Necropolitics of Death in Neurodegeneration.

Neurodegenerative diseases (ND) pose significant challenges for biomedicine in the twenty-first century, particularly considering the global demographic ageing and the subsequent increase in their prevalence. Characterized as progressive, chronic and debilitating, they often result in higher mortality rates compared with the general population. Research agendas and biomedical technologies are shaped by power relations, ultimately affecting patient wellbeing and care. Drawing on the concepts of bio- and necropolitics, introduced by philosophers Foucault and Mbembe, respectively, this perspective examines the interplay between the territoriality and governmentality around demographic ageing, ND and death, focussing on knowledge production as a dispositif of power by highlighting the marginal role that the phenomenon of mortality plays in the ND research landscape. We propose a shift into acknowledging the coloniality of knowledge and embracing its situatedness to attain knowledge 'from death', understood as an epistemic position from which novel approaches and practices could emerge.

From bare life and necropolitics to a feminist care ethic: ageism in the COVID-19 pandemic and future directions.

This perspective paper begins with discussing how COVID-19 magnified the pre-pandemic 'bare life' conditions which exposed older people's lives to risks and indignities in the health and social care system. Then, by using the concept of Necropolitics, the life and death decisions, based on age as a proxy measure for population health during the pandemic, are discussed. This discussion includes examples of 'exceptional' practices that were implemented in the UK during the first wave, including 'Do Not Resuscitate' orders, unsafe hospital discharges, not transferring to hospitals, and denying access to treatment for older people. It then goes on to renew the call for a feminist care ethic to be central to the ways in which our future health and social care systems are configured. Arguing for the need to politically reframe ageing, health and social care provision towards a radical alternative system that rethinks care relations and addresses inequality.

A cidade não pode parar: a Maratona do Rio de Janeiro em 2020 na era da pandemia / The city cannot stop: the Rio de Janeiro Marathon in the era of the pandemic / La ville ne peut pas s'arrêter: le Marathon de Rio de Janeiro à l'ère de la pandémie

Neste artigo, iremos apresentar como ocorreu a edição virtual da Maratona do Rio de Janeiro em 2020, ainda sem autorizações sanitárias para a realização de grandes eventos. Para isso, analisaremos o Guia do corredor, apresentado aos corredores na época. A competição é realizada por meio de uso de aplicativos, mas o atleta é estimulado a correr com o slogan "Não correr nunca foi uma opção". Abordamos os conceitos de necrodemografia e necropolítica. Entende-se que a Maratona do Rio pratica uma espécie de necropolíti-ca ao organizar a competição em pleno período pandêmico do Brasil, apesar de valorizar a paisagem da rua em suas plataformas comunicacionais.

In this article, we will present how the virtual edition of the Rio de Janeiro Marathon took place in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, still without health permits to hold major events. For this, we will analyze the Runner's Guide presented to the runners at the time. The competition is carried out using applications, but the athlete is encouraged to run with the slogan "Not running was never an option". We approach the concepts of necrodemography and necropolitics. It is understood that the Rio Marathon practices a kind of necropolitics when organizing the competition in the middle of the pandemic period in Brazil, despite valuing the street landscape in its communication platforms.

Dans cet article, nous allons vous présenter comment s'est déroulée l'édition virtuelle du Marathon de Rio de Janeiro en 2020, toujours sans autorisations sanitaires pour les grands événements. Pour cela, nous analyserons le Guide du marathonien, présenté aux marathoniens à l'époque. La compétition se déroule à l'aide d'applications, mais l'athlète est encouragé à courir avec le slogan "Ne pas courir n'a jamais été une option". Nous abordons les concepts de nécrodémographie et de nécropolitique. Il est entendu que le Marathon de Rio pratique une sorte de nécropolitique en organisant la compétition en pleine pandémie au Brésil, malgré la valorisation du paysage de rue dans ses plateformes de communication.

