Bio-Politics and Calculative Technologies in COVID-19 Governance: Reflections From England

Abstract

Background: Through the extensive use of public media, the government of England was heavily involved in encouraging and instructing people on how to manage their life during COVID-19. This model of health emergency governance replicates the practice of ‘calculative technologies’ and ‘bio-politics’ embedded in population management. Previous research on COVID-19 governance both in the UK and beyond provides varied revelations on broader ‘technologies of government’ and bio-politics by numerous governments. However, rarely have any studies explicitly and distinctively highlighted the unique ‘calculative technologies" mobilised by governments within their bio-politically designed "technologies of government" to compel the populations to manage their lives under their COVID guidance. The paper therefor examines how the UK government deployed "calculative technologies", as part of its strategies of health governance and governmentality during the first wave of COVID-19 in England. Methods: This study uses document analysis as its data collection method. Its review includes documents, press releases, social media disclosures and health guidance issued by the UK government from March to December, 2020. The data are analysed employing the Foucault’s governmentality and bio-political scholarship. Results: The paper’s findings reveal the UK government’s use of integrated calculative technologies of self-governance in the form of risk calculations and metrices/statistics (e.g. death tolls, infection rates), performance management (e.g. two metre social distancing, and hand washing for twenty seconds) and discipline and control (e.g. fourteen days self-isolation), in addition to a more conventional top-down, managerial decision-making process adopted in the past. By these newly initiated "calculative technologies", the government has "bio-politically" governed the behaviours and lifestyles of vulnerable community members, health workers and general public at a distance, inculcating self-management and individualisation of responsibility. Conclusions: The newly adopted calculative technologies used by the UK government created a multi-faceted discourse of obligations, entitlements and scale of engagement, and facilitated directions about what people should do to protect themselves and others from the spread of the virus. Overall, the overtly and idiosyncratically used calculative technologies resemble a unique ‘art of government’ and produce a set of ‘bio-political’ interventions enforcing the populations to manage their own wellbeing and governing them at a distance during COVID-19.

Community-led responses to COVID-19 within Gypsy and Traveller communities in England: A participatory qualitative research study

“…The biopolitics of COVID-19 containment approaches ( Jayasinghe et al, 2021 ; Sylvia, 2020 ), which have placed public health responsibility in the individual actions of citizens, contrasted with the broader healthcare neglect, discrimination, poverty and constrained living conditions participants experienced. Disregard of people's voices and health concerns in relation to COVID-19 vaccination were common (Anonymous, unpublished results).…”

“…COVID-19 testing could be seen as part of wider bio-political mechanisms through which governments introduce instruments and codes of practices to govern people's everyday life, making the individual responsible for reducing infection ( Jayasinghe, Jayasinghe, Wijethilake, & Adhikari, 2021 ). In the UK, government rhetoric emphasised individual responsibility and the self-governing efforts of individuals to help mitigate the risks of COVID-19 infection (e.g.…”

“…In the UK, government rhetoric emphasised individual responsibility and the self-governing efforts of individuals to help mitigate the risks of COVID-19 infection (e.g. social distancing, restriction on movements and social gatherings) ( Andreouli & Brice, 2022 ; Jayasinghe et al, 2021 ). UK government messaging framed COVID-19 containment (test, trace, self-isolate) as a person's moral duty to others; a way for “individuals to manage their own risk and the risk to others“ ( UK Government UKHSA, 2021 ).…”

Governance and Public Health Decision-Making During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

“…Whereas, the community level publications examine the mechanism of successful collective action [18] and operationalization of local level institutions [19]. National level publications (n = 8) study the working of the government ranging from examining the whole model of crisis management [20], to specific aspects like administrative conflicts among federal and provincial governments [21]; governmental consideration of "community participation" [22], the process of community-led responses [23] and deployment of "calculative technologies" by governments [24]. Three out of the 14 publications focusing on the process of governance examine the participation of different stakeholders in policy and governance.…”

From ‘if‐then’ to ‘what if?’ Rethinking healthcare algorithmics with posthuman speculative ethics

“…The workings of biopower through contemporary bodily measurement technologies have been documented, for instance, with regard to biometric border technologies (Amoore, 2006; Costanza‐Chock, 2020), self‐tracking and surveillance technologies (Ajana, 2017), as well as app‐based Covid trackers and similar ‘calculative technologies’ (Jayasinghe et al, 2021). This research often draws attention to how biopolitics work through categorisation and capture technologies, which have been increasingly outsourced to algorithmic systems in the last decade.…”