Biopolitics is an intersectional field between
human biology and politics.
It is a political wisdom taking into consideration
the administration of life and a locality’s
populations as its subject.
To quote Foucault, it is ‘to ensure, sustain,
and multiply life, to put this life in order."The
term was coined by Rudolf Kjellén, who also
coined the term geopolitics, in his 1905 two-volume
work The Great Powers.
In contemporary US political science studies,
usage of the term is mostly divided between
a poststructuralist group using the meaning
assigned by Michel Foucault (denoting social
and political power over life) and another
group who uses it to denote studies relating
biology and political science.
== Various definitions ==
In Kjellén's organicist view, the state was
a quasi-biological organism, a "super-individual
creature".
Kjellén sought to study "the civil war between
social groups" (comprising the state) from
a biological perspective and thus named his
putative discipline "biopolitics".
The Nazis also used the term occasionally.
For example, Hans Reiter used it in a 1934
speech to refer to their biologically based
concept of nation and state and ultimately
their racial policy.
Previous notions of the concept can actually
be traced back to the Middle Ages in John
of Salisbury's work Policraticus in which
the coined term body politic is actually used.
The first modern usage of the term (in English)
starts with an article written by GW Harris
in an article for the New Age in 1911 in which
he advocates the liquidation of "lunatics"
by 'state lethal chamber'.
The concept then starts to gather pace in
the 19th century with Walter Bagehot's work
Physics and Politics in which he reflects
on the term as if he was a trained scientist
in the form of Jakob von Uexküll.
Bagehot didn't have a scientifically trained
mind such as von Uexküll so he (Bagehot)
falls rather short in the explanation of the
term.
Nevertheless the book has some novel points
particularly on the subject of natural selection
and politics.
Morley Roberts in his 1938 book Bio-politics
used to argue that a correct model for world
politics is "a loose association of cell and
protozoa colonies".
Robert E. Kuttner used the term to refer to
his particular brand of "scientific racism,"
as he called it, which he worked out with
noted Eustace Mullins, with whom Kuttner cofounded
the Institute for Biopolitics in the late
1950s, and also with Glayde Whitney, a behavioral
geneticist.
Most of his adversaries designate his model
as antisemitic.
Kuttner and Mullins were inspired by Morley
Roberts, who was in turn inspired by Arthur
Keith, or both were inspired by each other
and either co-wrote together (or with the
Institute of Biopolitics) Biopolitics of Organic
Materialism dedicated to Roberts and reprinted
some of his works.
In the work of Foucault, the style of government
that regulates populations through "biopower"
(the application and impact of political power
on all aspects of human life).
In the works of Michael Hardt and Antonio
Negri, anti-capitalist insurrection using
life and the body as weapons; examples include
flight from power and, 'in its most tragic
and revolting form', suicide terrorism.
Conceptualised as the opposite of biopower,
which is seen as the practice of sovereignty
in biopolitical conditions.
The political application of bioethics.
A political spectrum that reflects positions
towards the sociopolitical consequences of
the biotech revolution.
Political advocacy in support of, or in opposition
to, some applications of biotechnology.
Public policies regarding some applications
of biotechnology.
Political advocacy concerned with the welfare
of all forms of life and how they are moved
by one another.
The politics of bioregionalism.
The interplay and interdisciplinary studies
relating biology and political science, primarily
the study of the relationship between biology
and political behavior.
Most of these works agree on three fundamental
aspects.
First, the object of investigation is primarily
political behavior, which—and this is the
underlying assumption—is caused in a substantial
way by objectively demonstrable biological
factors.
For example, the relationship of biology and
political orientation, but also biological
correlates of partisanship and voting behavior.
(See also sociobiology.)
According to Professor Agni Vlavianos Arvanitis,
biopolitics is a conceptual and operative
framework for societal development, promoting
bios (Greek = life) as the central theme in
every human endeavor, be it policy, education,
art, government, science or technology.
This concept uses bios as a term referring
to all forms of life on our planet, including
their genetic and geographic variation.
== In 
the colonial setting ==
Catastrophes are periodically mobilized as
vehicles for historical transformation.
European states often found themselves grappling
with sociobiological propensities of populations.
Mercantilism and capitalist modes of production
led to a modern biopolitical approach to famine:
the modern state depended on providing a diet
sufficient to keep the biological machines
of industrial capitalism running.
The British developed biopolitics in tandem
with colonization to help solidify their control
over the Irish.
