Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:54:23.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revisiting ‘The Birth of Biopolitics’: Foucault's Account of Neoliberalism and the Remaking of Social Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2018

PAUL MICHAEL GARRETT
PAUL MICHAEL GARRETT*
Affiliation:
NUI Galway, Galway, Republic of Ireland email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article charts the history and trajectory of neoliberalism provided in Foucault's 1979 lectures on ‘The Birth of Biopolitics’. In these fascinating contributions, first published in English translation ten years ago, Foucault identifies German and American forms of neoliberalism, defined in opposition to both the Beveridge reforms and Roosevelt's New Deal. In seeking to comprehend Foucault's articulation of neoliberalism it is important to locate it in the context of contemporary debates on the future of socialism and the reconfiguration of social policy. Despite theoretical problems with his account, the lecture series continues to aid our understanding of the contemporary evolution of social policy.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 469 - 487
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amable, B. (2011), ‘Morals and politics in the ideology of neo-liberalism’, Socio-Economic Review, 9: 3–30.Google Scholar
Biebricher, T. (2017), ‘Disciplining Europe – The Production of Economic Delinquency’, Foucault Studies, 23: 63–85.Google Scholar
Bonefeld, W. (2012), ‘Freedom and the Strong State: On German Ordoliberalism’, New Political Economy, 17 (5): 633–657.Google Scholar
Balibar, E. (2015), Citizenship, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Becker, G. S., Ewald, F. and Harcourt, B. E. (2012), Becker on Ewald on Foucault on Becker American Neoliberalism and Michel Foucault's 1979 ‘Birth of Biopolitics’ Lectures, Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Working Paper (No. 614). https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=law_and_economicsGoogle Scholar
Behrent, M. C. (2013), ‘Foucault and Technology’, History and Technology: An International Journal, 29 (1): 54–104.Google Scholar
Behrent, M. C. (2016), ‘Liberalism and Humanism’ in Zamora, D., and Behrent, M. C. (ed.) Foucault and Neoliberalism. Cambridge: Polity, pp. 24–63.Google Scholar
Béland, D. (2014), ‘Social policy concepts and language in France’ in Béland, D. and Petersen, K. (eds.) Analysing Social Policy Concepts and Language, Bristol. Policy Press, pp. 243–57.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (2001), Acts of Resistance, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. and Wacquant, L. (1999), ‘On the Cunning of Imperialist Reason’, Theory, Culture & Society, 16 (1): 41–59.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. and Wacquant, L. (2001), ‘NewLiberalSpeak’, Radical Philosophy, 105: 2–6.Google Scholar
Brading, F. (2012), ‘Is the time ripe for a transatlantic response to the crisis in capitalism?, Henry Jackson Society http://henryjacksonsociety.org/2012/08/10/is-the-time-ripe-for-a-transatlantic-response-to-the-crisis-in-capitalism/Google Scholar
Brown, W. (2015), Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution, New York: Zone Books.Google Scholar
Brown, W. (2018), ‘Neoliberalism's Frankenstein, Critical Times, 1 (1): 61–80.Google Scholar
Cabinet Office (2010), ‘Prime Minister launches the Big Society Bank and announces the first four big society communities’, Press Notice, 19 July. http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/newsroom/news_releases/2010/100719-bigsociety.aspxGoogle Scholar
Carney, M. (2014), ‘Inclusive capitalism’, speech at the Conference on Inclusive Capitalism, 27 May http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2014/speech731.pdfGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. and Foucault, M. (1997), ‘Human Nature: Justice versus Power’ in Davidson, A. I. (ed.) Foucault and his Interlocutors, Chicago & London: University of Chicago, pp. 107–146.Google Scholar
Christofferson, M. S. (2014), French Intellectuals Against the Left, New York & Oxford: Berghaln Books.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. (2005), ‘New Labour's citizens’, Critical Social Policy, 25 (4): 447–463.Google Scholar
Cooper, M. (2008), Life as Surplus, Seattle, USA: University of Washington.Google Scholar
Cooper, M. (2017), Family Values, New York, USA: Zone Books.Google Scholar
Davies, W. (2018), ‘Weaponising Paperwork’, London Review of Books, 40 (9): 13–15.Google Scholar
Dean, M. (2014), ‘Michael Foucault's “apology” for neoliberalism, Journal of Political Power, 7 (3): 433–442.Google Scholar
Donzelot, J. (2008), ‘Michel Foucault and liberal intelligence’, Economy and Society, 37 (1): 115–134.Google Scholar
Donzelot, J. and Gordon, C. (2008), ‘Governing Liberal Societies – the Foucault Effect in the English‐speaking World’, Foucault Studies, 5: 48–62.Google Scholar
Dukelow, F. and Kennett, P. (2018), ‘Discipline, debt and coercive commodification’, Critical Social Policy. First published 10 March http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0261018318762727Google Scholar
