Progressive Geographies

What would it mean to rethink Foucault’s various grammars of power — sovereignty, biopolitics, governmentality, neoliberalism — in light of Agamben’s explicitly ontological rendering of the Foucaultian project. For instance while referring to archaeology as a “science of signatures”, Agamben claims that Foucault writes “with lucid awareness of his method’s ontological implications.” Similarly by identifying the apparatus (dispositif) as a decisive technical term in the strategy of Foucault’s thought, and then subsequently linking the apparatus not only to the originary fracture between being and action, but also to the genealogy of governmentality, Agamben seems to be laying the groundwork for understanding power in terms of political ontology. This panel discussion will seek to critically assess the meaning, implications, and viability of such an ontological reading, especially with respect to the conceptual framework of biopolitics which continues to resonate as a critical concept in the ongoing work of geographers, and social theorists more broadly.