The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory

Jing Wang; Yu Lei

doi:doi:10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15

| Peer-Reviewed

The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory

Jing Wang, Yu Lei

Published in Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 10, Issue 1)

Received: 31 October 2021 Accepted: 23 November 2021 Published: 19 February 2022

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of biopolitics has gained remarkable acceptance in the social sciences and humanities. The study of biopolitics has been developed in a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, economics, aesthetics, law, history, and biomedicine, which gives biopolitics a broad interdisciplinary orientation. It has resulted in a general biopolitical turn in the social sciences and humanities. It becomes an urgent and necessary task that how to identify this turn. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to grasp the basic threads, the main methods, the essential contents and the political effects of the biopolitics turn. It is worth noting that only by placing the biopolitics in the context of social-critical theory can we truly gain insight into its inner meaning. In this regard, it must be dissected in terms of Marxist methodology in order to grasp its connotation and political position, rather than accepting the premise of the biopolitics without exception. It argues that the biopolitical turn has reversed the path of traditional political research, defined a new type of political horizon, and put the conditions of measuring knowledge into the study of political context and even the whole humanities and social sciences. The conclusions are as follows: first, the radical social theory based on the “biopolitical turn” provides a new possibility for political imagination of the left. Its pan-politicized preference, however, challenges the theoretical commitments put forward by the left and their abilities to deliver. Second, in this movement, the Marxist critique of capitalism becomes an intrinsic motivation for biopolitical theory, while at the same time Marxism becomes a tradition that is constantly attempted to be transcended and replaced in the new conditions of the times. Third, in the competition for the right to interpret Marx, and in the competition between biopolitical theories, biopolitics increasingly exhausts its most central critical power against capitalism in a theoretical boom, and eventually dwindles into a resource that specific disciplines compete to appropriate.

Published in	Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 10, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15
Page(s)	38-47
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

