Immunity and SymBiopolitics

Abstract

The notion of immunity, as it was defined in biology in the middle of the 20th century, draws a boundary between the “self” and the “nonself”. In this respect the notion of immunity is the perfect metaphor for biopolitical government: similar to the immune system, which fights everything that it sees as “nonself”, biopolitical power discriminates against what it sees as “different” or “other”. However, if we examine immunity not as a metaphor but as a phenomenon viewed from the perspective of contemporary biology, we have to admit that immunity comprises not only a defensive reaction toward an external, contagious element, but also a positive reaction or so-called “tolerance”. Thus, the defensive model of immunity should be complemented by a positive one, interpreting immunity as being entangled in its milieu. Alfred I. Tauber suggested that immunity should be seen as an ecological system which not simply reacts toward the external element but opens the negotiations between the “self” and “nonself” within the system. This model of ecological immunology is also a good methodological tool to rethink the notion of biopolitics: instead of seeing biopolitics as the opposition between a sovereign power and an oppressed individual, we can interpret it as a network of sympoietic interactions between individuals, technologies, and nonhuman others.