Cuerpo y narrativas: escenas sociodramáticas desde la cotidianidad necropolítica mexicana / Corpo e narrativas: cenas sociodramáticas da vida cotidiana necropolítica mexicana / Body and narratives: sociodramatic scenes from mexican necropolitical everyday life

RESUMEN Este trabajo intenta responder a la pregunta: "¿Cuáles cuestiones de nuestros países atraviesan a nuestras instituciones?", que fue el título de una de las mesas del 14 Congreso Iberoamericano de Psicodrama celebrado en Florianópolis, Brasil en septiembre del 2023. El objetivo es dar una mirada macro del contexto mexicano desde los lentes de la necropolítica para aterrizar en la experiencia sociodramática del Microlaboratorio de escenarios de justicia social en Nuevo León, un proyecto transdisciplinario cuyo propósito estuvo centrado en imaginar escenarios futuros sobre justicia social, realizado entre marzo y junio del 2023 en la ciudad de Monterrey, Nuevo Léon, México.

RESUMO Este artigo tenta responder à pergunta: "Que questões de nossos países atravessam nossas instituições?", que foi o título de uma das mesas do 14º Congresso Ibero-Americano de Psicodrama realizado em Florianópolis, Brasil, em setembro de 2023. O objetivo é lançar um olhar macro sobre o contexto mexicano por meio das lentes da necropolítica para aterrissar na experiência sociodramática do Microlaboratorio de escenarios de justicia social en Nuevo León, um projeto transdisciplinar cujo objetivo se concentrou em imaginar cenários futuros sobre justiça social, realizado entre março e junho de 2023 na cidade de Monterrey, Nuevo León, México.

ABSTRACT This work attempts to answer the question: "What issues in our countries affect our institutions?", which was the title of one of the tables at the 14 Ibero-American Congress of Psychodrama held in Florianópolis, Brazil in September 2023. The objective is to give a macro view at the Mexican context from the lenses of necropolitics to land on the sociodramatic experience of the Microlaboratory of social justice scenarios in Nuevo León, a transdisciplinary project whose purpose was focused on imagining future scenarios on social justice that was carried out between March and June 2023 in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Léon, Mexico.

A Colonização da Adolescência e sua Subversão pela Psicanálise / The Colonization of Adolescence and its Subversion by Psychoanalysis / La Colonización de la Adolescencia y su Subversión por el Psicoanálisis

O presente artigo possui o objetivo de, a partir de uma investigação teórica de textos sociais e psicanalíticos, analisar como a adolescência aparece, na modernidade, como um privilegiado produto político da colonização. Associamos à emergência dessa idade da vida, a biopolítica e a necropolítica, sendo a primeira um conceito de Michel Foucault e a segunda, de Achille Mbembe. Igualmente, analisamos como que o significante "adolescência" é interceptado por diferentes significados violentos, os quais deslocam-se inversamente e abaixo da cadeia de significantes, e que aprisionam os adolescentes em sentidos colonizadores, impondo-lhes um processo de destituição subjetiva. Recorremos às contribuições de Glória Anzaldúa e do psicanalista Jacques Lacan, para indicar uma outra identidade adolescente possível a qual prima pela proposição de novos significados e pelo deslocamento metonímico do significante, opondo-se àquela forjada pela colonização. Assim, indicamos como que a Psicanálise pode ser uma opção viável para a subversão da colonização da adolescência, privilegiando o sujeito e o desejo.

This article aims, from a theoretical investigation of social and psychoanalytical texts, to analyze how adolescence appears, in modernity, as a privileged political product of colonization. We associate biopolitics and necropolitics to the emergence of that age of life, the first being a concept by Michel Foucault and the second by Achille Mbembe. Likewise, we analyze how the signifier "adolescence" is intercepted by different violent signifieds, which move inversely and down the chain of signifiers, and which imprison adolescents in colonizing senses, imposing a process of subjective destitution on them. We resorted to the contributions of Glória Anzaldúa and the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, to indicate another possible adolescent identity which excels in proposing new signifieds and in the metonymic displacement of the signifier, opposing the identities forged by colonization. Thus, we indicate how Psychoanalysis can be a viable option for the subversion of the colonization of adolescence, privileging the subject and desire.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo, a partir de una investigación teórica de textos sociales y psicoanalíticos, analizar cómo la adolescencia aparece, en la modernidad, como un producto político privilegiado de la colonización. Asociamos la biopolítica y la necropolítica al surgimiento de esa edad de la vida, siendo la primera un concepto de Michel Foucault y la segunda de Achille Mbembe. Asimismo, analizamos cómo el significante "adolescencia" es interceptado por diferentes significados violentos, que se mueven en sentido inverso y descendente en la cadena de los significantes, y que aprisionan a los adolescentes en sentidos colonizadores, imponiéndoles un proceso de destitución subjetiva. Recurrimos a los aportes de Glória Anzaldúa y del psicoanalista Jacques Lacan, para señalar otra posible identidad adolescente que sobresale en la propuesta de nuevos significados y en el desplazamiento metonímico del significante, contraponiéndose a las identidades forjadas por la colonización. Así, indicamos cómo el Psicoanálisis puede ser una opción viable para la subversión de la colonización de la adolescencia, privilegiando el sujeto y el deseo.

