at the Border 237
ANDRÉS FABIÁN HENAO CASTRO
15 Biopolitics in the Laundry: Ireland’s Unwed Mothers 254
S. E. WILMER
16 Israel/Palestine: State of Exception and Acts of Resistance 271
RONIT LENTIN
List of Contributors 287
Index 293
Acknowledgments
The editors would like to thank Trinity College Association and Trust, the
School of Drama, Film and Music, the Visual and Performing Arts Fund,
and the Long Room Hub for their support of the initial conference on “Bio-
politics, Society and Performance” in October–November 2012 that pro-
vided the impetus for this volume. Although none of the articles in this book
were delivered at that conference, many of the speakers at that conference
have developed new material for this book. The editors would also like to
thank the International Research Centre “Interweaving Performance Cul-
tures” at the Freie Universität Berlin for their support during the editing
process. The editors would also like to thank Giorgio Agamben for permis-
sion to edit and publish the speech he gave in Athens in November 2013
called “From the State of Control to a Praxis of Destituent Power.” The
editors are grateful to Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, editors of CTheory,
for permission to publish Eugene Thacker’s “Biophilosophy for the 21st
Century.” The editors are also very grateful to Cal-Ryan McDonagh for his
careful and painstaking editorial assistance. The editors also acknowledge
the Wellcome Trust for permission to use their image in Felicity Colman’s
essay. All images in Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr’s article are courtesy of the
Tissue culture & art Project.