Biopolitics of Security
| Module title | Biopolitics of Security |
|---|---|
| Module code | POC3106 |
| Academic year | 2020/1 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Shubranshu Mishra (Lecturer) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 10 |
|---|
Module description
‘To say that power took possession of life in the nineteenth century, or to say that power at least takes life under its care in the nineteenth century, is to say that it has, thanks to the play of technologies of discipline on the one hand and technologies of regulation on the other, succeeded in covering the whole surface that lies between the organic and the biological, between body and population’ (Foucault 2003, 253).
Drawing from French philosopher Michel Foucault’s scholarship, this module highlights the focus on life that is at the centre of contemporary politics. Biopolitics is the administration of life through various regulatory apparatuses that monitor, modify, and control life processes to govern a people and achieve ‘docility-utility’ function. Underpinning biopolitics are regimes, institutions of inclusion-exclusion and political rationality also known as governmentality. In this module you will explore the state’s regulatory practices like enumerating population through census and biometric projects, racialised categorisations, and increasing camp and slum based existence. In so doing, you study its effect on identities and people falling in grey areas (refugees/stateless/asylum seekers), prisons and other areas of confinement. This understanding will be facilitated through the conceptual formulation of biopolitics by Michel Foucault, and its reformulation by Giorgio Agamben, Achille Mbembe and Judith Butler, among others. This conceptualization will be supported by a range of empirical work on practices of militarism, persistent insecurity and systems of disciplining and punishing. Topics include borders and mobility, racism and indefinite detention, policing and criminalisation, biometrics, airport security and video-surveillance, encounter killings and secret prisons, and contemporary states of exception backed by laws and policies.
Although no prior knowledge is required, it is expected that students taking this course are interested in contemporary security debates from a theoretical and empirical point of view. A background in social science will be helpful for following the key debates. The module is especially suitable for students studying International Relations, Politics and History.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The module aims to enable you to develop a critical understanding of contemporary security events, formulate new research insights and understand issues of International Relations, Security and Migration studies through a biopolitical lens. The module will help you to understand the techniques and rationales used by the nation-states to decide who shall live and who shall die, who shall be counted and who should be disappeared out of sight, and how to make such management acceptable to public morality and reason. The module will also prepare you for academic and other careers in the field of critical theory and security studies.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Understand and explain, in-depth, contemporary and emerging challenges to security.
- 2. Demonstrate a critical and reflexive approach in assessing academic and policy debates on security
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Show awareness of key perspectives and debates in Biopolitics and their interface with critical theory.
- 4. Apply Foucauldian methodology, abstract theoretical perspectives to actual events of security.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. Develop critical arguments and offering alternative means of thinking.
- 6. Construct a reasoned and logical argument supported by evidence.
- 7. Work independently within a limited timeframe to complete a specified task
Syllabus plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
Introduction to Biopolitics.
- Governmentality: Understanding the ‘conduct of conduct.’
- Creating Bare Life and States of Exception: Understanding life reduced to nakedness.
- Regulating Death.
- Surveillance and Control: Understanding how societies are governed and regulated.
- Resistance to Biopolitics.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | 11x 2 hour seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 50 | Seminar preparation through directed reading |
| Guided Independent Study | 6 | To complete the formative essay plan |
| Guided independent study | 24 | To complete the review essay |
| Guided independent study | 48 | To complete the critical research paper. |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 page plan of critical research paper | Week 2 onwards submission in class or by email | 1-6 | Verbal/written |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Review essay | 30 | 1500 words | 1-6 | Written |
| Critical research paper | 70 | 3000 words | 1-6 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Review Essay | Review Essay (1500 words) | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
| Critical research paper | Critical research paper (3000 words) | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Basic reading:
- Lowe, Lisa. The intimacies of four continents. Duke University Press, 2015.
- Foucault, Michel. " Society Must Be Defended": Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976. Vol. 1. Macmillan, 2003.
- Foucault, Michel. "The history of sexuality: An introduction, volume I." Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage 95 (1990).
- Nishiyama, Hidefumi. "Towards a global genealogy of biopolitics: Race, colonialism, and biometrics beyond Europe." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 33, no. 2 (2015): 331-346.
- Foucault, Michel. Power: the essential works of Michel Foucault 1954-1984. Penguin UK, 2019.
- Davis, Angela Y. Are prisons obsolete?. Seven Stories Press, 2011.
- Wacquant, Loïc. "Slavery to mass incarceration." New left review 13 (2002): 41.
- Mamdani, Mahmood. "Making sense of political violence in postcolonial Africa." In War and Peace in the 20th Century and Beyond, pp. 71-99. 2003.
- Roberts, Dorothy E. Killing the black body: Race, reproduction, and the meaning of liberty. Vintage, 1999.
- Guru, Gopal. "Introduction: theorizing humiliation." Humiliation: claims and context (2009): 1-22.
- Jaaware, Aniket. "Eating and Eating with the Dalit: A Reconsideration Touching upon Marathi Poetry." Indian Poetry: Modernism and After (2001): 262-93.
- Agamben, Giorgio. Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life. Stanford University Press, 1998.
- Agamben, Giorgio. State of exception . Vol. 2. University of Chicago Press, 2005. (Selections)
- Butler, Judith. Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence . Verso, 2006. (Selections)
- Mbembé, J-A., and Libby Meintjes. "Necropolitics." Public culture 15, no. 1 (2003): 11-40.
- Basaran, Tugba. "The saved and the drowned: Governing indifference in the name of security." Security Dialogue 46, no. 3 (2015): 205-220.
- Ticktin, Miriam. "Policing and humanitarianism in France: immigration and the turn to law as state of exception." Interventions 7, no. 3 (2005): 346-368.
- Doty, Roxanne Lynn. "Bare life: border-crossing deaths and spaces of moral alibi." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 29, no. 4 (2011): 599-612.
Films
Modern Times. Directed by Charlie Chaplin (1936)
Lemon Tree. Directed by Eran Riklis (2008)
The Battle of Algiers. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (1965)
The Architecture of Violence. Directed by Ana Naomi de Sousa (2014)
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 6 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 22/08/2017 |
| Last revision date | 20/08/20 |
