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More About This Textbook
Overview
For centuries, medicine aimed to treat abnormalities. But today normality itself is open to medical modification. Equipped with a new molecular understanding of bodies and minds, and new techniques for manipulating basic life processes at the level of molecules, cells, and genes, medicine now seeks to manage human vital processes. The Politics of Life Itself offers a much-needed examination of recent developments in the life sciences and biomedicine that have led to the widespread politicization of medicine, human life, and biotechnology.
Avoiding the hype of popular science and the pessimism of most social science, Nikolas Rose analyzes contemporary molecular biopolitics, examining developments in genomics, neuroscience, pharmacology, and psychopharmacology and the ways they have affected racial politics, crime control, and psychiatry. Rose analyzes the transformation of biomedicine from the practice of healing to the government of life; the new emphasis on treating disease susceptibilities rather than disease; the shift in our understanding of the patient; the emergence of new forms of medical activism; the rise of biocapital; and the mutations in biopower. He concludes that these developments have profound consequences for who we think we are, and who we want to be.
Editorial Reviews
Sociology
Rose's great strength lies in drawing together disparate strands from a variety of sources—from the empirical work of colleagues to policy documents—and neatly labelling and organizing emergent tendencies to invite further reflection, often with a nod (or more) to recent French social theory.— Steve Fuller
Journal of Biosocial Science - Jessica Lovaas
From tattoos to organ transplants, cosmetic surgery to circumcision, obsessive dieting to exercise, the practice of manipulating bodies is increasingly widespread. But have we passed into a new phase of manipulation evidenced by the prevalent use of medicine to adjust our moods, enhance sports performance, slow ageing or alter fetuses? Nikolas Rose . . . argues that a threshold has been crossed into a world of 'biological citizenship' in which humans view themselves at the molecular level, medicine is based on customization, and biology poses fewer and fewer limits on life. For Rose, however, this is not always a bad thing.Cultural Geographies - Simon Reid-Henry
There is much to admire in his account of the forms that such a politics is taking, and I would encourage the reader to engage with this work.Sociology - Steve Fuller
Rose's great strength lies in drawing together disparate strands from a variety of sources—from the empirical work of colleagues to policy documents—and neatly labelling and organizing emergent tendencies to invite further reflection, often with a nod (or more) to recent French social theory.LSE News and Views
This book offers a much-needed examination of recent developments that have led to the widespread politicization of medicine, human life, and biotechnology. . . . Nikolas Rose concludes that these developments have profound consequences for who we think we are, and who we want to be.Journal of Biosocial Science
From tattoos to organ transplants, cosmetic surgery to circumcision, obsessive dieting to exercise, the practice of manipulating bodies is increasingly widespread. But have we passed into a new phase of manipulation evidenced by the prevalent use of medicine to adjust our moods, enhance sports performance, slow ageing or alter fetuses? Nikolas Rose . . . argues that a threshold has been crossed into a world of 'biological citizenship' in which humans view themselves at the molecular level, medicine is based on customization, and biology poses fewer and fewer limits on life. For Rose, however, this is not always a bad thing.— Jessica Lovaas
Cultural Geographies
There is much to admire in his account of the forms that such a politics is taking, and I would encourage the reader to engage with this work.— Simon Reid-Henry
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Meet the Author
Nikolas Rose is James Martin White Professor of Sociology and Director of the BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His books include "The Psychological Complex, Governing the Soul, Inventing Our Selves", and "Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought".
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Acronyms xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Biopolitics in the Twenty-First Century 9
Chapter 2: Politics and Life 41
Chapter 3: An Emergent Form of Life? 77
Chapter 4: At Genetic Risk 106
Chapter 5: Biological Citizens 131
Chapter 6: Race in the Age of Genomic Medicine 155
Chapter 7: Neurochemical Selves 187
Chapter 8: The Biology of Control 224
Afterword Somatic Ethics and the Spirit of Biocapital 252
Notes 261
Bibliography 305
Index 341