Agamben's Theory of Power
More information
* Article: Power and management according to Agamben: Some implications of Agamben’s thoughts to management scholarship. Enrico Beltramini. Ephemera, volume 20(4), 2020 . Special issue: Work, reconfigured.
Contents:
“This article is divided into three parts: first, I briefly introduce Agamben and his work; second, I address Agamben’s work on power; third, I explore the implications of Agamben’s work for management scholars. In the first part, as indispensable background, I introduce briefly Agamben’s overall project and the related notions of state of exception and bare life. I then turn to Agamben’s general assumptions about secularization, his interpretation of Foucault’s work on power, and Agamben’s study of two theological paradigms, one political and the other economic-driven. My central interest does not concern the accuracies or inaccuracies of Agamben’s readings of Foucault’s corpus of political texts. Instead, the intention is to tease out the main features of Agamben’s theoretical and philosophical conceptions of power and management. Then, Government comes to the fore and occupies my focus. Finally, as follow and take further Agamben’s argument, I invite readers to recognize the ramifications of Agamben’s ideas for management scholarship.”
Abstract:
"This review discusses some of the most prominent contributions of Giorgio Agamben to philosophy and political theories that are relevant to management scholars. By addressing Agamben’s theological genealogy of economy and government included in The Kingdom and the Glory, I introduce management scholars to innovative significations and understandings of power and management, including the notion that power is a form of management. I also offer some reflections on the ramifications for management scholarship of Agamben’s engagement with management as a praxis."
- "I limit this review to the most influential dimension of Agamben’s work in recent years, specially the first five chapters of his The kingdom and the glory: For a theological genealogy of economy and glory (or simply The kingdom and the glory)." [1]