A Matter of Life and Death: State Power and Control of the Body in a Pandemic Era in the Light of Foucault’s Concept of Biopolitics

Year 2024, Volume: 14 Issue: 1, 111 - 126, 30.06.2024

Sunday Onwuegbuchulam

https://doi.org/10.31679/adamakademi.1317666

Abstract

The advent of COVID-19 pandemic saw the declaration of state of national disaster in South Africa which meant that the country was literally shut down with several restrictions on socio-economic and with it some human bodily activities. The situation has brought into the fore a revived interest in the interrogation of the nexus between state power and control of freedom of citizens. As such, the issue has also brought into focus Foucault’s analysis of power in modern and postmodern societies centring on the concept of biopower/biopolitics. Considering the centrality of citizen’s constitutional right to several civil liberties including right to bodily integrity, there is need to explore the limits of state power in the idea of biopolitics. This essay utilises desktop methods to interrogate state’s power and control of citizen’s bodies in South Africa during and post COVID-19 era. Ultimately, the article is an attempt to contribute to the discourse on how political theorising incorporates human embodiment.

Keywords

COVID19, Biopower, Civil Liberties, Foucault, Social Contract

Supporting Institution

Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Bir Ölüm kalım meselesi: Foucault'nun Biyopolitika Kavramı Işığında Pandemi Çağında Devlet İktidarı ve Beden Kontrolü

Abstract

COVID-19 salgınının ortaya çıkışı, Güney Afrika'da ulusal felaket durumunun ilan edildiğini gördü; bu, ülkenin sosyo-ekonomik ve bununla birlikte bazı insani bedensel faaliyetler üzerindeki çeşitli kısıtlamalarla kelimenin tam anlamıyla kapatıldığı anlamına geliyordu. Durum, devlet gücü ile yurttaşların özgürlüğünün denetimi arasındaki ilişkinin sorgulanmasına yönelik yeniden canlanan bir ilgiyi ön plana çıkardı. Bu haliyle konu, Foucault'nun biyoiktidar/biyopolitika kavramını merkeze alan modern ve postmodern toplumlardaki iktidar analizini de odak noktası haline getirdi. Vatandaşların bedensel bütünlük hakkı da dahil olmak üzere çeşitli sivil özgürlüklere ilişkin anayasal haklarının merkeziliği göz önüne alındığında, biyopolitika fikrinde devlet gücünün sınırlarını keşfetmeye ihtiyaç vardır. Bu makale, COVID-19 döneminde ve sonrasında Güney Afrika'da devletin gücünü ve vatandaşların organları üzerindeki kontrolünü sorgulamak için masaüstü yöntemlerini kullanıyor. Nihayetinde makale, siyaset kuramlaştırmanın insan cisimleşmesini nasıl içerdiğine dair söyleme katkıda bulunma girişimidir.

