Biopolitics - Definitions

Definitions

1. In Kjellén's organicist view, the state was quasi-biological organism, a "super-individual creature". Kjellén sought to study "the civil war between social groups" (comprising the state) from a biological perspective and thus named his putative discipline "biopolitics".
2. The Nazis also used the term occasionally. For example, Hans Reiter used it in a 1934 speech to refer to their biologically based concept of nation and state and ultimately their racial policy.
3. Morley Roberts in his 1938 book Bio-politcs used to argue that a correct model for world politcs is "a loose association of cell and protozoa colonies".
4. In the work of Foucault, the style of government that regulates populations through "biopower" (the application and impact of political power on all aspects of human life).
5. In the works of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, anti-capitalist insurrection using life and the body as weapons; examples include flight from power and, 'in its most tragic and revolting form', suicide terrorism. Conceptualised as the opposite of biopower, which is seen as the practice of sovereignty in biopolitical conditions.
6. The political application of bioethics.
7. A political spectrum that reflects positions towards the sociopolitical consequences of the biotech revolution.
8. Political advocacy in support of, or in opposition to, some applications of biotechnology.
9. Public policies regarding some applications of biotechnology.
10. Political advocacy concerned with the welfare of all forms of life and how they are moved by one another.
11. The politics of bioregionalism
12. The interplay and interdisciplinary studies relating biology and political science, primarily the study of the relationship between biology and political behavior. For example the relationship of biology and political orientation, but also biological correlates of partisanship and voting behavior. (See also sociobiology.)