Reflexões Sobre o Corpo Estranho e a Política de Morte na Terra Indígena Yanomami / Reflections on the Foreign Body and the Politics of Death on the Yanomami Indigenous Land Yanomami / Reflexiones Sobre el Cuerpo Extraño y las Políticas de la Muerte en la Tierra Indígena Yanomami

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a relação entre os conceitos de necropolítica, proposto por Achille Mbembe, e de unheimlich, desenvolvido por Sigmund Freud. Por meio dessa possibilidade de intersecção, coloca-se em análise a situação enfrentada pelos Yanomami no norte do Brasil, na qual diversos indígenas tiveram suas terras invadidas e seus direitos violados, levando-os a uma grave crise sanitária. A presença de uma lógica de gestão necropolítica, na qual corpos que não interessam ao Estado são deixados à margem, coloca em risco populações que não são incluídas no discurso hegemônico neoliberal. No encontro deste discurso com o estranho, pode-se inferir que é produzida uma experiência unheimlich, um deparar-se com o que há de mais incômodo e ao mesmo tempo familiar à sociedade. Reconhecer-se na diferença que há no outro cria um escape pela via da eliminação, faz-se desse corpo o inimigo e, assim, cria-se o respaldo para tirá-lo de cena. Desse modo, esta investigação destaca a necessidade de repensarmos as vias existentes para lidar com a diferença, isto porque, construir uma sociedade em detrimento de determinados grupos que a compõem é destruir também a si mesma.

This article aims to analyze the relationship between the concepts of necropolitics, proposed by Achille Mbembe, and unheimlich, developed by Sigmund Freud. Through this possibility of intersection, the situation faced by the Yanomami in northern Brazil can be analyzed, in which several indigenous people had their lands invaded and their rights violated, leading them to a serious health crisis. The presence of a necropolitical management logic, in which bodies that are not of interest to the State are left on the sidelines, puts populations that are not included in the hegemonic neoliberal discourse at risk. In the encounter between this discourse and the stranger, it can be inferred that an unheimlich experience is produced, an encounter with what is most uncomfortable and at the same time familiar to society. Recognizing oneself in the difference that exists in the other creates an escape through elimination, this body is made the enemy and, thus, the support is created to remove it from the scene. Furthermore, this investigation highlights the need to rethink existing ways of dealing with difference, because building a society to the detriment of certain groups that compose it is also destroying itself.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la relación entre los conceptos de necropolítica, propuesto por Achille Mbembe, y unheimlich, desarrollado por Sigmund Freud. A través de esta posibilidad de cruce, es un ejemplo la situación que enfrentan los yanomami en el norte de Brasil, en la que varios indígenas vieron sus tierras invadidas y violados sus derechos, llevándolos a una grave crisis de salud. La presencia de una lógica de gestión necropolítica, en la que se dejan al margen cuerpos que no interesan al Estado, pone en riesgo a poblaciones que no están incluidas en el discurso neoliberal hegemónico. En el encuentro de este discurso con el extraño se puede inferir que se produce una experiencia unheimlich, un encuentro con lo más incómodo ya la vez familiar para la sociedad. Reconocerse en la diferencia que existe en el otro crea una evasión por eliminación, se hace de este cuerpo el enemigo y, así, se crea el soporte para sacarlo de escena. Así, esta investigación destaca la necesidad de repensar las formas existentes de enfrentar la diferencia, porque construir una sociedad en detrimento de ciertos grupos que la componen es también destruirse a sí misma.

"Kita habis we will be gone": The politics of population, family planning and racialization in West Papua.

