Global Health Crises, Biopolitics, and Mechanisms of Social Control

Global health crises have profoundly reshaped contemporary governance, public life, and mechanisms of social control. The recent pandemic experience demonstrated how states, institutions, and international organizations regulate populations through health surveillance, emergency legislation, mobility restrictions, vaccination policies, and digital monitoring systems. While such interventions are often justified in the name of collective safety and public welfare, they also raise critical questions concerning individual freedoms, state authority, inequality, and the politics of control. This session seeks to critically examine the relationship between health crises, biopolitics, and governance in turbulent times. It invites contributions exploring public health surveillance, biosecurity, digital health technologies, quarantine practices, vaccine politics, healthcare inequalities, stigma, and the regulation of bodies and populations. The session also encourages interdisciplinary perspectives on resistance, public trust, misinformation, and the socio-political implications of emergency governance. Particular attention will be given to how vulnerable communities experience disproportionate forms of control and exclusion during health crises. By engaging with sociological, political, legal, and ethical perspectives, this session aims to foster critical discussions on the changing dynamics of governance, citizenship, and social regulation in contemporary global society.