what is biopower

Biopower is a term coined by Michel Foucault, a French scholar, philosopher, historian, and social theorist. It refers to a technology of power for managing humans in large groups, allowing for the control of entire populations. Biopower is a form of political power that revolves around populations rather than individuals. It is a way of controlling human bodies through an anatomo-politics of the human body and biopolitics of the population through societal disciplinary institutions. Biopower can be split into two poles that intertwine: anatamo-politics of the body (disciplinary power) and biopolitical power of the population. Disciplinary power produces ‘docile bodies’ (through disciplinary sites such as schools, prisons, and hospitals) which can be ‘subjected, used, transformed and improved’ while biopolitical power ‘administers life’, that is, it tries to ‘optimize’ the life of populations. Achieving biopower allows the state to produce social categories and ultimately create a society that conforms to norms which secure a ‘vital population’. It is important to note that biopower is not solely enacted through official institutions but everywhere and anywhere that there can be social relations and discourse.