Workshop on Biopolitics

http://www.ivr2009.com

XXIV World IVR Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

Beijing, China – September 15th-20th, 2009

advogados@superig.com.br

Luís Antônio Cunha Ribeiro
Universidade Federal Fluminense – Brazil

Michel Foucault summarizes his understanding of the term Biopolitics in the abstract of his 1978-1979 Course at College de France: it is understood as the way it was tried, since the XVIII century, to rationalize the problems faced by governmental practices by means of phenomena concerning a group of living beings taken as a population:
health, hygiene, birth rates, races… In his 1975-1976 course he defines it as the movement by which power takes charge of life concerns. Gilles Deleuze spoke of the idea of managing a multiplicity of beings (a given population) over a vast and open space, where probabilistics become increasingly relevant. Giorgio Agamben states that the totalitarianism of our century is founded on the dynamical identity of life and politics.

This special workshop is intended to gather members and scholars who consider the idea of Biopolitics as understood by the authors above mentioned – as well as by other contemporary philosophers – useful for a better comprehension of XX and XXI century national and international politics. There is a special interest in discussions towards the ways Biopolitics can be related to the theme of the Congress (Global Harmony and Rule of Law) as well as to the role of Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Law in the present world.

Papers relating the concept of Biopolitcs or the works of the above authors to other philosophical traditions are also welcome.

The deadline for sending in the abstracts of papers to be presented at the workshop is June 15, 2009. Abstracts should be about 1.000 to 4.000 words long. And the deadline for submitting the papers themselves is July 15, 2009.

All abstracts and papers for the special workshop will be published on the congress website at www.ivr2009.com. All efforts will be made to producing a brazilian publication of a book containing all the papers presented in the workshop.There will also be a volume of abstracts produced by the Congress organizers.

Information on the Congress is available at www.ivr2009.com and this call for papers will be available there in a few days.