Table of Contents

Foreword by Monica J. Casper and Lisa Jean Moore Preface Introduction 1 Life as the Basis of Politics 2 Life as an Object of Politics 3 The Government of Living Beings: Michel Foucault 4 Sovereign Power and Bare Life: Giorgio Agamben 5 Capitalism and the Living Multitude: Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri 6 The Disappearance and Transformation of Politics 7 The End and Reinvention of Nature 8 Vital Politics and Bioeconomy 9 Prospect: An Analytics of Biopolitics Notes References Index About the Author

Promotional Information

A compilation of the primary texts-by Foucault, Arendt, Agamben, Badiou, and other theorists-that laid the ground for contemporary thinking about biopolitics, or the relations between life and politics.

About the Author

Thomas Lemke is Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt. He is author of A Critique of Political Reason: Foucault’s Analysis of Modern Governmentality and Biopolitics: An Advanced Introduction.

Reviews

"What Lemkes final chapter makes plain, and what can thus be read back into the book on the whole...is that biopolitics is a coherent field of inquiry for future work in anthropology, sociology, science studies, and of course history and philosophy, and that it is such precisely because it is a field of inquiry, namely an arena for rigorous investigation and severe thought... This is a crucial task. Lemke is to be applauded for showing both its coherence and its needfulness."
*Theory & Event*

"Thomas Lemke's Biopolitics: An Advanced Introductionis required reading for anyone interested in this concept."
*New Genetics and Society*

"[This book] advances an analytics of 'biopolitics' as a 'prospective' methodological approach, offering a number of valuable and provocative questions to guide future research."
*Foucault Studies*

"Lemke (Goethe Univ., Germany) offers an overview of biopolitics and an account of its relevance in theoretical debate... Recommended."
*Choice*