School of Sociology and Social Policy

The “Theoretically Perfect Physical Machine”: War, Disablement and the Capitalisation of Masculine Bodies

29 February 2012 | 2.00pm to 4.00pm | Seminar

Beech Grove House

Centre for Disability Studies University of Leeds

Seminar series

Abstract:  

This paper will present an analysis of some of the ways in which different kinds of bodies were classified and managed during WWI and WWII. Technologies of assessment were developed which enabled the transformation of individual capacities and bodies into seemingly universal values. It is proposed that these technologies allowed for populations to be divided into parts which were comparable, accumulable and therefore amenable to circulation through their transformation into values.

This transformation enabled universal comparison and circulation in a similar manner to the circulation of capital. The transformation into quantitative values enabled universal comparison and new ways of understanding the relations between bodies. The capitalisation of bodies developed further through monetary values being applied to specific parts of war disabled bodies. These bodies were fragmented both by injury and systems of economic analysis. The qualities of transcendence, objectivity and immateriality which have been aligned with certain, usually masculine, bodies was thus enabled through the material accumulation of bodies.

This paper will draw on Marx’s analysis of capital, Simmel’s philosophy of money and Foucault’s concept of biopolitics to develop an understanding of the relationship between military modes of physical assessment, war disablement and masculinity.