Biopolitics, Bioscience and Governmentality
November 19, 2015
This colloquium aims to discuss current perspectives on biopolitics and its intersections with bioscience, pharmacology, and medicine; and to propose readings that link this knowledge with the individual and governmentality, especially in the Latin American and Chilean context.
The category of “biopolitics” was reintroduced by Michel Foucault in 1974, and became one of the central concepts in contemporary political philosophy. Over the years, this category has become more complex due to the appearance of new technologies and apparatuses of power that have studied life and its politicization. New types of bioscientific knowledge, such as bioscience, biomedicine and biotechnology, in addition to the use of drugs-, are having an impact on political, economic and social relationships. At the same time, how these types of knowledge and rationalities are driving the concept of “life” has also been subject to criticism. Today, in an age when technology is advancing rapidly, how life is understood poses new challenges to our understanding of the category of biopolitics.
The colloquium will bring together Chilean and international researchers, who will preferably be working on projects funded by recognized bodies (such as CONICYT) or who are members of consolidated academic faculties or research nuclei in areas related with some of the following themes:
– Biopolitics, biopower and governmentality
– New types of bioscientific knowledge and life sciences (Neuroscience, biomedicine and biotechnology)
– New technologies and apparatuses of power
– Struggles of resistance and counterpower
– Government and the control of public health
– Health, subjectivities and self-care: self-care programs
– Bioethics and the questioning of “life”
– Biomarkers: legal, criminological and bioethical problems.
– Biocitizenship
– Neurolaw and Neuroeconomics.
Participation guidelines:
- Deadline for sending summaries (no more than 300 words): August 30, 2015 (include contact details).
- Notification of acceptance of papers for the colloquium (by email): September 10.
- Deadline for sending completed works (in Spanish and English): October 30, (Note: to participate in the conference, it is an essential requisite that papers be sent in both languages). The final work must be no more than 20 pages long with one-and-a-half line spacing (excluding bibliography and notes), Times New Roman font, size 12.
- Papers will be included in a dossier to be published after the conference.
Email summaries and papers to: jornadabios@gmail.com
This conference will benefit greatly from the attendance and participation of Nikolas Rose, currently one of the most renowned thinkers in Biopolitics, Bioscience and Governability, who will give a talk called: “Government mentality today: analysing political power in a ‘neo-liberal age’”.
Nikolas Rose is professor and director of the Department of Sociology at King’s College, London (England). His work explores how the growth of science has changed conceptions of human identity and governmentality, and the implications this will have in future understandings of politics, economy and society. His publications encompass a range of issues and disciplines, including biology, psychology, sociology, politics and law. His recent books include: Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind (co-authored with J. Abi-Rached) (2013), Governing the Present: Administering Economic, Social and Personal Life (2008) and The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, power and subjectivity (2006).
Organized by:
The Biopolitics and Ideology Research Nucleus (NIBI) (http://nibi.bligoo.com/) and the Doctorate in Psychology, Diego Portales University.
Sponsored by:
FONDECYT Regular 2014 Project No. 1140901 Towards a genealogy of pharmacological power; Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Talca, Faculty of Sociology Diego Portales University