Comments on: … is biopolitical economy? http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/ A working notebook Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:30:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: graziano http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-3401 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:36:05 +0100 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-3401 hey nate and colin, thanks a lot for your comments about the biopolitical foundations of the economy, it's very interesting!! actually, there's an article in a paper named soziale systeme written by dr ute tellmann from basel (switzerland) which you could like! unfortunately it's in german, but i'm sure there will soon be something in english too:) so far an abstract in english... Ute Tellmann, Figures of Exclusion: (Bare) Life and the Foundation of Economy The current debate about the biopolitical predicament of the Western political tradition has centered on the figure of life as an object of excessive sovereign power and administrative intervention. Less attention has been granted to the question of how biopolitics and the constitution of the economy are intertwined. Instead of subsuming the relation between life and politics to the sovereign paradox and a governmental program, the article argues for a complementary genealogical analysis of the modern divisions between an economy of naked life and the political sphere. A close reading of texts of T.R. Malthus shows, how the economic figure of life is already marked by its exclusion from political intelligibility. Rather than being a placeholder for materiality or bodily needs, the notion of life and its ontological condition of scarcity cannot be separated from colonial hierachization and political exclusion. The prominent and persistent recourse of modern economic thought to a certain notion of life – closely linked to the pervasive concept of scarcity – gives in turn rise to a particular civilizational imaginary of the economy and determines how the division between the economy and the political sphere is understood. greets, graziano hey nate and colin,
thanks a lot for your comments about the biopolitical foundations of the economy, it’s very interesting!! actually, there’s an article in a paper named soziale systeme written by dr ute tellmann from basel (switzerland) which you could like! unfortunately it’s in german, but i’m sure there will soon be something in english too:) so far an abstract in english…
Ute Tellmann, Figures of Exclusion: (Bare) Life and the Foundation of Economy
The current debate about the biopolitical predicament of the Western political tradition has centered on the figure of life as an object of excessive sovereign power and administrative intervention. Less attention has been granted to the question of how biopolitics and the constitution of the economy are intertwined. Instead of subsuming the relation between life and politics to the sovereign paradox and a governmental program, the article argues for a complementary genealogical analysis of the modern divisions between an economy of naked life and the political sphere. A close reading of texts of T.R. Malthus shows, how the economic figure of life is already marked by its exclusion from political intelligibility. Rather than being a placeholder for materiality or bodily needs, the notion of life and its ontological condition of scarcity cannot be separated from colonial hierachization and political exclusion. The prominent and persistent recourse of modern economic thought to a certain notion of life – closely linked to the pervasive concept of scarcity – gives in turn rise to a particular civilizational imaginary of the economy and determines how the division between the economy and the political sphere is understood.
greets, graziano

]]> by: Affiliate Promotion http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-3189 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:15:37 +0000 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-3189 This is really interesting, thanks for posting it! This is really interesting, thanks for posting it!

]]> by: Nate http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1179 Wed, 17 Jan 2007 01:06:18 +0000 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1179 Actually, that other draft linked to in comment 4 is part 3 or later of this. Between this text and the one linked to in comment 4 there stands this http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/01/11/is-the-impotential-to-be-bare-life/ which is still under way. Actually, that other draft linked to in comment 4 is part 3 or later of this. Between this text and the one linked to in comment 4 there stands this http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2007/01/11/is-the-impotential-to-be-bare-life/

which is still under way.

]]> by: Nate http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1143 Sat, 30 Dec 2006 23:06:16 +0000 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1143 Even rougher draft of part two here - http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/28/is-vogelfreiheit-as-subjectification/ Even rougher draft of part two here -
http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/28/is-vogelfreiheit-as-subjectification/

