From Foucauldian Biopower to Infopower and Energopower: A Review of Colin Koopman's and Dominic Boyer's Novel Conceptualizations of Power

Abstract

In this double review, I compare and contrast two books published in 2019 that explore the energy transition and the digital transformation through a Foucauldian lens. In How we became our data, Colin Koopman traces the origins of today's information society back to its origins a century ago, making the point that we are not just represented, but performatively shaped by our data. Energopolitics by Dominic Boyer explores the power struggles surrounding renewable energy development in Mexico and shows how it is possible to continue the extractive logic of fossil fuels with renewable energy. Both coin neologisms inspired by the Foucauldian term biopower: energopower (Boyer) and infopower (Koopman). These concepts can jointly be applied to shed light on how power inherent to data infrastructures might become the new battlefield of the energy transition.

Keywords

• infopower
• energopower
• biopower
• energy transition
• digitization
• Foucault