Introduction: The Language of Biopower

In this chapter, we will explore some aspects of debates on health and health policy where they pertain to the notion of responsibility. Our discussion of the discourses of individualism and responsibility in healthcare will pay particular attention to language. The importance of this hinges on the notion that there is a dialectical relationship between society and discourse such that society (and culture) are both shaped by and simultaneously constitute discourse (Titscher, Meyer et al. 2000; Thapar-Bjorket and Morgan 2010). The centrality of language is underscored by Peters (2001, 59) when he observes:

The role of language and means of communicating on policy and the broader impress of power has been particularly well explored in work on ‘biopower’. This phrase was originally used by Foucault to describe the ‘explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations’ (Foucault 1978, 140).