Necropolitics of Death in Neurodegeneration

TL;DR

This paper explores how power dynamics shape research and care for neurodegenerative diseases, emphasizing the role of death and mortality in shaping knowledge.

Contribution

It introduces a novel perspective using necropolitics to examine the coloniality of knowledge in neurodegeneration research.

Findings

Power relations influence research agendas and technologies in neurodegenerative disease care.

Mortality is underrepresented in the current ND research landscape.

A shift toward situated knowledge 'from death' could lead to new approaches in ND research.

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases (ND) pose significant challenges for biomedicine in the twenty-first century, particularly considering the global demographic ageing and the subsequent increase in their prevalence. Characterized as progressive, chronic and debilitating, they often result in higher mortality rates compared with the general population. Research agendas and biomedical technologies are shaped by power relations, ultimately affecting patient wellbeing and care. Drawing on the concepts of bio- and necropolitics, introduced by philosophers Foucault and Mbembe, respectively, this perspective examines the interplay between the territoriality and governmentality around demographic ageing, ND and death, focussing on knowledge production as a dispositif of power by highlighting the marginal role that the phenomenon of mortality plays in the ND research landscape. We propose a shift into acknowledging the coloniality of knowledge and embracing its situatedness to attain knowledge ‘from death’, understood as an epistemic position from which novel approaches and practices could emerge.