In the context of a steadily decreasing Indigenous population, active military occupation, and a documented history of human rights abuses perpetrated by Indonesian state security forces, Black Indigenous Papuans have uttered phrases like extinction, and we will be gone in public and private spaces. These utterances often follow an indictment of Indonesia's national family planning program as a key node of state apparatuses of domination and, by extension, genocide. Amid Indonesia's global health success story of a historically lauded national family planning model, I examine the emergence of a local pronatalist program in which health workers are both providers and deniers of access to birth control. Through highlighting this story of Indigenous refusal and racial survival in the terrain of women's reproduction the stakes of a necropolitical environment marked by occupation, population control, and fears of genocide are brought into high relief.

Subjetivar-se em situação de violência: a violência de estado e a criminalidade na vida dos adolescentes da periferia autores de atos infracionais / Becoming subjects in a context of violence: state violence and criminality in the lives of adolescent offenders from the periphery / Subjetivación en situación de violencia: la violencia del estado y la criminalidad en la vida de los adolescentes de la periferia autores de actos infraccionales

Na pesquisa em questão, relaciona-se a violência de Estado com a criminalidade na vida dos adolescentes da periferia autores de atos infracionais, partindo do viés da Psicologia Social. Abordando a historicidade das violências estruturais no Brasil, enquanto configuração de um Estado democrático de exceção permanente - pela implementação de um projeto necropolítico -, o trabalho baseou-se em quatro eixos teóricos principais: a violência de Estado, a necropolítica, o racismo estrutural e os adolescentes autores de atos infracionais. Para pensar os efeitos psicossociais da segregação, da violência, do racismo e da criminalização da pobreza na construção da subjetividade dos adolescentes autores de atos infracionais, o trabalho teve como método a análise do livro "Memórias de um Sobrevivente", de Luiz Alberto Mendes. As discussões abrangem o crime enquanto status e visibilidade; as análises de uma vida imersa em violência generalizada; e as torturas policiais em relação com a violência por vingança. Conclui-se que os estigmas aprisionam o sujeito em crenças de que ele só tem capacidade de ser o "marginal esperado", quem reage violentamente como efeito psicossocial de uma violência estrutural que produz sujeitos agressivos. Assim, a criação de novas práticas de atuação em psicologia nas situações sociais críticas se faz imprescindível e urgente. (AU)

In the research at hand, we explore the relationship between State violence and criminality in the lives of adolescents residing in marginalized commu-nities who have committed delinquent acts, from the perspective of Social Psychology. Addressing the historical context of structural violence in Brazil as a manifestation of a democratic state of permanent exception - through the implementation of a necropolitical agenda - this study is founded on four primary theoretical pillars: State violence, necropolitics, structural racism, and adolescent offenders. To contemplate the psychosocial repercussions of segregation, violence, racism, and the criminalization of poverty in the formation of the subjectivity of adolescent delinquents, this work employs the analysis of the book "Memórias de um Sobrevivente" by Luiz Alberto Mendes as its methodology. Discussions encompass the concept of crime as a social status and its visibility; analyses of a life deeply entrenched in pervasive violence; and police brutality within the context of retaliatory violence. Our conclusion asserts that the societal stigmas ensnare these adolescents, confining them to the belief that they are destined to be the "expected delinquent," predisposed to react violently as a psychosocial response to the structural violence that fosters aggressive behaviors. Consequently, the development of novel psychological interventions in critical social contexts is both imperative and urgent. (AU)

En la investigación en cuestión, la violencia estatal está relacionada con la criminalidad en la vida de los adolescentes de la periferia que cometieron delitos, por la perspectiva de la Psicología Social. Abordando la historicidad de la violencia estructural, en Brasil, como una configuración de un estado democrático de excepción permanente - a través de la implementación de un proyecto necropolítico. El trabajo se basó en cuatro ejes teóricos: la violencia de Estado, necropolítica, racismo estructural y adolescentes autores de actos infraccionales. Para reflexionar sobre los efectos psicosociales de la segregación, violencia, racismo y criminalización de la pobreza en la construcción de la subjetividad de los adolescentes en conflicto con la ley, fue utilizado el análisis del libro "Memórias de um Sobrevivente", de Luiz Alberto Mendes. Los debates abarcan el crimen como estatus y visibilidad; análisis de una vida inmersa en la violencia generalizada; y tortura policial en relación con la violencia por venganza. Se concluye que los estigmas aprisionan al sujeto en creencias de que solo tiene la capacidad de ser el "marginal esperado", que reacciona violentamente como efecto psicosocial de una violencia estructural que produce sujetos agresivos. Así, la creación de nuevas prácticas en psicología en situaciones sociales críticas es fundamental y urgente. (AU)

