Biopolitical governance in the COVID-19 era: the biopolitics of bare life in services for older people

Abstract

Drawing on the concepts of biopolitical governance and bare life, this article argues that, from the perspective of health and social care professionals in Finland, the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced biopolitical governance in services for older people, exposing clients to conditions that compromised their social inclusion and legal protection. Using qualitative content analysis of open-ended survey responses from health and social care professionals, as well as focus group interviews with social workers, the study interprets professional experiences of care under pandemic governance. The findings reveal that pandemic measures, though intended to safeguard life, often produced coerced isolation and social exclusion. While professionals were largely critical of these governance practices, they reported limited capacity to resist or reshape them.