Biopower in the age of the pandemic: the politics of COVID-19 in Denmark. Issue 5 (20th October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Triantafillou, Peter
• Is Part Of: European societies. Volume 24:Issue 5(2022)
• Page Start: 657
• Page End: 681
• Publication Date: 2022-10-20
• Subjects: Biopolitics -- state power -- pandemics -- epidemiological regulations -- Foucault; Sociology -- Europe -- Periodicals; Europe -- Social conditions -- 20th century -- Periodicals; 301.094
• DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2061553
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-6696

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The exceptional forms of state power mobilized under COVID-19 have attracted scholarly attraction and created important insights on the pandemic politics. However, it seems that the current understanding tends to regard the states' responses as a zero-sum game between two powers only, a game in which liberal rule in varying degrees is traded for raw sovereign power. Inspired by the notion of biopower, this article aims to provide a more nuanced account of the various powers invoked to handle the pandemic. Based on the case of Denmark, it is argued that three forms of power were mobilized: sovereignty, discipline and security mechanisms. Yet, indirect security mechanisms informed by epidemiological knowledge and modelling have played a far more comprehensive role than the two other power mechanisms. In a complex interaction with epidemiological expertize, liberal governmentalities limited the mobilization of sovereignty and discipline and, instead, tended to endorse indirect security mechanisms.