Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
| |||
|
| |||
| Necropolitics: Necropolitics, developed by Achille Mbembe, examines how power controls life and death, deciding who may live and who must die. It extends biopolitics by focusing on the politics of death, especially in contexts like war, slavery, and colonization, where certain populations are subjected to death as a form of political control. See also Biopolitics, Power, Politics, A. Mbembe._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
| Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Rosie Braidotti on Necropolitics - Dictionary of Arguments
Braidotti I 139 Necropolitics/Braidotti: Let me summarize a number of features of [the] posthuman, necro-political turn. The first point is that the political and legal subject of this regime of life-death governmentality is a post-anthropocentric eco-sophical entity. This zoe-driven* subject is marked by the interdependence with its environment through a structure of mutual flows and data transfer that is best configured as complex and intensive inter-connectedness. Secondly, this environmentally bound subject is a finite collective entity, moving beyond the parameters of classical Humanism and anthropocentrism. The human organism is an in-between that is plugged into and connected to a variety of possible sources and forces. As such it is useful to define it as a machine, which does not mean an appliance or anything with a specifically utilitarian aim, but rather something that is simultaneously more abstract and more materially embedded. The minimalist definition of a body-machine is an embodied affective and intelligent entity that captures processes and transforms energies and forces. Being environmentally bound and territorially based, an embodied entity feeds upon, incorporates and transforms its (natural, social, human or technological) environment constantly. Being embodied in this high-tech ecological manner entails full immersion in fields of constant flows and transformations. Braidotti I 140 Not all of them are positive, of course, because the inhuman aspects entail multiple forms of vulnerability, although in such a dynamic system they cannot be known or judged a priori. Thus we need to experiment with new practices that allow for a multiplicity of possible instances - actualizations and counteractualizations - of the different lines of becoming (…). Thirdly, such a subject of zoe-power raises questions of ethical and political urgency. Given the acceleration of processes of change, how can we tell the difference among the different flows of changes and transformations? Transformative lines of flight or becoming need to be accounted for and mapped out as a collective assemblage of possible other paths of becoming. No monolithic or static model can provide an adequate answer: we need more pragmatic open-endedness and a diversification of possible strategies. The starting point is the relentless generative but also destructive force of zoe* and the specific brand of trans-species egalitarianism which they establish as the grounds for posthuman ethics. It is a matter of forces as well as of ethology. Fourthly, the specific temporality of the posthuman subject needs to be re-thought beyond the metaphysics of mortality. >Death/Braidotti, >Dying/Braidotti. * (…) the wider scope of animal and non-human life, also known as zoe._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Braidotti I Rosie Braidotti The Posthuman Cambridge, UK: Polity Press 2013 |
||
> Counter arguments against Braidotti
> Counter arguments in relation to Necropolitics