Who works on the 'frontline'? comparing constructions of 'frontline' work before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article provides a comparative analysis of how frontline workers were constructed by the UK media prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Both the News on the Web Corpus and the Coronavirus Corpus, as monitor corpora of web-based new articles, were utilised to identify changes in both the frequency and use of the word front*line from 2010 to 2021. Findings show that, following the outbreak of COVID-19, constructions of frontline work were more frequently associated with medical professions and became more figurative in nature. Our findings provide a counterpoint to claims that the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increased awareness of the critical nature of many types of 'low-skilled' work not previously recognised as essential. The study also extends previous research which has traced changes in language and its deployment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vulnerability, neglect, and collectivity in Brazilian favelas: Surviving the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic and the state's necropolitics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened existing inequities and injustices in Brazil, seen in the disproportionately detrimental impacts on favelas. State policy responses to the pandemic have disregarded favela residents' experiences. Recommendations such as 'shelter-in-place' ignore the reality of over 11.4 million favela residents who cannot work from home or afford to stop working, nor practise physical distancing from others. This study investigates the discourse of community organisations in favelas as they respond to the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic and the state's necropolitics. Community organisations in favelas have taken action to protect their residents from the virus, unemployment and hunger. I assess organisations' (1) justification to act as a collective in their communities, and (2) stances about the government's responses to the crisis. Through content analysis of social media, websites and media appearances of eight favela organisations and collectives in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, this study finds three main themes through which organisations justify their actions: vulnerability, neglect, and collectivity and care. More than survival strategies, the actions of favela organisations are counter-political acts as they oppose the decrepit necropolitics of the state by collectively enduring in the Brazilian context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding favela organisations' actions in response to the pandemic is fundamental. It further illuminates the impact of public health emergencies in the lives of informal settlements' residents and the governance of public health emergencies in these communities.

"A million other factors killing us": Black women's health and refusing necropolitics-as-usual during COVID-19.

Ongoing social, economic, and political marginalization combined with racialized gender violence has sentenced Black women in the United States to disproportionate harm in the form of premature illness and death. Despite widespread recognition within the medical social sciences, public health, and social work of the health inequities that unevenly impact Black women, as a population, their suffering continues to be overlooked and marginalized in biomedical research, healthcare institutions, and health policy. This omission contributes to the naturalization and normalization of heightened morbidity and mortality of Black women. In this article, we draw from theory on necropolitics, misogynoir, and Black ecologies of care in analyzing findings from semi-structured interviews conducted between February and June 2021 with African American women (n = 16) who were experiencing a chronic health condition or caring for someone with a chronic health condition in Tucson, Arizona. Interviews explored women's healthcare-seeking behaviors, experiences with healthcare providers, and self-care and caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest that necropolitical logics in the form of naturalization and normalization of Black women's suffering - and of the structures that render such suffering - permeated but did not entirely define women's experiences of the pandemic, including how they navigated biomedical spaces and negotiated interactions with healthcare providers, engaged in practices of care (including self-care), and perceived and made meaning of their own health statuses. We advance a Black ecologies of care framework: (1) to make visible and hold accountable necropolitical structures in tabulations of morbidity and mortality; and (2), despite the myriad harms represented in logics of necropolitics-as-usual, to foreground the life-affirming practices by women that persist nevertheless.

Nursing in deathworlds: Necropolitics of the life, dying and death of an unhoused person in the United States healthcare industrial complex.

This paper begins with the lived accounts of emergency and critical care medical interventions in which an unhoused person is brought to the emergency department in cardiac arrest. The case is a dramatised representation of the extent to which biopolitical forces via reduction to bare life through biopolitical and necropolitical operations are prominent influences in nursing and medical care. This paper draws on the scholarship of Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Achille Mbembe to offer a theoretical analysis of the power dynamics that influence the health care and death care of patients who are caught in the auspices of a neoliberal capitalist healthcare apparatus. This paper offers analysis of the overt displays of biopower over those individuals cast aside as generally unworthy of access to healthcare in a postcolonial capitalist system, in addition to the ways in which humans are reduced to 'bare life' in their dying days. We analyse this case study through Agamben's description of thanatopolitics, a 'regime of death', and the technologies that accompany the dying process, particularly in that of the homo sacer. Additionally, this paper illustrates the ways in which necropolitics and biopower are integral to understanding how the most advanced and expensive medical interventions make visible the political values of the healthcare system and how nurses and healthcare functions in these deathworlds. The purpose of this paper is to develop a greater understanding of biopolitical and necropolitical operations in acute and critical care environments, and to offer guidance to nurses in these spaces as they work to uphold ethical duties in a system that increasingly dehumanises.