Dullien, S. and Guérot, U. (2012), The Long Shadow of Ordoliberalism: Germany's Approach to the Euro Crisis http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summary/the_long_shadow_of_ordoliberalism_germanys_approach_to_the_euro_crisisGoogle Scholar
Dunn, B. (2017), ‘Against neoliberalism as a concept’, Capital & Class, 41 (3): 435–454.Google Scholar
Elden, S. (2017), Foucault: The Birth of Power, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Fabbrini, S. (2013), ‘Political and institutional constraints on structural reform: interpreting the Italian experience’, Modern Italy, 18 (4): 423–436.Google Scholar
Fekete, L. (2018), Europe's Fault Lines: Racism and the Rise of the Right, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Fletcher, D. R. and Flint, J. (2018), ‘Welfare conditionality and social marginality’, Critical Social Policy. First published 18 January http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0261018317753088Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1988), ‘Social Security’ in Kritzman, L. D. (ed.) Michel Foucault: Politics, Philosophy and Culture. Interviews and other writings, 1977–1984. New York: Routledge, pp. 159– 178.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1991), Discipline and Punish, London: Penguin. First published by Allen Lane 1977.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (2008), The Birth of Biopolitics, Houndsmill: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2007), ‘Sinbin Solutions: The “pioneer” projects for “problem families” and the forgetfulness of social policy research’, Critical Social Policy, 27, (2): 203–230.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2008), ‘How to be Modern: New Labour's Neoliberal Modernity and the Change for Children programme’, British Journal of Social Work, 38 (2): 270–289.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2009), ‘Transforming’ Children's Services? Social Work, Neoliberalism and the ‘Modern’ World, Maidenhead: McGraw Hill/Open University.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2012), ‘Adjusting “our notions of the nature of the State”: A political reading of Ireland's child protection crisis’, Capital & Class, 36 (2): 263–281.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2014), ‘Confronting the ‘Work Society’: New Conceptual Tools for Social Work’, British Journal of Social Work, 44 (7): 1682–1699.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2015a), ‘Neoliberalism and “welfare” in the shadow of the prison’ in Sheehan, R. and Ogloff, J. (eds.) Working with the Forensic Paradigm: Cross-discipline approaches for policy and practice, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 85–98.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2015b), ‘Constraining and confining ethnic minorities: impoverishment and the logics of control in neoliberal Ireland, Patterns of Prejudice, 49 (4): 414–434.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2016), ‘Questioning tales of “ordinary magic”: “Resilience” and neoliberal reasoning’, British Journal of Social Work, 46 (7): 1909–1925.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2018a), Social Work and Social Theory: Second Edition, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Garrett, P. M. (2018b), Welfare Words: Critical Social Work and Social Policy, London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1994), Beyond Left and Right, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (ed.) (2001), The Global Third Way Debate, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Gill, S. (2017), ‘Transnational Class Formations, European Crisis and the Silent Revolution’, Critical Sociology, 43 (4-5): 635–651.Google Scholar
Gill, R. and Pratt, A. (2008), ‘Precarity and Cultural Work: In the Social Factory?’, Theory, Culture & Society, 25 (7-8): 1–30.Google Scholar
GOV.UK (2014) ‘Jobseekers required to do more to find work’, 7 April https://www.gov.uk/government/news/jobseekers-required-to-do-more-to-find-workGoogle Scholar
Grugel, J. and Riggirozzi, P. (2018), ‘Neoliberal disruption and neoliberalism's afterlife in Latin America’: What is left of post-neoliberal?’, Critical Social Policy. First published 29 March http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0261018318765857Google Scholar
Gudmand-Høyer, M. and Hjorth, T. L. (2009), ‘Liberal Biopolitics Reborn’, Foucault Studies, 7: 99–130.Google Scholar
Gustafson, K. S. (2011), Cheating Welfare, New York: New York University.Google Scholar
Hall, S., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T., Clarke, J. and Roberts, B. (1978), Policing the Crisis, Houndsmill: MacMillan Education.Google Scholar
Hansen, M. P. (2015), ‘Foucault's Flirt? Neoliberalism, the Left and the Welfare State’, Foucault Studies, 20: 291–306.Google Scholar
Harman, C. (2008), ‘Theorising Neoliberalism’, International Socialism, 117: 25–49.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (2005), A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford: Oxford University.Google Scholar
Hoare, Q. and Nowell Smith, G. (eds.) (2005), Antonio Gramsci: Selections from Prison Notebooks, London: Lawrence and Wishart. 10th reprint.Google Scholar
