Biosocial Relations of Production

摘要

Nowadays, life itself is one of the most active zones of capitalist production.nNot only has biology been upgraded to Big Science, biological material andninformation are increasingly the subject of engineering, banking, reproduction,nand exchange. The description and broad implications of the refiguring of lifenitself and its intrusion into economics and politics represent some of the mostnimportant issues on the academic agenda at the beginning of the twenty-firstncentury (Pa ´lsson 2007). Foucault’s works on biopolitics (see, for instance, Fou-ncault 1994) have obviously contributed critical insights with respect to thencurrent refashioning of the human body, illuminating the political and govern-nmental dimensions of these developments (Inda 2005; Rose 2006; Gottweisnand Peterson 2008; Nowotny and Testa 2009; Lock and Nguyen 2009).nRecently, a series of scholars have revisited the early writings of Marx, some-ntimes in combination with Foucauldian perspectives, in their attempt to makensense of the political economy of modern biotechnology, including the frag-nmenting of body parts and the labor process involved. One of the emergingnthemes in current discussions relates to the conception and role of labor innthe reproduction of bodies and body parts. While Marx may not be annobvious source of innovative perspectives on the modern production of human biovalue, a somewhat unique industry that had not arrived in his time,nhis early works offer useful insights into contemporary developments.