At the end of the seventies, Michel Foucault presented a series of investigations on the mutations of power in modernity, which constitute what has become known as the biopolitical corpus of his work. With this, the way was opened to a new conception of power whose function is no longer to kill, but to govern - by intervening and enhancing - the biological life of populations. From these analyses, the relationship between politics and life not only became evident, but also became unavoidable material for philosophical-political reflections. However, in our time such a relationship takes other forms in line with the new modalities of neoliberal government. Although Foucault had already warned that neoliberalism was a type of rationality of government, the study of the existing links between neoliberal governmentality and biopolitics remained pending, and continues to be a terrain to explore. More than 40 years after the formation of said theoretical corpus, we then ask ourselves about its validity and updating. According to this, what are the new forms of control and administration of the biological life of populations in the current neoliberal context? If neoliberal governmentality proceeds through social insecurity, how is the life of the most precarious populations protected and enhanced? This Dossier invites us to explore the ways in which the relationship between politics and life is problematized by contemporary Political Philosophy, especially from the Foucauldian theoretical body, but also from readings that displace, rework or mix it with other proposals to think about the current neoliberal context.
Published: 2023-07-01