Agamben's geographies of modernity

• Published in: Political geography Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 78 - 97
• Main Author: Minca, Claudio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2007; Butterworth-Heinemann
• Subjects: Agamben; Agamben, Giorgio; Ban; Bgi / Prodig; Biopolitics; Camp; History of geography; Human geography; Political and economic geography; Political geography; Political theory; Social theory; Sovereign power; Sovereignty; Space of exception; State; History of geography; Space of exception; Agamben; Sovereign power; Camp; Ban; Space; Policy; Sovereignty; Theory; Power
• ISSN: 0962-6298; 1873-5096
• DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2006.08.010

This paper examines the geographical underpinnings of Giorgio Agamben's theory of sovereign power. Reflecting on Agamben's attempt in developing a unified theory of power, I highlight the eminently spatial nature of two of the key concepts that mark his argument: the structure of the ban and the camp as a paradigm of modern politics. In particular, I analyse how the spatialisation of biopolitics finds in the camp the ideal site for the definition of endless caesurae in the body of the nation, and for the definition of population as a merely spatial concept. I claim, therefore, that the biopolitical state machine activated by the recent war on terror is not only an autopoietic machine, but that it is also at the origin of new geographies of exception that are imposing a new nomos on global politics: a nomos within which decision is produced by a permanent state of exception, and where law exists only through its endless strategic (dis)application.