Biopower, Biopolitics and Governmentality: concepts to interpret and criticize managerial power

Abstract

This paper presents the concepts of Biopower, Biopolitics and Foucault’s Governmentality notion, which have been used in many fields of Social Sciences to analyze and understand the exercise of human power. An important part of this discussion focuses on a review of the original sense that Foucault gave to these categories, without attempting a critical review of his thoughts. The goal of this paper is to understand the power and the dynamics of contemporary organizational management in the light of these concepts. To do so, the author presents a synthesis of the main concepts of this article and its links to management, political power and governmentality in postmodern societies.