]]> by: Nate http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1123 Thu, 21 Dec 2006 09:00:09 +0000 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1123 ps - cuz this is faster than logging in to myspace, I'm glad you're going to be in Paris with A and T for xmas. When do you leave and when will you be back to Germany? I am, as usual, too disorganized to take care of stuff in my personal life in a timely manner which means the package for you hasn't been assembled and mailed yet. I expect at this point it'd be best to make it a "Happy 2007" package. Sorry about that! This aside, the photos up at yours are really lovely. take care, Nate ps - cuz this is faster than logging in to myspace, I’m glad you’re going to be in Paris with A and T for xmas. When do you leave and when will you be back to Germany? I am, as usual, too disorganized to take care of stuff in my personal life in a timely manner which means the package for you hasn’t been assembled and mailed yet. I expect at this point it’d be best to make it a “Happy 2007″ package. Sorry about that! This aside, the photos up at yours are really lovely.
take care,
Nate

]]> by: Nate http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1122 Thu, 21 Dec 2006 08:55:31 +0000 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1122 Damn Colin you made my midwest aww shucks kick in. thanks for the kind words. I'm giving it as a talk in mid January, after which I want to revise it and try to do something with it. I also really like the Schelling reference, is that in his history of philosophy book that Bowie translated? I like that because it works well with what I take to be link between the critique of political economy (as discourse) and the critique the economy (as ensemble of material social practices). Also, FWIW this paper is a follow up from a paper I wrote which I don't remember if I sent you, here: http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/biopolitical-capitalism/ I have a second half (or additional essay) in mind for this Agamben paper which deals with some of the alternative to bare life, I hope to get that done soon-ish (by january 5 or so), but I wasn't planning to do the form-of-life stuff. Can you say more about this, on the life not subject to reduction? I like that but I'm struggling a bit (you've read more Agamben than I have, among other things). Damn Colin you made my midwest aww shucks kick in. thanks for the kind words. I’m giving it as a talk in mid January, after which I want to revise it and try to do something with it. I also really like the Schelling reference, is that in his history of philosophy book that Bowie translated? I like that because it works well with what I take to be link between the critique of political economy (as discourse) and the critique the economy (as ensemble of material social practices). Also, FWIW this paper is a follow up from a paper I wrote which I don’t remember if I sent you, here: http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/biopolitical-capitalism/

I have a second half (or additional essay) in mind for this Agamben paper which deals with some of the alternative to bare life, I hope to get that done soon-ish (by january 5 or so), but I wasn’t planning to do the form-of-life stuff. Can you say more about this, on the life not subject to reduction? I like that but I’m struggling a bit (you’ve read more Agamben than I have, among other things).

]]> by: Colin http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1121 Thu, 21 Dec 2006 08:22:34 +0000 http://whatinthehell.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/is-biopolitical-economy/#comment-1121 This is probably the best thing written about Agamben so far. Publish this. Seriously. The only addition I would make would be a discussion of "politics as giving form to life." Inclusive exclusion is something that happen in the context of politics, which not only gives life determinations (which bare life can have, by accident, by producing them itself, and in virtue of its own life "style" ), but which gives it a political form (something which is decidedly inside or outside the "form" of the community, the people). Politics produces bare life by giving it a "formless" form--by excluding that life from the life of the community, whose citizens possess a specific determination (subjection to sovereign power). I think it's fair to say that bare life is produced in politics in much the same way that Schelling says Hegel produced his conception of pure being--by stripping away all of its original determinations, and reducing it to nothing. But you can also understand bare life as life that isn't subject to this reduction--that's just life, which isn't subject to (sovereign) political decisions about whether or not it will be included or excluded. That's the interesting, progressive part of Agamben, I think. This is probably the best thing written about Agamben so far. Publish this. Seriously.

The only addition I would make would be a discussion of “politics as giving form to life.” Inclusive exclusion is something that happen in the context of politics, which not only gives life determinations (which bare life can have, by accident, by producing them itself, and in virtue of its own life “style” ), but which gives it a political form (something which is decidedly inside or outside the “form” of the community, the people). Politics produces bare life by giving it a “formless” form–by excluding that life from the life of the community, whose citizens possess a specific determination (subjection to sovereign power).

I think it’s fair to say that bare life is produced in politics in much the same way that Schelling says Hegel produced his conception of pure being–by stripping away all of its original determinations, and reducing it to nothing. But you can also understand bare life as life that isn’t subject to this reduction–that’s just life, which isn’t subject to (sovereign) political decisions about whether or not it will be included or excluded. That’s the interesting, progressive part of Agamben, I think.

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