Biopolitics and Utopia

This interdisciplinary reader offers a fascinating exploration of the intersection of biopolitics and utopia by employing a range of theoretical approaches. Each essay provides a unique application of the two concepts to topics spanning the social sciences and humanities.

"One of the strengths of this collection is the variety of approaches to analyzing the intersections between utopian aspirations and concepts of the body. The topics discussed can as specific as physical fitness programs during wartime, pre-implantation genetic diagnoses in fertility treatments, and in vitro meat projects and as general as the technophobia is some science fiction, the need for dialogues between humanists and scientists, and for the development of convincing ethical standards for biotechnology." - Kenneth Roemer, Professor of English, Piper Professor, University of Texas at Arlington, USA, the author and editor of Utopian Audiences (2009), America as Utopia (1980), and The Obsolete Necessity (1976)

"Engaging, original and trans-disciplinary at its core, Stapleton and Byers have curated a volume of critical interpretations of utopian biopolitical projects. Contributors analyze far-ranging State techniques that imagine, produce and reproduce perfect citizens. The collection is vitally necessary to grasp modern world-making, near futures and their effects." - Lisa Jean Moore, Professor of Sociology, SUNY Purchase College, USA, the co-author of Missing Bodies (2009)

Autorentext
Patricia Stapleton, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA Andrew Byers, Duke University, USA Evie Kendal, Monash University, Australia Rasmus R. Simonsen, Western University, Canada Arpita Das, Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women, Malaysia Elena L. Cohen, New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, USA, Graduate Center of the City of New York, USA Selena Middleton, McMaster University, Canada Cameron Barrows, St John's College, USA

Inhalt

1. Introduction - Andrew Byers and Patricia Stapleton, 'Biopolitics and Utopia' Section I: Actions 2. Andrew Byers, 'American Bodies in a Time of War: The Militarized Body as a Utopian Space and Biopolitical Project for the State' 3. Patricia Stapleton, 'The Inauspicious Regulatory Beginnings of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis' 4. Arpita Das, ''Abnormals' or 'Exceptions': The Use of Technologies for Intersex People and People with Disabilities' Section II: Speculations 5. Evie Kendal, 'Utopian Visions of 'Making People': Science Fiction and Debates on Cloning, Ectogenesis, Genetic Engineering, and Genetic Discrimination' 6.Selena Middleton, 'Decolonizing the Future: Biopolitics, Ethics, and Foresight through the Lens of Science Fiction' Section III: Reactions 7. Elena Cohen, ''All Day, All Week, Occupy Wall Street!': Space, Biopower, and Resistance' 8. Rasmus Simonsen, 'Eating for the Future: Veganism and the Challenge of In vitro Meat' Section IV: Reflections 8. Cameron Barrows, 'Utopia and Biopolitics: The Need for an Ethics in Biotechnology'