Foucault, Biopolitics, and Governmentality

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BIOPOLITICS OF SCALE Bardet, Sert, and Egli: Scale as a discrete threshold A series of cross-cultural moves cutting through the history of architecture and urbanism during the twentieth century—from Gaston Bardet, José Lluís Sert, Ernst Egli to the Team 10—would provide case studies for an investigation into this development in the conceptualization of scale. For Bardet, a major figure of French urbanism from the mid-twentieth century and a supporter of the catholic group “Economie et humanisme,” urbanism is understood as the “science of human agglomerations,” aiming at interrelating social and spatial morphologies. In his paper “Community Scales in Urban Agglomerations” (1943), Bardet distinguishes six scalar community levels [échelons communautaires]: patriarchal, domestic, parochial, urban, metropolitan regional and metropolitan capital. For Bardet, the first three levels are unable to generate cultural values, and the last two are destroying entirely spiritual and traditional values. For these reasons the “urban” level of 5,000-15,000 families is optimal in Bardet’s eyes for the full development of the human being: this is the level of a “human city.” 16 At first glance this looks very speculative, with a specific number of families attributed to each level and multiplied by ten as one moves to the next level (with the patriarchal scale counting 5-10 families, domestic 50- 150, and so on). But in fact, Bardet’s “social topography,” as he calls it, builds on empirical methods, and—just as with Foucault’s description of the security paradigm—urbanism is considered a science which aims at defining and implementing norms according to the average level of a phenomenon in question discovered in reality itself. Accordingly, Bardet dwells on methods developed in French sociology, history and human geography since the late nineteenth century, distinguishing “community levels” by means of specific economic patterns and everyday practices, the intensity and frequency of social contacts and the distribution of urban functions. Thus, if the patriarchal scale is defined by 5 to 10 core families, it is because this is the group of people who exchange gifts and services, celebrate as well as mourn together. The next level—the domestic level—is born from the proximity between neighbors, and groups of children playing together and housewives shopping together, who, as Bardet fantasied, meet “to exchange gossip.” Finally, the parochial level encompasses between 500 and 1,500 families, and corresponds to an Anglo-American neighborhood 16 Gaston Bardet, “Les échelons communautaires dans les agglomérations urbaines,” in Pierre sur pierre (Paris: Editions L.C.B., 1945), 233-49. 117
ŁUKASZ STANEK unit, defined principally by the maximal distance children travel to and from their primary school—the school, then, becomes the urban element that replaces the parish church as the center of a community. In Bardet’s account, the everyday life of a child, not yet fragmented by the Fordist rhythms of work and leisure that characterize the everyday routines of an adult, remains the preponderant criterion for defining a community level. 17 This also points at the fact that the increasing mobility and fragmentation of everyday life is the main challenge to Bardet’s theory: the very challenge addressed by the Team 10, from the 1950s onwards. Bardet’s contribution was directed both against the European centralized cities (the three “monsters” of Paris, Lyon, and Marseille) and the functionalist urbanism of Le Corbusier and the CIAM. In opposition to both functionalist zoning (considered by Bardet as mechanical, abstract, and expressing capitalist exploitation) and also against the concept of the neighborhood unit (leading, according to him, to city fragmentation) the community levels would facilitate the organic coherence of social groups and would thereby allow for personal development of each and every individual. The city would change completely: rather than a concentric scheme, it would become a cluster [une grappe] of villages or parishes. His aim is thus to create proximity within small closed societies that add up to a large, but “open,” society. 18 Yet it was already at the time when Bardet published his essay on community levels that the discourse of CIAM urbanism took a self-critical turn towards pre-war discussions within the organization, employing arguments that not rarely coincided with Bardet’s. To take one notable example, in his paper “The Human Scale in City Planning” (1944) José Lluís Sert revised the functionalist approach arguing for its “humanization.” In doing so he questioned the pre-war enthusiasm for the machine, in turn opposing tendencies towards urban sprawl and suburbanization. Taking the number of inhabitants and the composition of functions as his starting point, Sert devised a hierarchy of social and spatial scales, ranging from the neighborhood unit, through the sub-city or township, the city proper, the metropolitan area, and the economic region. With the concept of the community complementing the functionalist triad of the “sun, air, greenery,” 17 Ibid. 18 See also Jean-Louis Cohen, “Entretien avec Gaston Bardet,” Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité 44 (February 1978): 78-81, and Jean-Louis Cohen, “Gaston Bardet, un humanisme à visage urbain,” Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité 44 (February 1978): 74-7. 118
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Foucault, Biopolitics, and Governme
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Contents Introduction: Foucault, Bi
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INTRODUCTION point, and we find res
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INTRODUCTION stantially new recepti
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INTRODUCTION the body politic, whic
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INTRODUCTION 3) Enlightenment and m
