Biopolitical bordering: Enacting populations as intelligible objects of government
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
Authors
Since Foucault introduced the notion of biopolitics, it has been fiercely debated—usually in highly generalized terms—how to interpret and use this concept. This article argues that these discussions need to be situated, as biopolitics have features that do not travel from one site to the next. This becomes apparent if we attend to an aspect of biopolitics that has only received scant attention so far: the knowledge practices required to constitute populations as intelligible objects of government. To illustrate this point, the article focuses on processes of biopolitical bordering: the delineation of the target population that is to be known via statistical practices. Drawing on the example of Estonia I show that methodological decisions involved in this work have important biopolitical implications as they affect the size and composition of the population, thus shaping the design of programmes of government aiming at its regulation.
| Originalsprache | Englisch |
|---|---|
| Zeitschrift | European Journal of Social Theory |
| Jahrgang | 23 |
| Ausgabenummer | 4 |
| Seiten (von - bis) | 571-590 |
| Anzahl der Seiten | 20 |
| ISSN | 1368-4310 |
| DOIs | |
| Publikationsstatus | Erschienen - 01.11.2020 |
| Extern publiziert | Ja |
Bibliographische Notiz
Funding Information:
Earlier versions of this article have been presented at the workshop ?What Matters? New Materialities and Material-Semiotic Approaches in Critical Migration and Border Studies? at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in May 2016 and a panel at the 4S/EASST conference in Barcelona in September 2016. The author would like to thank the organizers of these events. The arguments developed in this article have particularly benefited from comments and suggestions by Matthias Leese, Lorenzo Pezzani, Evelyn Ruppert, Wilhelm Schinkel and William Walters. Furthermore, the author would like to thank all team members of the ARITHMUS project for productive discussions on earlier drafts of this article. The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research leading to this publication has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union?s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 615588. Principal Investigator, Evelyn Ruppert, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Funding Information:
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research leading to this publication has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 615588. Principal Investigator, Evelyn Ruppert, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
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