Social Technologies, Biopolicies, and Biopower: Critical Reflections

Abstract

Social technologies (STs), as actions aimed at improving the quality of life of various social groups that are outside the market or the economic system, aim at a new non-predatory development model. Faced with the idea of improving quality of life, these technologies end up obtaining a diffusion with no limitation, contributing more to the system’s maintenance than to the final solution of social problems. Having this in mind, the main objective of this theoretical essay is discussing how often STs end up as a panacea and instrument of power relations, working on the justification and intensification of new domination forms in contemporary societies. In order to think through the diffusion of these technologies, first, there emerged the need to deepen understanding of what STs are. Then, the purpose was exploring Michel Foucault’s viewpoint on the biopolicies and biopower and interweaving, in this discussion, STs.