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INTRODUCTION at least in Cynicism,
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INTRODUCTION i.e. as a juridical pr
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INTRODUCTION undergoes instead a de
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INTRODUCTION unsure about how to ha
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INTRODUCTION economy, which displac
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INTRODUCTION The two main cases tha
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INTRODUCTION like a sign of bad fai
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INTRODUCTION them as residual and m
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INTRODUCTION munity, and individual
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INTRODUCTION contemporary subjectiv
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THOMAS LEMKE Over the last twenty y
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THOMAS LEMKE In this article I will
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THOMAS LEMKE very much political; t
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THOMAS LEMKE Programs, strategies,
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THOMAS LEMKE Thus it seems the focu
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THOMAS LEMKE social movements of hi
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THOMAS LEMKE The principal focus of
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THOMAS LEMKE However, there is anot
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THOMAS LEMKE narrative to be used f
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JOHANNA OKSALA not merely as an eco
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JOHANNA OKSALA Reagan and Thatcher
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JOHANNA OKSALA The market had been
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JOHANNA OKSALA This regime also imp
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JOHANNA OKSALA liberalism and neoli
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JOHANNA OKSALA discussion of neolib
Page 67 and 68: JOHANNA OKSALA game for self-intere
Page 69 and 70: JOHANNA OKSALA been given ad hoc in
Page 71 and 72: JOHANNA OKSALA the terms of the opp
Page 74 and 75: Biopolitical Life Catherine Mills A
Page 76 and 77: BIOPOLITICAL LIFE particular, the t
Page 78 and 79: BIOPOLITICAL LIFE recognises beatit
Page 80 and 81: BIOPOLITICAL LIFE heroic conditions
Page 82 and 83: BIOPOLITICAL LIFE Nazism, Esposito
Page 84 and 85: BIOPOLITICAL LIFE given environment
Page 86 and 87: BIOPOLITICAL LIFE complete vitalisa
Page 88 and 89: BIOPOLITICAL LIFE Foucault suggests
Page 90 and 91: BIOPOLITICAL LIFE that different so
Page 92 and 93: Towards an Affirmative Biopolitics
Page 94 and 95: TOWARDS AN AFFIRMATIVE BIOPOLITICS
Page 106 and 107: Biopolitics of Scale: Architecture,
Page 108: BIOPOLITICS OF SCALE Hansen’s pro
Page 111 and 112: Image 2: Oskar Hansen, “Poland’
Page 113 and 114: Image 4: Oskar Hansen, “Western B
Page 115 and 116: Image 6: “Diagram of human relati
Page 117: ŁUKASZ STANEK scales as increasing
Page 121 and 122: ŁUKASZ STANEK interrelationship wa
Page 123 and 124: ŁUKASZ STANEK in France, Netherlan
Page 125 and 126: HELENA MATTSSON tecture as a set of
Page 127 and 128: HELENA MATTSSON materials and displ
Page 129 and 130: HELENA MATTSSON though they are not
Page 131 and 132: HELENA MATTSSON experiences: it was
Page 134 and 135: Neuropower: Is Resistance Fertile?
Page 136 and 137: NEUROPOWER: IS RESISTANCE FERTILE?
Page 146 and 147: Foucault and Lacan: Who is Master?
Page 148 and 149: FOUCAULT AND LACAN: WHO IS MASTER?
Page 156 and 157: Enunciation and Politics A Parallel
Page 158 and 159: ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS is no long
Page 160 and 161: ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS Parrhesia
Page 162 and 163: ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS risk of ta
Page 164 and 165: ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS These argu
Page 166 and 167: ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS That which
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ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS Logos and
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ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS other hand
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ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS Foucault t
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ENUNCIATION AND POLITICS cracy, sin
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ADEENA MEY Rancière: The distribut
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ADEENA MEY Foucault, namely that of
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ADEENA MEY different way of being.
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ADEENA MEY whom the affirmation of
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Roundtable Sven-Olov Wallenstein Bi
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ROUNDTABLE that engenders an immedi
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ROUNDTABLE on the relation between
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ROUNDTABLE self does that at certai
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ROUNDTABLE what could the referent
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ROUNDTABLE Vikki Bell I have to con
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ROUNDTABLE everything changes after
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ROUNDTABLE Johanna Oksala Thanks, J
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Authors Maurizio Lazzarato is socio
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AUTHORS Julian Reid has taught at t
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Foucault, Biopolitics, and Governmentality

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