Political Bodies

The term POLITICAL BODIES describes how power shapes, standardizes and controls bodies. Philosophical concepts developed by Thomas Hobbes, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler and Achille Mbembe show how strongly bodies are influenced by society.

Philosopher Jule Govrin provides an overview of these ways of thinking and analyzes how social inequality is politically generated as structural vulnerability. She contrasts this with a fundamental, universal vulnerability – as a common condition of human existence and starting point for a politics of care and solidarity. In the field of tension between the concept of the subject, biopolitics, capitalism and the coronavirus pandemic, she develops a practice that aims at equality through the recognition of difference – thus opening up new paths to solidarity and coexistence.

Jule Govrin is a political philosopher and conducts research at the intersection of feminist philosophy, political theory, social philosophy and aesthetics. Matthes & Seitz Berlin published her book ‘Politische Körper. Von Sorge und Solidarität’ (Political Bodies: On Care and Solidarity) in 2022. Her latest book, ‘Universalismus von unten. Eine Theorie radikaler Gleichheit’ (Universalism from Below: A Theory of Radical Equality), was published by Suhrkamp in 2025.