“Energopower: An Introduction”

This special collection of AQ aims to spark new ways of thinking about formations
and operations of modern power. Specifically, the articles explore how energic forces and
infrastructures interrelate with institutions and ideations of political power. In the hope of
fanning sparks into flames, we juxtapose this process of exploration with the influential
paradigm of “biopower” developed by Michel Foucault. All of the essays explore how
modalities of “biopower” (the management of life and population) today depend in crucial
respects upon modalities of energopower (the harnessing of electricity and fuel) and vice‐
versa. We emphasize especially the critical importance of exploring the juncture of
biopower and energopower in the context of the rising importance of scientific and
political discourse on anthropogenic climate change. As human use of energy is
increasingly linked to the disruption and destruction of conditions of life (human and
otherwise), the tensions between dominant energopolitical systems (like carbon fuel) and
biopolitical projects (like sustainability) are increasingly evident, opening new possibilities
of anthropological analysis. Both energopower and biopower, we conclude, are entering
into a pivotal transitional phase.