Lundborg, Tom and Vaughan-Williams, Nick (2011) Resilience, critical infrastructure, and molecular security : the excess of "life" in biopolitics. International Political Sociology, Vol.5 (No.4). pp. 367-383. doi:10.1111/j.1749-5687.2011.00140.x

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Abstract

This article investigates the political significance of the orientation of Western security relations around critical infrastructure (CI) and resilience planning. While the analysis is located in the International Political Sociology literature, it departs from recent biopolitical accounts of CIs and resilience. These accounts tend to present such apparatuses as closed, totalizing, and inevitably successful modes of governance. Rather, we argue that resilient CIs are open, vulnerable, and often absurd systems that continually falter, backfire, and often undermine themselves according to their own logic. By developing what we call a molecular security approach, we draw attention to the way in which life constantly evades capture. In this sense, we suggest, there is always an excess of life in biopolitics.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	J Political Science > JC Political theory
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Journal or Publication Title:	International Political Sociology
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN:	1749-5679
Official Date:	2011
Dates:	Date Event 2011 Published
Volume:	Vol.5
Number:	No.4
Number of Pages:	17
Page Range:	pp. 367-383
DOI:	10.1111/j.1749-5687.2011.00140.x
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

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