Necroadministración y juventudes: aniquilamiento penitenciario documentado por medios hemerográficos en El Salvador

(analítico) Los ejercicios de la violencia institucional en El Salvador se han hecho tácitos desde los aniquilamientos, las ejecuciones, los encierros y persecución de jóvenes adscritos a grupos identitarios como la mara Salvatrucha y la pandilla Barrio 18; no obstante, su muestra más cruda se ha dado en los espacios penitenciarios en donde la necro-administración se emplea bajo todos los mecanismos institucionales. Así, con el fin de dilucidar su continuum en la consolidación de las políticas de exterminio institucional y legitimadas por el Estado punitivo, se realizó una revisión documental de las notas periodísticas respecto al estado de excepción y agravamiento de las violaciones a los derechos humanos en las cárceles de El Salvador, articulando este esfuerzo con categorías como necropolíticas, olvido-abandono social y festival de las violencias.

(analytical) Acts of institutional violence in El Salvador have involved annihilations, executions, confinements and precarization of the lives of young people who identify as members of groups such as the Mara Salvatrucha and the Barrio 18 gang. However, the crudest examples of this state-sponsored violence have occurred in penitentiary spaces where the so-called necroadministration approach is used in all institutional mechanisms. with the goal of elucidating its continuum in the consolidation of necropolicies by the State, we carry out a documentary review of mediate coverage regarding the declaration of the State of Exception and aggravation of human rights violations in prisons in El Salvador. The analysis of these media reports is articulated with categories including necropolitics, social oblivionabandonment and festival of violence.

(analítico) Os exercícios de violência institucional em El Salvador tornaram-se tácitos através de aniquilações, execuções, prisões e precariedade das vidas de jovens pertencentes a grupos de identidade como a Mara Salvatrucha e o Bairro 18 gangue; contudo, o seu exemplo mais grosseiro tem sido nas prisões, onde a chamada necroadministration é utilizada sob todos os mecanismos institucionais. Assim, a fim de elucidar a sua continuidade na consolidação da política de morte pelo Estado, estamos a preparar uma revisão documental de artigos jornalísticos sobre o estado de excepção e o agravamento das violações dos direitos humanos nas prisões de El Salvador, articulando este esforço com categorias como a necropolítica, o esquecimento-abandono social e o festival da violência.

Necropolitics as accumulation: Enforcement and enclosure in Brisbane during COVID-19.

This article explores the uneven impacts that Indigenous and detained migrant populations have endured in Australia in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia has one of the most restrictive immigration enforcement systems in the world. Along with imposing practices of mandatory detention in rural and remote regions, the Australian government finances the carceral systems of nearby countries and island nations. These logics of enforcement are embedded within histories and techniques of Indigenous quarantine, incarceration, and colonial erasure. Following Achille Mbembe (2019), I advance a theoretical framework of 'necropolitics as accumulation.' I argue that rather than disposable or 'wasted' populations, those subject to slow violence are within heightened circuits of accumulation. I draw on long-term ethnographic research in Brisbane to emphasize the intensification of governing measures that not only inflict slow death but also make a profit from capitalizing on it. People are kept alive through precarious visa statuses and in prisons, detention centers, camps, remote communities, reserves, and other institutional facilities in relation to their utility for capital, even as death in such spaces is inescapable. In focusing on racial capitalism, I center the differential experiences of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from COVID-19 in long-standing histories of capitalist exploitation. By attending to the cross-cutting ways in which people are prevented from participating in society, made plain in the pandemic, I call for intersectional advocacy that works towards collective flourishing.

"Letting die" by design: Asylum seekers' lived experience of postcolonial necropolitics.

