Exploration of the Biopolitics of GMOs:Using Golden Rice as an Analytical Model

Several disputes exist around Genetically Modified Organisms （GMOs）. This article uses the concept of biopolitics to refer to all the GMO-related political issues and the mechanisms that are used to handle them. As a world famous genetically modified crop developed for the welfare of humanity by public institutions, Golden Rice has on one hand won glories, whereas on the other met with criticisms. It could be used as an analytical model to illustrate the biopolitics of GMOs. On the basis of an overview of its technological background, this article first introduces the participants and the debated issues of the Golden Rice project and then the disputes between the supporters and opponents and consequently analyzes the biopolitics of the Golden Rice. In conclusion, this article justifies the biopolitics of the GMOs and its doctrine.

Biopolitics, Life, and Body... Considerations from Latin American Point of View

We intend to get a close look at Foucault＇s work on biopolitics with the aim of contrasting some of its aspects with the developments linked to the emancipatory and liberating potential of the notion of life （living corporeality） within the framework of Enrique Dussel＇s Latin American Political Philosophy. We are interested in these theoretical approaches （Foucault＇s biopolitics and Dussel＇s Liberation Politics） given the political implications and prominence they grant to the notions of body and life in contemporary societies. The works we are interested in to contrast present different standpoints： In the first one, life is related to the exercise of political power, whereas in the second one its approach concentrates on political emancipation processes. We believe, however, that it is possible to find convergence points between them that allow us to explain, to a certain extent, the importance of the notion of life in contemporary societies. For this purpose, we will carry out an analysis of the notion of ＂counter behaviors,＂ a concept that Foucault briefly develops to explain how life has not been thoroughly integrated to technologies that dominate or run it but instead escape them ceaselessly.

Agamben’s Biopolitics in China

Agamben’s biopolitics enters China and arouses great interest due to its close relation with the important topics of concern in China at present.Agamben’s biopolitics is influenced by Foucault’s thought and Agamben uses the term“biopolique”put forward by Foucault.In the process of translating this term,Chinese scholars have been deepening their understanding of biopolitics.Chinese scholars’understanding of and reflection on Agamben’s biopolitics are mainly manifested in three aspects.In epistemology,Chinese scholars have analyzed human being’s living situation at present from the perspective of Agamben’biopolitics and revealed the possible crisis of life.Methodologically,it is believed that Agamben has developed the philosophical archaeology,genealogy,paradigm,and other methods to investigate the ancient in order to identify the present,which is helpful to eliminate the essentialist mode about knowledge production.Practically,Chinese scholars have reflexively criticized the“inoperative”political practice concept proposed by Agamben that invalidates the managerial apparatus,and further advance their thinking of the political subject and the political action.

The Inheritance of Hardt and Negri to Marx’s Thought: From the Critique of Political Economy to Biopolitical Critique

In the Empire Series,Hardt and Negri attempt to develop biopolitical critique to contemporary capitalist society.Hardt and Negri develop their own biopolitical critique based on their understanding of Foucauldian biopolitics.In the meantime,many arguments of biopolitical critique come precisely from Marx’s critique of political economy.Identifying biopolitical production as the hegemonic paradigm of contemporary capitalist production,Hardt and Negri accomplish the transition from the critique of political economy to biopolitical critique.However,such assertion does not mean a major rupture in the relation between the critique of political economy and biopolitical critique.On the contrary,it only implies an intertwined relationship between them.Moreover,if regarding Foucault’s discussion about political economy and biopolitics as a medium,then the conclusion can be made:There are overlaps between biopolitical critique and the critique of political economy,and the source of biopolitical critique can also be traced directly back to Marx.

How to Inscribe Nature and the Environment Into the Philosophy of Politics?

The purpose of this text is to examine,describe,and elaborate on contemporary attempts to incorporate nature and the environment into reflection related to the philosophy of politics.Both attempts to extend Foucault’s biopolitics and attempts to introduce competing concepts are analysed.This theme has a strong presence mainly due to the multifaceted degradation of nature and the environment,contamination,and over-extraction of natural resources in the era of climate and ecological crises.In this text,the author analyses interdisciplinary activities developed by researchers associated with very different fields,such as anthropology and art criticism,which are based on the philosophy of politics.

