Resisting Biopolitics Philosophical, Political, and Performative Strategies

The topic of biopolitics is a timely one, and it has become increasingly important for scholars to reconsider how life is objectified, mobilized, and otherwise bound up in politics. This cutting-edge volume discusses the philosophical, social, and political notions of biopolitics, as well as the ways in which biopower affects all aspects of our lives, including the relationships between the human and nonhuman, the concept of political subjectivity, and the connection between art, science, philosophy, and politics. In addition to tracing the evolving philosophical discourse around biopolitics, this collection researches and explores certain modes of resistance against biopolitical control. Written by leading experts in the field, the book’s chaptersinvestigate resistance across a wide range of areas: politics and biophilosophy, technology and vitalism, creativity and bioethics, and performance. Resisting Biopolitics is an important intervention in contemporary biopolitical theory, looking towards the future of this interdisciplinary field.

Introduction Audrone Žukauskaite and S. E. Wilmer Part I: Politics, Biopolitics, and Biophilosophy 1. From the State of Control to a Praxis of Destituent Power Giorgio Agamben 2. Posthuman Affirmative Politics Rosi Braidotti 3. Rethinking Biopolitics: The New Materialism and the Political Economy of Life Thomas Lemke 4. From Biopolitics to Biophilosophy, or the Vanishing Subject of Biopolitics Audrone Žukauskaite Part II: Life, Bioethics, and Bioart 5. Chimerism and Immunitas: The Emergence of a Posthumanist Biophilosophy Margrit Shildrick 6. Resisting Biopolitics, Resisting Freedom: Prenatal Testing and Choice Catherine Mills 7. Biophilosophy for the 21st Century Eugene Thacker 8. The Biopolitics of Life Removed from Context: Neolifism Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr Part III: Surveillance and Digital Technologies 9. Questioned by Machines: A Cultural Perspective on Counter-Terrorism and Lie Detection in Security Zones Mark Maguire 10. Data Doubles and the Specters of Performance in the Bit Parts of Surveillance James Harding 11. Digital Biopolitics: The Image of Life F.J. Colman 12. The Object of Desire of the Machine and the Biopolitics of the Posthuman Matthew Causey Part IV: Societies of Control 13. At the Systemic Edge: Expulsions Saskia Sassen 14. From the "Bio" to the "Necro": The Human at the Border Andrés Fabian Henao Castro 15. Biopolitics in the Laundry: Ireland’s Unwed Mothers S. E. Wilmer 16. Israel/Palestine: State of Exception and Acts of Resistance Ronit Lentin

S.E. Wilmer is Professor Emeritus and former Head of the School of Drama, Film and Music at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and Research Fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Audrone Žukauskaite is Senior Researcher at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute.