This paper poses a series of questions about the changing economy of relations between life and death. It analyzes how collective health policies were developed in the framework of the emergence of national states. The thematization of people's welfare in terms of salus populi cannot be explained in isolation from the emergence of biopolitical devices, which had (and still have) a broader scope. Such analysis should offer criticism, in the strong sense of the word, of multiple aspects : surveillance, statistics, hygienism, sanitarism ; and not just the extremes -eugenics and racism. This criticism poses the question of whether affirmative biopolitics strengthening individual or collective subjectivity is possible.

This paper poses a series of questions about the changing economy of relations between life and death. It analyzes how collective health policies were developed in the framework of the emergence of national states. The thematization of people's welfare in terms of salus populi cannot be explained in isolation from the emergence of biopolitical devices, which had (and still have) a broader scope. Such analysis should offer criticism, in the strong sense of the word, of multiple aspects: surveillance, statistics, hygienism, sanitarism; and not just the extremes -eugenics and racism. This criticism poses the question of whether affirmative biopolitics strengthening individual or collective subjectivity is possible.

This paper poses a series of questions about the changing economy of relations between life and death. It analyses how collective health policies were developed in the framework of the emergence of national states. The thematization of people's welfare in terms of salus populi cannot be explained in isolation from the emergence of biopolitical devices, which had (and still have) a wider scope. Such analysis should offer criticism, in the strong sense of the word, of multiple aspects: surveillance, statistics, hygienism, sanitarism; and not just the extremes -eugenics and racism. This criticism poses the question of whether affirmative biopolitics strengthening individual or collective subjectivity is possible.

تطرح هذه الورقة سلسلة من الأسئلة حول الاقتصاد المتغير للعلاقات بين الحياة والموت. ويحلل كيفية تطوير السياسات الصحية الجماعية في إطار ظهور الدول الوطنية. لا يمكن تفسير تخصيص رفاهية الناس من حيث الصالح العام بمعزل عن ظهور الأجهزة السياسية الحيوية، التي كان لها (ولا يزال) نطاق أوسع. يجب أن يقدم هذا التحليل نقدًا، بالمعنى القوي للكلمة، لجوانب متعددة: المراقبة والإحصاءات والنظافة الصحية والصرف الصحي ؛ وليس فقط التطرف - علم تحسين النسل والعنصرية. يطرح هذا النقد مسألة ما إذا كانت السياسات الحيوية الإيجابية التي تعزز الذاتية الفردية أو الجماعية ممكنة.