Real-time biopolitics: the actuary and the sentinel in global public health

Abstract

This paper analyses the mechanisms through which experts in the field of global health work to manage the future well-being of populations. It develops a contrast between two ways of approaching disease threats: actuarial and sentinel devices. If actuarial devices seek to map disease over time and across populations in order to gauge and mitigate risk, sentinel devices treat unprecedented diseases that cannot be mapped over time, but can only be anticipated and prepared for. The paper shows that a recent controversy over vaccination in Europe in response to the H1N1 pandemic can be understood in terms of the tension between these two kinds of security mechanisms.     

Neo-liberal biopolitics and the invention of chronic homelessness

Abstract

This article explores the emergence of neo-liberal housing policy and programmes in the United States, focusing in particular on the rise of social service initiatives targeting what is known as ‘chronic homelessness’. These initiatives are notable for the ways in which they privilege long-vilified populations for immediate placement into housing with no social or medical services required. While this represents a significant break from social service protocols that previously demanded compliance with service requirements, the article argues that understanding chronic homelessness initiatives as economic rather than social programmes reveals the ways in which they enable the reproduction of the same neo-liberal conditions that produce housing insecurity and deprivation. The article concludes by reframing housing issues in terms of racial subordination, which suggests that, in the neo-liberal context, social abandonment and economic investment may persist side by side.     

From refugee camps to gated communities: biopolitics and the end of the city1

The article addresses the situation of the asylum seeker as an instantiation of the ‘homo sacer’, the ultimate biopolitical subject whose life is stripped of cultural and political forms. The focus is on the socio‐spatial mechanisms that immobilize asylum seekers in ‘non‐places’ such as accommodation centers in which they lead a life in a permanent state of exception and detention centers into which they are forced without trial. To offer a systematic account of this immobilization the article elaborates on the concept of the camp. It then moves on to discuss some significant convergences between refugee spaces and other more desirable contemporary ‘camps’ (for example, gated communities) that problematize the notions of the city and politics. To conclude, the consequences of the ‘camp’ as a form of positive power as well as restriction of freedom are discussed, relating this to a discussion of the ‘end of the city’ and the (im)possibilities of resistance to or ‘escape’ from camps.     

Brief lives: economic life and political life in the history of economic thought

This paper considers the relationship between economic life and political life as it has been articulated in four contexts in the history of economics: the ancient, the mercantilist, the classical and the neoclassical. It examines the changing ways in which these aspects of behaviour have been seen to be related, and how that relationship has taken on different forms in different epochs of economic thought. The analysis seeks to reveal some of the remaining questions that arise in the question of the relationship between economic man and political man.     

French Enlightenment: truth and life

This paper considers the relations of truth, life and norm in the work of Georges Canguilhem and Michel Foucault argued that in France it was in the philosophy of science that one finds the clearest formulations of the problems of rationality and the sovereignty of reason. This distintive confrontation can be termed French Modern. For Canguilhem, an ontological and existential pathos arose from the fact that living beings were fated to struggle in the face of circumstances. For Foucault, this ontology became historical and political. For both, the key question was the relationship between life itself and the understanding of life. The paper concludes by reflecting upon some implications of the ways in which the relation between life and lived experience is posed today.     

Canguilhem: life,health and death

This paper consists of comments and reflections on the legacy of Canguilhem's work, especially in Britain. After reviewing some aspects of the reception of Canguilhem's thought in Britain, the paper defends Canguilhem's vitalist philosophy, and concludes with hints as to the political uses of Canguilhem's thought in today's bio-political age.     

Migrant life stories and the Web: the experience of having your life story made public

The life stories of migrants are increasingly being told, as part of the work of cultural organizations, and websites are well suited to making such life story projects accessible to the public. However, by using the lives of real people as raw material in a public forum, Web projects raise important questions about the terms on which participants are given a voice. This article focuses on a Danish website which depicts the life stories of migrant men through written texts, audio clips, and photographs. It presents a detailed analysis of the life story of one young man from a Muslim background who has openly declared himself an atheist. The article examines his experience of having this somewhat sensitive story made public. The religious aspect inevitably positioned his story in relation to broader political debates about Muslims in Denmark. Since migrants' stories often touch on highly politicized issues, it is crucial that their stories are not co-opted by societal discourses which they do not themselves support.