Keywords

Covid19, Foucault, Civil Liberties, Biopower, Social Contract

References

• Andreescu, M. (2016). ‘The Limits of State Power in a Democratic Society’, Journal of Civil & Legal Sciences, 5(6): 213. doi: 10.4172/2169-0170.1000213.
• Armstrong, D. (1983). Political Anatomy of the Body Medical Knowledge in Britain in the Twentieth Century. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Barcelo´, J., Kubinec, R., Cheng, C., Rahn, T.H. and Messerschmidt, L. (2022). Windows of Repression: Using COVID-19 Policies Against Political Dissidents? Journal of Peace Research, 59(1): 73–89.
• Belyaeva, G.S., Makogon, B.V., Bezugly, S.N., Prokhorova, M.L. and Szpoper, D. (2017). ‘Basic Ideas of State Power Limitation in Political and Legal Doctrine’, Journal of Politics and Law, 10(4): 197-200.
• Bond, P. (2022). ‘Beyond Sub-Imperial War, ‘Blood Methane’, and Climate-Debt Denialism: South Africa’s Pro-Military Lobby Risks Worsening Multiple Injustices in Northern Mozambique’, The Thinker, 90(2022): 69-80.
• Brown, N. and Gershon, S.A. (2017). ‘Body Politics’, Politics, Groups, and Identities, 5(1): 1-3.
• Castillo, R. and Amoah, P.A. (2020). Africans in post-COVID-19 pandemic China: is there a future for China’s ‘new minority’? Asian Ethnicity. 21(4), 560–565. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2020.1773760 1-6.
• Christensen, T.J. (2020). A Modern Tragedy? COVID-19 and U.S.-China Relations. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FP_20200511_covid_us_china_christensen_v3.pdf (accessed 20 October 2022).
• Da Silva, A. (1999). ‘Combatting Communalism in Twenty-First Century India: A Social-Psychological Perspective’, Jnanadeepa: Pune Jour¬nal of Religious Studies, 2(1): 80-85.
• Dean, M. (2001). ‘Michel Foucault: A Man in Danger’. In Ritzer, G. and Smart, B. (eds), Handbook of Social Theory, 324-338. London: Sage Publications.
• Desbruslais, C. and Pandikattu, K. (2009). Postmodernism Guidelines for an Optional Course. Unpublished notes edited by Frank, N., St Joseph’s Institute Cedara.
• Duignan, B. (2021). ‘Robert Nozick’. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Nozick (accessed 20 May 2021).
• Foucault, M. (1980). Truth and Power. Power/Knowledge. New York: Random House.
• Foucault, M. (1982). The Subject and Power. Critical Inquiry, 8(4): 777–795.
• Foucault, M. (1994). The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. New York: Vintage.
• Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison. London: Penguin.
• Foucault, M. (1997). ‘The Essential Works, 1954±1984’. In Rabinow, P. (ed.), Ethics, Subjectivity and Truth. New York: The New Press.
• Foucault, M. (1998). The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge. London: Penguin.
• Foucault, M. (2004). “Society Must Be Defended”: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976. London: Penguin Books.
• Foucault, M. (2007). The Politics of Truth. Sylvere Lotringer,ed., trans. John Rajchman, USA: Semiotext.
• Friend, C. (2021). ‘Social Contract Theory’. In The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/.
• Kunguma, O., Ncube, A. and Mokhele, M.O. (2021). COVID-19 disaster response: South African disaster managers’ faith in mandating legislation tested? Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies 13(1), a1099. https:// doi.org/10.4102/jamba. v13i1.1099.
• Langa, M. and Leopeng, B.B. (2020). COVID-19: Violent Policing of Black Men During Lockdown Regulations in South Africa. African Safety Promotion: A Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention, 18(2): 116-126.
• Laskar, M.E. (2013). ‘Summary of the Social Contract Theory by Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau’, SSRN Electronic Journal. April 2013 DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2410525.
• Layder, D. (2006). Understanding Social Theory, Second Edition. London: Sage Publications.
• Locke, J. 1997. ‘Essays on the Laws of Nature’. In Goldie, M. (ed), Locke: Political Essays, 79–133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Locke, J. (1988). Two Treatises, Two Treatises of Government. Peter Laslett (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lyotard, F. (1984). The Postmodern Condition. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
• Mack, E. (2018). ‘Robert Nozick's Political Philosophy’. In Zalta, E.N. (ed), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/nozick-political/ (accessed 20 May 2021).
• Metzger-Traber J. (2018). ‘The Body Politic’. In If the Body Politic Could Breathe in the Age of the Refugee, 63-82. Wiesbaden: Springer.
• Migdal, J.S. (1994). ‘The State in Society: An Approach to Struggles for Domination’. In Migdal, J.S., Khli, A. and Shue, V. (eds), State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World, 7-34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Ngcobo, M. (2021). Mistreatment of Africans in China During the Covid-19 Outbreak: When Economic Interests Supersede All Others. https://media.africaportal.org/documents/210223-06_AP-WITS_Essay_series_Ngcobo_Final.pdf Accessed 15 August 2022).
• Neidleman, J. (2012). The Social Contract Theory in a Global Context. https://www.e-ir.info/2012/10/09/the-social-contract-theory-in-a-global-context/ (accessed 20 May 2021).
• Obo, U.B. and Coker, M.A. (2014). ‘The Marxist Theory of the State: An Introductory Guide’, Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(4): 527-533.
• Olsthoorn, J. (2019). ‘Self-Ownership and Despotism: Locke on Property in the Person, Divine Dominium of Human Life, and Rights-Forfeiture’, Social Philosophy and Policy, 36(2): 242-263.
• Onwuegbuchulam, S.P.C. (2019). ‘Religion Versus State and the Struggle for Control in Society’s Developmental Arena: A Review’, Acta Academica, 51(2): 1-¬20.
• Patterson, A., and Clark, M.A. (2020). ‘COVID-19 and Power in Global Health.’ International journal of health policy and management, 9(10): 429–431.
• Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
• Reddy, T. (2021). South Africa and the crisis of liberal democracy: Settler-colonial modernity and a dominant friend-enemy conception of politics. In Mackert, J., Wolf, H., and Turner, B.S. (Eds.). The Condition of Democracy: Volume 3: Postcolonial and Settler Colonial Contexts (1st ed.). London: Routledge.
• Statista (2022). Number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cases in the African Continent as of March 02, 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1170463/coronavirus-cases-in-africa/ (Accessed 18 August 2022).
• Taylor, D. (ed). (2011). Michel Foucault: Key Concepts. Durham: Acumen Publishing. Weber, M. (1949). ‘Politics as a Vocation’. In Gerth, H.H. and Wright, M. (eds), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Weber, T.M. (2014). ‘Examining Social Contract Theory’, PRAXIS—Alumni for International Human Rights Law Peer Review Journal, 1(1): 2-9.
• Wehrle, M. (2016). ‘Normative Embodiment. The Role of the Body in Foucault's Genealogy. A Phenomenological Re-Reading’, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 47(1): 56-71.
• Wolfenden, K.J. (2010). ‘Hobbes' Leviathan and Views on the Origins of Civil Government: Conservatism by Covenant’, Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse, 2(12): 1-2.