Although the United States has been a nation of immigrants since its founding, the massive number of asylum seekers arriving at the US-Mexico Border is a relatively new phenomenon that requires attention and study. This paper describes the lived experience of three asylum seekers, demonstrating how physical and mental health are structured by US policies and politics. The in-depth accounts are informed by participant observation and policy analysis of humanitarian, non-governmental organizations advocating for asylum seekers. We focus on health and geographical trajectories using the triple trauma paradigm that includes trauma in the country of origin, trauma incurred during transit/flight, and the trauma of arrival and relocation/resettlement in the host country. We suggest that a form of necropower, understood as processes exacerbating the potentiality for death, is embedded in the structure of the US asylum apparatus.

COVID19 in Latin America: informal settlements and the politics of urbicide.

Informal settlements in Latin America express pandemic idiosyncrasies, calling global attention to historical problems related to a specific urbanization pattern. This article stresses COVID19 implications in the main urban planning canon: the notion of densification as an urban solution. Traditionally invisible social groups and territories acquire relevance, but now as a source of biological risk. Urban density appears as a contradictory trigger point, outlining new debates about informal settlements and their metrics. Evidence shows that trends in health discourse are striving to legitimize and enhance "urbicides" in this scenario, already underway through State action or inaction.

Unexpected Intimacies: Exploring Sasso Relationality in Postcolonial Ghana.

In this article, I explore what I term Sasso relationality-a framework for making sense of the untenable space where heteropatriarchal intimate commitments randomly fail to reproduce its normative mandates on the body. By exploring Sasso worldmaking in the postcolonial context of Ghana, I use autoethnographic narratives to closely examine the modes of relating that allows for spontaneous desires and pleasures to occur in particular spaces conditioned by heteronormativity. In doing so, I argue that Sasso relationality blurs the rigid boundaries that tend to separate normativity and nonnormativity in how we theorize queer relationalities. Thus, I conclude that explorations of Sasso relationality allow queer scholars to challenge Western normativities around sexuality by contesting what constitutes queerness in the Ghanaian cultural context.

Crisis politics of dehumanisation during COVID-19: A framework for mapping the social processes through which dehumanisation undermines human dignity.

The COVID-19 global pandemic is understood to be a multidimensional crisis, and yet undertheorised is how it reinforced the politics of dehumanisation. This article proposes an original framework that explains how dehumanisation undermines the human dignity of individuals with minoritised socio-economic identities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework identifies four interrelated mechanisms of crisis-driven dehumanisation: threat construction, expanded state coercion, reinforcement of hierarchies, and normalisation of deaths. The article argues that an understanding of these mechanisms is crucial for capturing the complexity of human rights deterioration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article uses the plausibility probe method to demonstrate macro-processes of dehumanisation, with illustrative empirical examples from diverse societies during COVID-19. It proposes a framework for understanding these dehumanisation processes that can apply to other transnational crises.

Necropolítica algorítmica / Necropolítica algorítmica / Algorithmic Necropolitics

Resumen Este capítulo del libro Racismo algorítmico: inteligência artificial e discriminação nas redes digitais (Racismo algorítmico: inteligencia artificial y discriminación en redes digitales), publicado por el autor en 2022, demuestra el racismo codificado en la inteligencia artificial. Aborda la violencia material y simbólica, a menudo letal, infligida a personas y poblaciones negras y pobres mediante el despliegue de sistemas predictivos construidos y retroalimentados a partir de conjuntos de datos que reflejan una historia de explotación y segregación. Comienza con un panorama histórico de la normalización de la hipervigilancia y el control violento sobre poblaciones racializadas en Estados Unidos y Brasil. Luego muestra la continuidad de ese control por parte de los sistemas de clasificación algorítmicos contemporáneos, como el reconocimiento facial, la vigilancia predictiva y las puntuaciones de riesgo en seguridad y salud. Alineados con las narrativas oficiales de armonía racial y la justificación meritocrática de la política daltónica, sus desarrolladores, las empresas privadas e instituciones públicas que los emplean los consideran neutrales e ignoran insidiosamente sus prejuicios.

