Biopower

Definition: Biopower, a social theory developed by French theorist Michel Foucault describes the practice of state regulation of subjects through "an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations." (Foucault, M.) It refers to the function of modern governments to manage populations through the use of public health and other social programs; biopower is enacted not through a "top-down" model, but is "diffuse, unstable, local and embedded in our everyday practices, working in and flowing through the micropractices of institutions." This idea is described as an effort to "make live and let die," as opposed to state discipline which could be described as "let live and make die." 

Application: Foucault described biopower as operating in sites such as public health and sexuality education efforts; for instance, public health responses to youth sexuality can be seen as an effort to manage the sexual behaviors of young people in order to achieve sexual health, and to promote sexuality that supports reproduction and family.

Adaptation: The concept of biopower has important implications for social work; it encourages us to understand so-called objective and evidence-based social work interventions as forwarding particular political and social norms and values. For instance, traditional drug-treatment and prevention programs have defined success in terms of sobriety, recovery, and achievement in terms of self-sufficiency and independence. Harm-reduction models, however, advocate for minimizing the harm that drug-abuse can cause through needle-sharing and other systems. Using Foucault's biopower analysis, we can understand that, rather than merely being based on objective measure of success, the prioritization of sobriety and recovery based models reflects a societal norm.



References:

Foucault, M. The History of Sexuality. 1983.