November 9th, 2016
7pm
Salon of former Palais Dürckheim, Cranachstraße 47, Weimar

Compacting and Dividing. The Political Techniques of Class Division Lecture by Stephan Gregory

In the "Political Arithmetic" designed by 17th century English scientist and projector William Petty one can find the first instances of what Foucault later termed "biopolitics": the systematic analysis and technical manipulation of a new epistemological object called "the people". One of its main concerns is condensing the population in order to enhance communication and productivity; another is to "to methodize and regulate" "all persons and things" according to the new, economical criterion of value. If there is a birth of class society in 17th century England it is not only a birth out of the spirit of expanding capitalism, it is also a birth from the political techniques of counting and classifying.