Roberto Esposito, biopolitics and social work

This chapter is an introduction to Italian political philosopher Roberto Esposito and maps current biopolitical analysis to widen perspectives in social work education and critical pedagogy to the nuances of contemporary biopolitical theory. It offers a summary of Esposito’s insight into the biopolitical nature of social work and the implications of the key concept of “negative protection” for pedagogy. It is argued that social work is a striking illustration of the neoliberal biopolitical strategy of governing “from below” whereby agents of the state are intimately connected with the micro politics of calculation, control and direction. Adopting a critical pedagogical approach for social work educators, researchers and students can educate and strengthen a politics of resistance. Drawing on Esposito’s work, this is achieved by a pedagogy that casts professional normalisation as negative protection, and the way this conditions front-line power relations with service users and carers. As a part of this biopolitical regime, a primary function of social work is to safeguard (negatively) individual, family and community life. From an educational standpoint, biopolitical analytics can focus social workers on investigating the network of power relations, knowledge politics and modes of subjectification evident in change processes and modes of surveillance.