From biopolitics to biocivilization: controls - space, body and territory - in contention

Abstract

‘Bio’ and geopolitical controls, enable this "biopower era" in which we are, according to Michel Foucault. The subjection of all territories and the life therein contained to a global pattern of acccumulation, driven by fossil fuel, are basic ingredients of these days constructed by the "oil civilization". A permanent socialenvironmental crisis and the promise of a catastrophic horizon, are also characteristics provided by this pattern. The bio-civilization project, proposed by Ignacy Sachs, inspired by ideas from several authors, provides an antidote for reversing this trajectory of crisis and destruction. The construction of this project can be seen and encouraged in several scales, especially those which offer resistance to the micro-powers that enable the biopolitical controls. We will demonstrate this by observing the struggles that take place in the Amazon and other movements such as the one that occurred at a university campus located on the east zone of São Paulo.