Coronavirus biopolitics: the paradox of France's Foucauldian heritage.

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State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_EF55855E7DF7
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Publication sub-type
Letter (letter): Communication to the publisher.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Coronavirus biopolitics: the paradox of France's Foucauldian heritage.
Journal
History and philosophy of the life sciences
Author(s)
Arminjon M., Marion-Veyron R.
ISSN
1742-6316 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0391-9714
Publication state
Published
Issued date
11/01/2021
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
43
Number
1
Pages
5
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: epublish
Abstract
In this short paper we analyse some paradoxical aspects of France's Foucauldian heritage: (1) while several French scholars claim the COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect example of what Foucault called biopolitics, popular reaction instead suggests a biopolitical failure on the part of the government; (2) One of these failures concerns the government's inability to produce reliable biostatistical data, especially regarding health inequalities in relation to COVID-19. We interrogate whether Foucaldianism contributed, in the past as well today, towards a certain myopia in France regarding biostatistics and its relation to social inequalities in health. One might ask whether this very data could provide an appropriate response to the Foucauldian question: What kind of governance of life is the pandemic revealing to us?
Keywords
Biostatistics, COVID-19, France, Healthcare Disparities, Humans, Pandemics, Politics, Public Health Surveillance, Socioeconomic Factors, Biopolitics, Epidemiological surveillance, Foucault, Social inequalities in health
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
26/01/2021 15:25
Last modification date
24/02/2021 7:11
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