The Biopolitical Turn, Social Theory, Knowledge, Marxism

References

[1]	Agamben, G. (1998) Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[2]	Agamben, G. (2005) State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[3]	Agamben, G. (2009) The Signature of All Things: On Method. New York: Zone Books.
[4]	Agamben, G. (2011) The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[5]	Althusser, L. (1985) For Marx. London: Verso.
[6]	Bourdieu, P. (1996) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[7]	Cash, C. (2021) “Communism”, in Understanding Marx, Understanding Modernism, Eds. Steven. M, New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
[8]	Canguilhem, G (1978). On the Normal and the Pathological. Springer.
[9]	Debord, G. (1995) The Society of the Spectacle. Zone Books.
[10]	Esposito, E. (2008) Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
[11]	Esposito, E. (2009) Communitas: The Origin and Destiny of Community. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[12]	Fehér, F., Heller, A (1994). Biopolitics. Aldershot, UK: Avebury.
[13]	Foucault, M. (1978) The History of Sexuality. New York: Pantheon Books.
[14]	Foucault, M. (1995) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.
[15]	Foucault, M. (2002) The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge.
[16]	Foucault, M. (2002) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York and London: Routledge.
[17]	Foucault, M. (2006) History of Madness. New York and London: Routledge.
[18]	Giddens, A. (1991) The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[19]	Haraway, D. (1989) “The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Determinations of Self in Immune System Discourse,” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies.
[20]	Hardt, M., Negri, A (2000) Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[21]	Hardt, M., Negri, A (2004) Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. Penguin Press.
[22]	Harvey, D. (2010) A Companion to Marx’s Capital. New York and London: Verso.
[23]	Horkheimer, M., Adorno, T (2002) Dialectic of Enlightenment. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[24]	Lemke, T (2011) Biopolitics: An Advanced Introduction. New York and London: New York University Press.
[25]	Lefebvre, H. (1971) Everyday Life in the Modern World. New York: The Penguin Press.
[26]	Lévi-Strauss, C. (1966) The Savage Mind. Letchworth: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
[27]	Mills, C (2018). Biopolitics, New York: Routledge.
[28]	Lukács, G. (1972) History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
[29]	Marcuse, H. (1974) Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud. Beacon Press.
[30]	Marx, K., Engels, F. (1998) The German Ideology. Prometheus Books.
[31]	Marx, K. (1906) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Random House.
[32]	Marx, K. (1973) Grundrisse: Foundations of the critique of political economy. Vintage Books.
[33]	Marx, K. (2008) A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Book Jungle.
[34]	Nail, T. (2020) Marx in motion: A New Materialist Marxism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[35]	Nancy, J. L (2002) Note sur le terme “biopolitique.” In La création du monde ou la mondialisation. Paris: Gallilée.
[36]	Patton, P (2007). Agamben and Foucault on Biopower and Biopolitics, in Giorgio Agamben: Sovereignty and Life. Eds. DeCaroli, S. D. and Calarco, M. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[37]	Prozorov, Sergei. (2019) Democratic Biopolitics: Popular Sovereignty and the Power of Life, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Jing Wang, Yu Lei. (2022). The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory. Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(1), 38-47. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Jing Wang; Yu Lei. The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2022, 10(1), 38-47. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Jing Wang, Yu Lei. The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory. Humanit Soc Sci. 2022;10(1):38-47. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15,
  author = {Jing Wang and Yu Lei},
  title = {The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory},
  journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {38-47},
  doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20221001.15},
  abstract = {In recent years, the concept of biopolitics has gained remarkable acceptance in the social sciences and humanities. The study of biopolitics has been developed in a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, economics, aesthetics, law, history, and biomedicine, which gives biopolitics a broad interdisciplinary orientation. It has resulted in a general biopolitical turn in the social sciences and humanities. It becomes an urgent and necessary task that how to identify this turn. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to grasp the basic threads, the main methods, the essential contents and the political effects of the biopolitics turn. It is worth noting that only by placing the biopolitics in the context of social-critical theory can we truly gain insight into its inner meaning. In this regard, it must be dissected in terms of Marxist methodology in order to grasp its connotation and political position, rather than accepting the premise of the biopolitics without exception. It argues that the biopolitical turn has reversed the path of traditional political research, defined a new type of political horizon, and put the conditions of measuring knowledge into the study of political context and even the whole humanities and social sciences. The conclusions are as follows: first, the radical social theory based on the “biopolitical turn” provides a new possibility for political imagination of the left. Its pan-politicized preference, however, challenges the theoretical commitments put forward by the left and their abilities to deliver. Second, in this movement, the Marxist critique of capitalism becomes an intrinsic motivation for biopolitical theory, while at the same time Marxism becomes a tradition that is constantly attempted to be transcended and replaced in the new conditions of the times. Third, in the competition for the right to interpret Marx, and in the competition between biopolitical theories, biopolitics increasingly exhausts its most central critical power against capitalism in a theoretical boom, and eventually dwindles into a resource that specific disciplines compete to appropriate.},
 year = {2022}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory
AU  - Jing Wang
AU  - Yu Lei
Y1  - 2022/02/19
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15
T2  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JF  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JO  - Humanities and Social Sciences
SP  - 38
EP  - 47
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-8184
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15
AB  - In recent years, the concept of biopolitics has gained remarkable acceptance in the social sciences and humanities. The study of biopolitics has been developed in a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, economics, aesthetics, law, history, and biomedicine, which gives biopolitics a broad interdisciplinary orientation. It has resulted in a general biopolitical turn in the social sciences and humanities. It becomes an urgent and necessary task that how to identify this turn. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to grasp the basic threads, the main methods, the essential contents and the political effects of the biopolitics turn. It is worth noting that only by placing the biopolitics in the context of social-critical theory can we truly gain insight into its inner meaning. In this regard, it must be dissected in terms of Marxist methodology in order to grasp its connotation and political position, rather than accepting the premise of the biopolitics without exception. It argues that the biopolitical turn has reversed the path of traditional political research, defined a new type of political horizon, and put the conditions of measuring knowledge into the study of political context and even the whole humanities and social sciences. The conclusions are as follows: first, the radical social theory based on the “biopolitical turn” provides a new possibility for political imagination of the left. Its pan-politicized preference, however, challenges the theoretical commitments put forward by the left and their abilities to deliver. Second, in this movement, the Marxist critique of capitalism becomes an intrinsic motivation for biopolitical theory, while at the same time Marxism becomes a tradition that is constantly attempted to be transcended and replaced in the new conditions of the times. Third, in the competition for the right to interpret Marx, and in the competition between biopolitical theories, biopolitics increasingly exhausts its most central critical power against capitalism in a theoretical boom, and eventually dwindles into a resource that specific disciplines compete to appropriate.
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Jing Wang

