Pandemia, protezione della vita, ecologia: Smarrimenti del biopotere

Through Foucault, I highlight the fundamental importance that the attention to the collective body of society and the biopower of the state have had in the history of biopolitics. Referring to Nikolas Rose, moreover, I consider the reasons that seem to have caused a radical downsizing of this importance with neoliberalism. In reality, during the pandemic, both the collective dimension of health and the biopolitical role of the state seem to have reaffirmed. However, two elements make this scenario debatable: the ability of the molecular biology and biocapitalism to establish themselves as essential references of the anti-pandemic biopolitics; the inability of international biopolitical organizations to overcome the oscillation between state and market by promoting an ecosystemic approach to the danger of a pandemic. From this point of view, both the prevalence of the emergency approach and the use of vaccines as the "only solution" confirm this inability and the general impasse of contemporary biopolitics.