Giorgio Agamben's Biopolitics Revisited in Confinement

In the fourth episode of the series 'Recommencer nos classiques,' Claire Margat revisits the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben, drawing parallels between his concepts and the current COVID-19 confinement. Agamben's major work 'Homo Sacer – Le pouvoir souverain et la vie nue' (1997) introduced the notion of biopolitics, borrowed from Michel Foucault, which examines how political power shifts from sovereign control over death to managing and controlling life for population survival. Agamben distinguishes between zoé (animal life) and bios (human existence), arguing that biopolitics conflates the two. He controversially links Nazi extermination camps and refugee detention zones as paradigms of modern sovereignty, a comparison that sparked debate. Margat suggests that rereading Agamben during the pandemic helps decode the present, as COVID-19 highlights the need for a welfare state prioritizing public health and a security state transitioning from surveillance to control. She references Agamben's interview with Le Monde on March 25, 2020, and calls for collective reflection on biopolitics.