A Monster We Love： Dexter＇s Reproductive Futures

While there has been significant scholarly attention to the Showtime Series Dexter （2006-13） and the fundamental choice between being good or evil that its protagonist Dexter Morgan must make, this article advances scholarship in three ways. Firstly, it examines Dexter＇s final twist in plot and the decision Dexter makes to finally embrace his ＂dark passenger＂ to argue for the necessity of the plot twist to the series, which scholarship has not yet performed. Secondly, by situating Dexter＇s decision within a framework focused on reproductive futurism, a revised and more nuanced approach to Dexter＇s ontological dilemma can be proffered. Finally, by locating Dexter＇s dark passenger within the theoretical frames of reproductive futurism and community this article adds an important dimension to notions of the monster conventionally rooted in theories of identity and subjectivity. In the final moments of the series everything changes for Dexter as his identity is redeemed for a reproductive future without guarantees, which this article argues is germane to considerations ofbiopolitics and community in the contemporary period.

The Biopolitical Incarnation of Populism:A Voice From Poland

In the presented paper,the author starts with diagnosing the state of research on populism and biopolitics simultaneously.The author states that most often in the literature the topic of populism(Laclau,Mouffe,Mudde,and Panizza)is considered separately from the problems related to biopolitics(Foucault,Negri,Agamben,and Esposito).The author would like to change this separation by bringing these two discourses closer together.The author’s main aim is to rethink populism from a biopolitical perspective,i.e.,to implement national politics over the population.Furthermore,the author reconstructs the logic of such biopolitical populism with the example of Poland,and as a consequence,the program of the“Law and Justice Party(PiS)”,which,after coming to power in 2015,introduced a new policy of“legal populism”,closely related to the conservative“procreative policy”(prohibition of abortion),and the family-oriented economy(financial supplement for each family for the second child,the so-called“500 plus”program).

Corpus, Body, and Sense in Nancy, Deleuze and Charles H. Long

This article investigates the role of the body in Jean-Luc Nancy＇s powerful essay Corpus, and critiques it from the standpoint of Agamben＇s biopolitics. For Nancy, the body becomes the privileged site of both existence and sense in a way that threatens to obscure the logic of exceptional decision that Agamben takes from Carl Schmitt. As an alternative to Nancy＇s understanding of the body, we can see in Deleuze a series of bodies that works in parallel to a series of sense or language, where sense and body do not get collapsed into each other. At the same time, contemporary continental philosophy resists the idealistic separation of thinking and embodiment. Deleuze calls this relation between sense and body a cut, but we could also consider a parallax, following Slavoj Zizek. Finally, African-American historian of religion Charles H. Long＇s work complements some of Deleuze＇s insights in a more explicitly postcolonial context.

Productivity of Poverty. Managing Poverty in Philosophy From Benjamin and Heidegger to Agamben, Negri and Hardt

The main task of the text is to find a new positive formula for“poverty”,which instead of addressing it in negative terms—as a threat,degradation,or humiliation—would reveal the potentiality and productivity of poverty.In my text I would like to rethink the status of poverty in four important texts that contribute to the history of 20th century philosophy.My main goal is to understand the philosophical revindication of the categories of“poverty”and“poverty”.Who is poor?Who are the poor and do they form a specific class,assemblage,community or collective?What is poverty?Does poverty of the poor regard possession,existence,life,experience,concept,agency,freedom,action?Do these different types of poverty,regarding various fields,have a common denominator?Is seeking poverty worthwhile?Is loyalty to poverty the only imperative of an ethical subject?Is philosophical praise of poverty possible?How,in what language,how can it be praised?In answering these questions,I will turn towards the texts of Benjamin,Heidegger,Agamben,Negri and Hardt.

什么是Homo Sacer?

一、为什么会造成"神圣人"的误译阿甘本在国际学界的成名作与代表作是《Homo Sacer:主权权力与赤裸生命》(Homo Sacer:Sovereign Power and Bare Life.Homo SacerI,1995),它也是以homosacer为名的九本系列著作的第一本。①作为阿甘本思想的核心概念,homo sacer到底是什么意思,又究竟该如何翻译呢?这一直是每个阅读阿甘本著作的人要面临的第一个挑战。如果连这本书的书名以及这一系列的主题讲的是什么搞不清楚,显然也就谈不上对阿甘本思想的深入理解和阐释。

A Genealogical Study of Facemasks in China:From Hygienic Modernity to Care

Despite the omnipresence of facemasks in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,recent studies on their sociopolitical aspects remain insufficient.This article conducts a genealogical study that investigates the emergence of two differing masking strategies in two epidemic events in Chinese history.First,during the Manchurian plague 1910/11,it shows how the germ theory and historical anecdotes made anti-plague masks thinkable and practicable as a solution not only for airborne contagion but also for the biopolitical problem of‘unhygienic’population.In the second part,the analytical focus is shifted to the emergence of collective mask-wearing practices during SARS 2002/03 from the vantage point of subjectification.Facemasks then became a symbol of care in the neoliberal regime of responsibilization.This article concludes by arguing for a rethinking of facemasks as actants who actively participate in the constitution of the world we share.