Biopolitical model in Giorgio Agamben. The politicization of life potentially at risk of death

Abstract

Giorgio Agamben, in his Homo Sacer saga, develops the model of biopolitics from the ar- chaeological analysis of figures characterized by symbolizing in themselves the inclusion- exclusion dynamic: the sovereign, the state of exception, la nuda vita and the homo sacer. The integration of these concepts allows the Italian philosopher to conceive the biopolitical paradigm of the West: the state of exception as the threshold at which the law is suspended, making possible the political regulation of life as nuda vita belonging to homo sacer, which anyone can kill without being considered homicide. This way, the Agambian biopolitical model centered on the politicization of life potentially at risk of death can be distinguished, given that from this approach biopolitics is always aimed at fixing the subjects whose life is taken into account simply to legally put them to death. In this sense, the aim of this paper is, by means of an interpretative approach, to analyze the biopolitical stance from the aforementioned philosopher’s viewpoint based on the concept of risk.