Ishkanian, A. and Glasius, M. (2018), ‘Resisting neoliberalism? Movements against austerity and for democracy in Cairo, Athens and London’, Critical Social Policy. First published 10 March http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0261018318762452Google Scholar
Lagarde, C. (2014), ‘Economic Inclusion and Financial Integrity’, speech at conference on Inclusive Capitalism, 27 May https://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2014/052714.htmGoogle Scholar
Lazzarato, M. (2009), ‘Neoliberalism in Action’, Theory, Culture & Society, 26 (6): 109–133.Google Scholar
Marx, K. (1990 [1867]), Capital, Volume 1, London: Penguin.Google Scholar
May, T. (2016a), Speech on becoming Prime Minister, 13 July https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/statement-from-the-new-prime-minister-theresa-mayGoogle Scholar
May, T. (2016b), ‘The good that Government can do’: Speech to the Conservative Party Conference, 5 October http://press.conservatives.com/Google Scholar
McNay, L. (1994), Foucault: A Critical Introduction, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
McNay, L. (2009), ‘Self as Enterprise’, Theory, Culture & Society, 26 (6): 55–77.Google Scholar
Negri, A. (2005), The Politics of Subversion, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Neocleous, M. (2013), ‘Resisting Resilience’, Radical Philosophy, 178: 2–8.Google Scholar
Papadopoulos, T. and Roumpakis, A. (2018), ‘Rattling Europe's ordoliberal “iron cage”: the contestation of austerity in Southern Europe’, Critical Social Policy. First published 30 March http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0261018318766987Google Scholar
Pentaraki, M. (2013), ‘If we do not cut spending, we well end up like Greece’, Critical Social Policy, 33 (4): 700–712.Google Scholar
Read, J. (2009), ‘A Genealogy of Homo-Economicus’, Foucault Studies, 6: 25–36.Google Scholar
Rodgers, D. (2018), ‘The Uses and Abuses of “Neoliberalism”’, Dissent, Winter, https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/uses-and-abuses-neoliberalism-debateGoogle Scholar
Röpke, W. (1950), The Social Crisis of Our Time, Chicago: University of Chicago. First published in German in 1942.Google Scholar
Röpke, W. (1957), ‘Liberalism and Christianity’, Modern Age: A Conservative Review, 1 (2): 128–134.Google Scholar
Rosanvallon, P. (2000), The New Social Question, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.Google Scholar
Rosanvallon, P. (2011), Democratic Legitimacy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.Google Scholar
Rose, N. (2000), ‘Government and Control’, British Journal of Criminology, 40: 321–339.Google Scholar
Ryner, M. (2015), ‘Europe's ordoliberal iron cage’, Journal of European Social Policy, 22 (2): 275–294.Google Scholar
Schram, S. F. and Pavlovskaya, M. (eds.) (2017), Rethinking Neoliberalism, New York: USA: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schultz, T. W. (1961), ‘Investment in Human Capital’, The American Economic Review, 51 (1): 1–17.Google Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. (2015), Authentic happiness, London: Nicholas Brealey.Google Scholar
Silver, H. (1994), ‘Social exclusion and social solidarity’, International Labour Review, 133 (5/6): 531–579.Google Scholar
Slobodian, Q. (2014), ‘The world economy and the color line: Wilhelm Ropke, Apartheid, and the White Atlantic’, German Historical Institute Bulletin, supplement, 10: 61–87.Google Scholar
Stavrakakis, Y. (2013), ‘Dispatches from the Greek lab’, Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 18 (3): 313–324.Google Scholar
Storey, A. (2017), The Myths of Ordoliberalism, Working Paper 17-02, ERC Project ‘European Unions’, University College Dublin. https://www.erc-europeanunions.eu/working-papers/Google Scholar
Swanson, J. (2000), ‘Self help Clinton, Blair and the politics of personal responsibility’, Radical Philosophy 101, May/June: 29–39.Google Scholar
Thornton, D. J. (2014), ‘Transformations of the Ideal Mother: The Story of Mommy Economicus and Her Amazing Brain’, Women's Studies in Communication, 37: 271–291.Google Scholar
Venkatesan, S., Laidlaw, J., Eriksen, T. H., Mair, J. and Martin, K. (2015), ‘Debate: “The concept of neoliberalism has become an obstacle to the anthropological understanding of the twenty-first century’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 21: 911–923.Google Scholar
Venugopal, R. (2015), ‘Neoliberalism as concept’, Economy and Society, 44 (2): 165–187.Google Scholar
Villadsen, K. and Dean, M. (2012), ‘State-Phobia, Civil Society, and a Certain Vitalism’, Constellations, 19 (3): 401–421.Google Scholar
Wacquant, L. (2009), Punishing the Poor. Durham & London: Duke University.Google Scholar
Winslow, S. and Hall, S. (2013), Rethinking Social Exclusion. London, Sage.Google Scholar
Zamora, D. (2016a), ‘Introduction’ in Zamora, D., and Behrent, M. C. (ed.) (2016) Foucault and Neoliberalism, Cambridge: Polity, pp. 1–6.Google Scholar
Zamora, D. (2016b), ‘Foucault, the Excluded, and the Neoliberal Erosion of the Welfare State’ in Zamora, D., and Behrent, M. C. (ed.) Foucault and Neoliberalism. Cambridge: Polity, pp. 63–85.Google Scholar