Abstract:
The paper attempts to outline a domain which could be constituted by the intersection of the theme of biopolitical rationality, technology and mechanisms with the theme of social inequalities. It is not grounded on a particular case study, but mostly on a critical survey over a relevant literature. Thus the present text is rather a sketch, a broad outline of a research field which is still shaping itself. First I present briefly the concept of biopolitics and the way it operates in Foucault’s work, in order to show its potential relevancy for the comprehension of the political uses and production of some forms of social inequality. Secondly I present the same concept after the transformations it has undergone in order to be applied on such domains as biomedicine, biotechnology, molecular biology, genetics, genomics, biobanks, bioinformatics, etc., illustrating it with some examples connected to new forms of social inequality. Instead of conclusion I raise some questions which aim is to reorient the attention on the notion of biosocial inequalities.
