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Biopolitical authority, objectivity and the groundwork of modern citizenship
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Blencowe, Claire (2013) Biopolitical authority, objectivity and the groundwork of modern citizenship. Journal of Political Power, Volume 6 (Number 1). pp. 9-28. doi:10.1080/2158379X.2013.774968 ISSN 2158-379X.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2013.774968
Abstract
Authority is a powerful concept for coming to terms with the diversity of power, and especially for highlighting the role of contexts, aesthetics and structures of experience in the constitution of both power and politics. This article reframes the concept of ‘authority’ and attempts to articulate its continued utility and relevance in a context of radical contingency, deterritorialisation and biopolitics. It argues that authority is essentially objectivist. This account of authority is then developed, in order to address the question of whether biological-type knowledge and relations destroy or foster capacities for politics. Biopolitics is conceived as a historical process of constituting (and relating to) biological life and economic forces as objectivity. Arguing against Arendt’s diagnosis of the fate of authority in modernity, the article maintains that biological knowledges and economism create new groundworks of politics, citizenship and authority. This suggests that politics is instigated not simply through breaking given aesthetic orders (Rancière), but also through aesthetic productions of objectivity.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology J Political Science > JA Political science (General) |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Authority, Biopolitics, Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984 -- Criticism and interpretation, Arendt, Hannah, 1906-1975 -- Criticism and interpretation, Power (Social sciences), Objectivity, Experience | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Political Power | ||||
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis Inc. | ||||
ISSN: | 2158-379X | ||||
Official Date: | 30 April 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 6 | ||||
Number: | Number 1 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 9-28 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1080/2158379X.2013.774968 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||
Description: | Part of a special issue on Authority. |
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Date of first compliant deposit: | 23 December 2015 | ||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 23 December 2015 | ||||
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