Places of Life: On the Problem of Space in the Biopolitical Concept of G. Agamben

Abstract

The article examines the problem of space in the philosophy of biopolitics of G. Agamben. Agamben’s analysis of the logic of space is important in the context of the spatial turn in humanities, including human geography and urban studies. At the center of the biopolitical concept is the connection between life and politics. Using the example of the first volume of Homo Sacer, a number of procedures are revealed and interpreted that define the connection between life and politics in ancient culture and in European culture of the 20th century. Explication and systematization of places of life allows us to identify the role of space in understanding the biopolitical techniques of population control. Particular attention is paid to the role of language, structural space, definition and further blurring of oppositions in Agamben's analysis of space. To systematize the various definitions of space, “places of life” are distinguished as special forms of organizing the space of human life and politics: the place of the home (oikos) and the city (polis), the place of the camp, the place of the poetic gesture. Well-known concepts of Agamben’s philosophy play a role in shaping the relationships of these places: inclusive exclusion, zones of indiscernibility, suspension of differences. These relationships make it possible to describe places of life in their dynamics, unstable equilibrium, and to include into consideration the spatiotemporal deviations of these places and their topology. It was shown that the camp as a matrix of modern human life is determined by the special structural features of the organization of a person’s living space, the special “language” of space that shapes his attitude to politics and life. Along with the criticism of places, using the example of the space of poetic language, the possibility of a positive analysis of life in Agamben’s work is considered.