Life Itself in Theory and Practice

This network was funded from 2018 to 2020.

‘Life Itself in Theory and Practice’ was an interdisciplinary network whose aim was to explore the contemporary resonances of the concept of “life” in both philosophical, theoretical, and cultural discourses and the concrete practices of scientific research. Founded in 2018, the network was animated by the urgent recognition that life is now, more than ever, an object of scientific, political, and economic control: the appearance of such terms as “biopower”, “biopolitics”, “biovalue”, and “bioeconomics” since the late 20^th century gives some clue as to the increased commodification of life and its mobility through globalised markets and institutions. At the same time, a recent critical-philosophical return to questions of vitalism is challenging the neoliberal-capitalistic paradigm of biopolitics to assert the exuberant creativity of life in a materialist context.

Buoyed by these diverging currents, the intellectual work undertaken by the ‘Life Itself in Theory and Practice’ was guided by key questions: What are the stakes of life in the 21^st century? Who has the authority to delineate the boundaries of life? How is life distinguished from non-life? And how might we conceive of life as something radically distinct from the idea of the human? Bringing together researchers from across the sciences and humanities, ‘Life Itself in Theory and Practice’ challenged and problematised the increasingly entangled relationship between art, thought, and culture and developments in genetics, biotechnology, and information technology.

Alongside a series of seminars and talks throughout the 2018-19 academic year, the network also maintained a blog on the TORCH website. 

Convenors:

Sam Gormley

Madeleine Chalmers

Tara Lee

Yaron Wolf