Sovereignty,state of exception,and the politics of the pandemic: Where is Agamben now?

Abstract

Over the past three decades, Giorgio Agamben's works have exercised a profound and widespread influence on social and political theory, particularly through his Homo Sacer-series, which analyses the foundational (bio-)political structures of Western politics. However, his controversial writings on the COVID-19 pandemic, which grossly underestimated the virus and likened government containment policies to fascism, sparked significant debate and criticism from peers. This essay reviews the recent Omnibus Edition of the Homo Sacer-series and a collection of his pandemic interventions entitled Where Are We Now? The Epidemic as Politics. It argues that while there are significant conceptual continuities between Agamben's pandemic writings and his earlier works, they also exhibit notable theoretical divergences. These divergences may stem from his methodological approach, which emphasizes the developmental potential of philosophical concepts and may also serve as a model for subsequent engagements with his work beyond their original contexts and Agamben's own interpretations.