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    Planetary confinement: bio-politics and mutual aid

    Loizidou, Elena (2021) Planetary confinement: bio-politics and mutual aid. Law and Critique 32 , pp. 133-138. ISSN 0957-8536.

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    Abstract

    Michel Foucault’s modes of power (sovereign, disciplinary and bio-politics) have dominated both our understanding of power and norm. It is pretty impossible to think of the organisation of life outside his thinking. Here I argue that the idea and practice of mutual aid, articulated by Peter Kropotkin in his 1902 book Mutual Aid (2009) stirs us towards a different understanding of the management of life, bereft of hierarchies and bestowed with co-operation and care. Moreover, as I argue the existence of mutual aid groups and practices challenges the very idea of the norm. This has become even more apparent during the Covid19 pandemic with the surfacing of mutual aid groups globally. It is therefore rather misleading to understand our present as generator of the ‘new normal’, such claims are mere rhetorical devices aiming at keeping us in our place.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Bio-politics, Disciplinary power, Michel Foucault, Mutual aid, Norm, Peter Kropotkin
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Law School
    Depositing User: Elena Loizidou
    Date Deposited: 04 Jun 2021 10:56
    Last Modified: 30 Jun 2024 10:58
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/44258

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