The birth of bio-politics Michel Foucaults lecture at the.pdfVIP

Economy and Society Volume 30 Number 2 May 2001: 190–207 ‘The birth of bio-politics’: Michel Foucault’s lecture at the Collège de France on neo-liberal governmentality Thomas Lemke Abstract This paper focuses on Foucault’s analysis of two forms of neo-liberalism in his lecture of 1979 at the Collège de France: German post-War liberalism and the liberalism of the Chicago School. Since the course is available only on audio-tapes at the Foucault archive in Paris, the larger part of the text presents a comprehensive reconstruction of the main line of argumentation, citing previously unpublished source material . The nal section offers a short discussion of the methodological and theoretical principles underlying the concept of governmentality and the critical political angle it provides for an analysis of contemporary neo-liberalism . Keywords: Foucault; neo-liberalism ; governmentality; state; technologies of the self. From 1970 until his death in 1984, Michel Foucault held the Chair of ‘History of Systems of Thought’ at the Collège de France.1 In his public lectures deliv- ered each Wednesday from early January through to the end of March/begin- ning of April, he reported on his research goals and ndings, presenting unpublished material and new conceptual and theoretical research tools. Many of the ideas developed there were later to be taken up in his various book pro- jects. However, he was in fact never to elaborate in writing on some of the research angles he presented there. Foucault’s early and unexpected death meant Bergische Universität Gesamthochschule Wuppertal, Fachbereich 1 – Gesellschaftswis- senschaften, Organisationssoziologie, Gauß str. 20, 42097 Wuppertal, Germany. E-mail : Lemke@uni-wuppertal.de Copyright © 2001 Taylor Francis Ltd ISSN 0308-5147 print/ISSN 1469-5766 online DOI: 10.1080/03085140120042271