Viropolitics and capitalistic governmentality: On the management of the early 21st century pandemic

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21142/DES-1202-2020-0022

Keywords:

Pandemic, Covid-19, 21st century, apparatus, governmentality, capitalism, capitalistic, viropolitics

Abstract

This text offers an analysis of the power apparatuses (dispositifs) employed in the management of the early 21st century Covid-19 pandemic. The paper is divided into two sections. The first part is oriented both towards a characterization of the mode of government that preceded the onset of the viral disease and towards an exposition of the power apparatuses it instrumentalized. This mode of government is referred to in the text as «capitalistic govermentality», a practice combining regimes of knowledge, economically encoded materialities, subjective formations and power apparatuses in order to maintain the valorization of private capital. The second part exposes the ways in which the apparatuses of capitalistic governmentality are modified and articulated in the context of the pandemic, through a phenomen given the provisional name of «viropolitics».

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Author Biography

  • Jesús Ayala-Colqui, Universidad Cientifica del Sur. Lima, Peru

    Organizer of the Coloquio Internacional de Filosofía en el Perú [International Philosophy Symposium, Peru] (coloquiodefilosofiaperu@gmail.com). He studied philosophy at San Marcos National University (UNMSM) and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Currently, he works with the project management and research promotion department of Southern Science University. He is also a researcher with the UNMSM’s LITARTMO (Literatura y arte: prensa, cultura visual y redes trasatlánticas entre Europa y América Latina) research group. This article is a product of the research project conducted by this group: ≪La biopolítica en la historia y las humanidades de América Latina en los siglos XIX, XX y XXI≫.

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Published

2020-07-29

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How to Cite

Viropolitics and capitalistic governmentality: On the management of the early 21st century pandemic. (2020). Desde El Sur, 12(2), 377-395. https://doi.org/10.21142/DES-1202-2020-0022

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