Policies, Practices and Rationalities of Population Governance

Abstract

This panel examines the various ways in which the question and control of population is rationalised and realised. The recent research, especially in the field of biopolitics, has highlighted how population is a central ‘problem’ in issues such as care and social reproduction, the environment, gender equality, development, security, and the economy. Papers may address aspects such as, but not limited to, rationality, instrumentality, and subjectivity, as well as the consequences of population governance initiatives. What they have in common is the view of population as a political question, the objectification of which results in a complex set of governmental techniques and practices.