Biopower and sovereignty in Foucault and Agamben

Tom Frost

Chapter 19 in Research Handbook on the Law and Politics of Sovereignty, 2026, pp 344-361 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The chapter engages with the concepts of biopower and sovereignty in the thought of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, highlighting both their convergences and divergences. The chapter discusses Foucault's view of power as relational and resistance as creative, emphasising his distinction between liberation and practices of freedom. Frost then traces the transition from sovereign power to disciplinary power, and ultimately to biopower – understood as operating at the level of populations and closely tied to the development of capitalism and racism as mechanisms of exclusion.

Keywords: Biopower; Michel Foucault; Giorgio Agamben (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781803926346
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