ABSTRACT

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.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

part |97 pages

Part I

chapter |24 pages

A new regime of power

Foucault

chapter |21 pages

Biopolitics as thanatopolitics

Agamben

chapter |23 pages

Totalitarianism and the political animal

Arendt

chapter |27 pages

Affirmative biopolitics

Negri and Esposito

part |70 pages

Part 2

chapter |23 pages

Politics

Sovereignty, violence, rights

chapter |24 pages

Life

Biology, technology, reproduction

chapter |21 pages

Subjectivity

Persons, race, gender

chapter |4 pages

Concluding remarks