Resumo Este capítulo do livro Racismo algorítmico: inteligência artificial e discriminação nas redes digitalis, publicado pelo autor em 2022, demonstra o racismo codificado na inteligência artificial. Aborda a violência material e simbólica, muitas vezes letal, infligida a indivíduos e populações negras e pobres, através da implementação de sistemas preditivos baseados e realimentados a partir de conjuntos de dados que refletem uma história de exploração e segregação. Começa com um panorama histórico da normalização da hipervigilância e do controle violento sobre populações racializadas nos Estados Unidos e no Brasil. Em seguida, mostra a continuidade desse controle por sistemas contemporâneos de classificação algorítmica, como o reconhecimento facial, a vigilância preditiva e as escalas de risco em segurança e saúde. Alinhados com narrativas oficiais de harmonia racial e com a justificativa meritocrática da política daltônica, seus desenvolvedores, as empresas privadas e as instituições públicas que os empregam, consideram-nos neutros e ignoram insidiosamente os seus preconceitos.

Abstract This chapter of the author's 2022 book Racismo algorítmico: inteligência artificial e discriminação nas redes digitais (Algorithmic racism: artificial intelligence and discrimination in digital networks) demonstrates the racism encoded in artificial intelligence. It addresses the material and symbolic, often lethal, violence inflicted upon Black and poor individuals and populations by the deployment of predictive systems built and backfed from datasets that reflect a history of exploitation and segregation. It begins with a historical overview of the normalisation of hypervigilance and violent control over racialized populations in the United States and in Brazil. It then shows the continuity of that control by contemporary algorithmic classification systems such as facial recognition, predictive policing, and health and security risk scores. Aligned with official narratives of racial harmony and the meritocratic justification of colour-blind policy, they are deemed neutral by their developers, private enterprises and the public institutions that employ them, who insidiously ignore their bias.

Determinação social da hanseníase e o racismo brasileiro / Social determination of leprosy and Brazilian racism

A hanseníase permanece sendo um problema de saúde pública e com alta taxa de transmissibilidade e incidência em países de baixa e média renda, tornando-os endêmicos. Por serem poucos os estudos sobre a epidemiologia, ainda há grande dificuldade na intervenção e definição dos grupos alvo da doença, assim, aprofundar sobre se mostra importante para o combatê-la. O Brasil é o segundo maior país com números de casos de hanseníase, ficando atrás apenas da Índia, por isso, estudos no país são cruciais. A partir de uma revisão narrativa, foi investigado o perfil epidemiológico da hanseníase no Brasil e a sua relação com a desigualdade social. Partindo disso, foram relacionados dados sobre a vulnerabilidade social de pessoas negras no Brasil e o fato disto coincidir com os dados epidemiológicos de risco de hanseníase no país. Para isso, utilizou-se como orientação deste trabalho, os conceitos de determinação social da saúde e racismo estrutural. Por fim, a partir do conceito de necropolítica, a revisão relacionou esses dados coincidentes intencionando discutir se a hanseníase é uma doença negligenciada ou são as pessoas acometidas os negligenciados. As conclusões foram que há possibilidade de conexão entre os dados da epidemiologia da hanseníase no Brasil e a desigualdade social e racial do país; que o conceito de necropolítica é válido e possibilita um aprofundamento na discussão sobre hanseníase e negligência; e que é importante que hajam medidas de reparação histórica quando falamos de desigualdade racial, como a busca por um cenário político mais equitativo

Leprosy remains a public health problem and with a high rate of transmissibility and incidence in low- and middle-income countries, making them endemic. Because there are few studies on epidemiology, there is still great difficulty in intervening and defining the target groups of the disease, thus, going deeper into it is important to combat it. Brazil is the second largest country with numbers of leprosy cases, second only to India, therefore, studies in the country are crucial. Based on a narrative review, the epidemiological profile of leprosy in Brazil and its relationship with social inequality were investigated. Based on this, data on the social vulnerability of black people in Brazil were related and the fact that this coincides with epidemiological data on the risk of leprosy in the country. For this, the concepts of social determination of health and structural racism were used as guidelines for this work. Finally, from the concept of necropolitics, the review related these coincident data intending to discuss whether is leprosy a neglected disease or are the people affected the neglected. The conclusions were that there is a possibility of connection between data on the epidemiology of leprosy in Brazil and the country's social and racial inequality; that the concept of necropolitics is valid and allows for a deeper discussion on leprosy and neglect; and that it is important that there are historical reparation measures when we talk about racial inequality as the search for a more equitable political scenario