Department of Philosophy, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Yu Lei

College of Marxism, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Jing Wang, Yu Lei. (2022). The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory. Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(1), 38-47. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Jing Wang; Yu Lei. The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2022, 10(1), 38-47. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Jing Wang, Yu Lei. The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory. Humanit Soc Sci. 2022;10(1):38-47. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15,
  author = {Jing Wang and Yu Lei},
  title = {The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory},
  journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {38-47},
  doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20221001.15},
  abstract = {In recent years, the concept of biopolitics has gained remarkable acceptance in the social sciences and humanities. The study of biopolitics has been developed in a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, economics, aesthetics, law, history, and biomedicine, which gives biopolitics a broad interdisciplinary orientation. It has resulted in a general biopolitical turn in the social sciences and humanities. It becomes an urgent and necessary task that how to identify this turn. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to grasp the basic threads, the main methods, the essential contents and the political effects of the biopolitics turn. It is worth noting that only by placing the biopolitics in the context of social-critical theory can we truly gain insight into its inner meaning. In this regard, it must be dissected in terms of Marxist methodology in order to grasp its connotation and political position, rather than accepting the premise of the biopolitics without exception. It argues that the biopolitical turn has reversed the path of traditional political research, defined a new type of political horizon, and put the conditions of measuring knowledge into the study of political context and even the whole humanities and social sciences. The conclusions are as follows: first, the radical social theory based on the “biopolitical turn” provides a new possibility for political imagination of the left. Its pan-politicized preference, however, challenges the theoretical commitments put forward by the left and their abilities to deliver. Second, in this movement, the Marxist critique of capitalism becomes an intrinsic motivation for biopolitical theory, while at the same time Marxism becomes a tradition that is constantly attempted to be transcended and replaced in the new conditions of the times. Third, in the competition for the right to interpret Marx, and in the competition between biopolitical theories, biopolitics increasingly exhausts its most central critical power against capitalism in a theoretical boom, and eventually dwindles into a resource that specific disciplines compete to appropriate.},
 year = {2022}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Biopolitical Turn, Marxism and the Radicalization of Social Theory
AU  - Jing Wang
AU  - Yu Lei
Y1  - 2022/02/19
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15
T2  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JF  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JO  - Humanities and Social Sciences
SP  - 38
EP  - 47
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-8184
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221001.15
AB  - In recent years, the concept of biopolitics has gained remarkable acceptance in the social sciences and humanities. The study of biopolitics has been developed in a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, economics, aesthetics, law, history, and biomedicine, which gives biopolitics a broad interdisciplinary orientation. It has resulted in a general biopolitical turn in the social sciences and humanities. It becomes an urgent and necessary task that how to identify this turn. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to grasp the basic threads, the main methods, the essential contents and the political effects of the biopolitics turn. It is worth noting that only by placing the biopolitics in the context of social-critical theory can we truly gain insight into its inner meaning. In this regard, it must be dissected in terms of Marxist methodology in order to grasp its connotation and political position, rather than accepting the premise of the biopolitics without exception. It argues that the biopolitical turn has reversed the path of traditional political research, defined a new type of political horizon, and put the conditions of measuring knowledge into the study of political context and even the whole humanities and social sciences. The conclusions are as follows: first, the radical social theory based on the “biopolitical turn” provides a new possibility for political imagination of the left. Its pan-politicized preference, however, challenges the theoretical commitments put forward by the left and their abilities to deliver. Second, in this movement, the Marxist critique of capitalism becomes an intrinsic motivation for biopolitical theory, while at the same time Marxism becomes a tradition that is constantly attempted to be transcended and replaced in the new conditions of the times. Third, in the competition for the right to interpret Marx, and in the competition between biopolitical theories, biopolitics increasingly exhausts its most central critical power against capitalism in a theoretical boom, and eventually dwindles into a resource that specific disciplines compete to appropriate.
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download