The French Third Republic in Western Africa
also employed biopolitics in their colonial
efforts.
The fin-de-siecle revolution in microbiology
and specific developments in public health
legislation aided the French.
Furthermore, thanks to the germ theory of
disease pioneered by Robert Koch and Louis
Pasteur, the etiology of some of the most
deadly diseases—cholera and typhoid—began
to be understood in the 1890s, and the French
used this new scientific knowledge in the
tropics of West Africa.
Illnesses like bubonic plague were isolated,
and vectors of malaria and yellow fever were
identified for the political purpose of public
health.
They passed public health laws to introduce
up-to-date health standards.
The goal was for African subjects to respond
in exactly the same way as metropolitan citizens
to market incentives and new technologies
imposed by a progressive state.
Thus, public health was a political concern
in the sense that the state hoped citizens
would be more productive if they lived longer.
== Michel Foucault ==
French philosopher and social theorist Michel
Foucault first discussed his thoughts on biopolitics
in his lecture series "Society Must Be Defended"
given at the Collège de France from 1975
to 1976.
Foucault's concept of biopolitics is largely
derived from his own notion of biopower, and
the extension of state power over both the
physical and political bodies of a population.
While only mentioned briefly in his "Society
Must Be Defended" lectures, his notion of
the concept of biopolitics (Foucault never
invented the concept) has become prominent
in social and humanistic sciences.Foucault
described biopolitics as "a new technology
of power...[that] exists at a different level,
on a different scale, and [that] has a different
bearing area, and makes use of very different
instruments."
More than a disciplinary mechanism, Foucault's
biopolitics acts as a control apparatus exerted
over a population as a whole or, as Foucault
stated, "a global mass."
In the years that followed, Foucault continued
to develop his notions of the biopolitical
in his "The Birth of Biopolitics" and "The
Courage of Truth" lectures.Foucault gave numerous
examples of biopolitical control when he first
mentioned the concept in 1976.
These examples include "ratio of births to
deaths, the rate of reproduction, the fertility
of a population, and so on."
He contrasted this method of social control
with political power in the Middle Ages.
Whereas in the Middle Ages pandemics made
death a permanent and perpetual part of life,
this was then shifted around the end of the
18th century with the introduction of milieu
into the biological sciences.
Foucault then gives different contrasts to
the then physical sciences in which the industrialisation
of the population was coming to the fore through
the concept of work, where Foucault then argues
power starts to become a target for this milieu
by the 17th century.
The development of vaccines and medicines
dealing with public hygiene allowed death
to be held (and/or withheld) from certain
populations.
This was the introduction of "more subtle,
more rational mechanisms: insurance, individual
and collective savings, safety measures, and
so on."
== 
Notes ==
== 
Further reading ==
Research in Biopolitics: Volume 1: Sexual
Politics and Political Feminism Editor Albert
Somit (1991)
Research in Biopolitics: Volume 2: Biopolitics
and the Mainstream: Contributions of Biology
to Political Science Editor Albert Somit (1994)
Research in Biopolitics: Volume 3: Human Nature
and Politics Editors Steven A. Peterson Albert
Somit (1995)
Research in Biopolitics: Volume 4: Research
in Biopolitics Editors Albert Somit Steven
A. Peterson (1996)
Research in Biopolitics: Volume 5: Recent
Explorations in Biology and Politics Editors
Albert Somit Steven A. Peterson (1997)
Research In Biopolitics: Volume 6: Sociobiology
and Politics Editors Albert Somit Steven A.
Peterson (1998)
Research In Biopolitics: Volume 7: Ethnic
Conflicts Explained By Ethnic Nepotism Editors
Albert Somit Steven A. Peterson (1999)
Research In Biopolitics: Volume 8: Evolutionary
Approaches In The Behavioral Sciences: Toward
A Better Understanding of Human Nature Editors
Steven A. Peterson Albert Somit (2001)
Research In Biopolitics: Volume 9: Biology
and Political Behavior: The Brain, Genes and
Politics - the Cutting Edge; Editor Albert
Somit (2011)
== External links ==
Steinmann, Kate.
(2011).
Apparatus, Capture, Trace: Photography and
Biopolitics in: Fillip.
Fall 2011.
Miguelángel Verde Garrido.
(2015).
Contesting a biopolitics of information and
communications: The importance of truth and
sousveillance after Snowden in: Surveillance
& Society (volume 13, number 2; pages 153-167).
