The concept of biopolitics has been one of the most important and widely used in recent years in disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. In Biopolitics, Mills provides a wide-ranging and insightful introduction to the field of biopolitical studies. The first part of the book provides a much-needed philosophical introduction to key theoretical approaches to the concept in contemporary usage. This includes discussions of the work of Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Roberto Esposito, and Antonio Negri. In the second part of the book, Mills discusses various topics across the categories of politics, life and subjectivity. These include questions of sovereignty and governmentality, violence, rights, technology, reproduction, race, and sexual difference.
This book will be an indispensable guide for those wishing to gain an understanding of the central theories and issues in biopolitical studies. For those already working with the concept of biopolitics, it provides challenging and provocative insights and argues for a ground-breaking reorientation of the field.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One
- A new regime of power: Foucault
- Biopolitics as thanatopolitics: Agamben
- Totalitarianism and the political animal: Arendt
- Affirmative biopolitics: Negri and Esposito
- Politics: Sovereignty, Violence, Rights
- Life: Biology, Technology, Reproduction
- Subjectivity: Persons, Race, Gender
Part Two
Concluding remarks
Index
Biography
Catherine Mills is Associate Professor of Bioethics and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at Monash University, Australia.
'Catherine Mills's book is a brilliant introduction to the emerging field of research on biopolitics. It offers a sophisticated yet accessible overview of the main theories and thematic areas in the studies of biopolitics and will be indispensable reading both for beginners in this field and the more advanced readership.'　
Sergei Prozorov, University of Helsinki, Finland
'The most up to date and philosophically sophisticated overview of the current debates in biopolitical studies　available today'.
Miguel Vatter, University of New South Wales, Australia
