Rose, Nikolas S. 1947- (Nikolas Rose)

PERSONAL:

Born 1947. Education: Trained as a biologist and psychologist.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Sociology, London School of Economics, Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE, England. E-mail—n.rose@lse.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Writer, educator, editor, and psychologist. Goldsmiths College, University of London, former professor; London School of Economics, James Martin White Professor of Sociology, BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society, director, 2003—. Economy and Society, managing editor, 1996-2004; History of the Present Research Network, coordinator. Former school instructor for "maladjusted" youths; former director of research for a major child protection charity.

WRITINGS:

Ten Therapeutic Playgroups; a Preliminary Study of the Children Attending and Their Families, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (London, England), 1973.

The Psychological Complex: Psychology, Politics, and Society in England, 1869-1939, Routledge & Kegan Paul (Boston, MA), 1985.

Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self, Routledge (New York, NY), 1990.

Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power, and Personhood, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(As Nikolas Rose) The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-first Century, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2006.

EDITOR

(With Peter Miller) The Power of Psychiatry, Blackwell (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Andrew Barry and Thomas Osborne) Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism, and Rationalities of Government, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1996.

(With Engin F. Isin and Thomas Osborne) Governing Cities: Liberalism, Neoliberalism, Advanced Liberalism, York University Division of Social Science Urban Studies Programme (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

(With Paul Rabinow) The Essential Foucault: Selections from Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, New Press (New York, NY), 2003.

BioSocieties, coeditor. Contributor of numerous articles and chapters to scholarly journals and books.

SIDELIGHTS:

Nikolas S. Rose, the James Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is a British academic and writer, and a prominent sociologist and social theorist. Although originally trained as a biologist, Rose has done much research on the history and sociology of psychology and on the social effects of psychopharmacological and genetic discoveries. As noted in his faculty profile for the London School of Economics and Political Science Web site, Rose focuses his research and writing on "the social and political history of the human sciences, on the genealogy of subjectivity, on the history of empirical thought in sociology, and on changing rationalities and techniques of political power, and he has also published in law and criminology." His widespread publications include edited volumes of French philosopher Michel Foucault's work, and works on personal freedom and the intersection of biomedicine and politics and individual freedom.

In a review of Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism, and Rationalities of Government, edited with Andrew Barry and Thomas Osborne, American Political Science Review contributor Jodi Dean noted, "Anyone interested in Foucault or the extension of Foucauldian methods of analysis will benefit from sustained engagement with this excellent collection of essays on governmentality." In regard to Rose's contribution to the collection, Dean observed that he "carefully explores the techniques of freedom that call for and are entailed in persons becoming aware of and responsible for themselves."

In 2006, Rose wrote The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-first Century. Susan M. Squier, in a review for American Scientist, stated that The Politics of Life Itself is an important book for "those wishing to orient themselves in today's vast landscape of biomedical advances." In the book, Rose "provides a comprehensive description of the latest biological and medical interventions in human life," Squier further noted. Rose developed the concept of "life itself" in a conversation with anthropologist Sarah Franklin, who in turn was inspired by the work of Foucault. With the term "life itself," Rose implies a reevaluation of determining what a human being is and what the limits of human life are in an age in which biomedical interventions are not only possible, but increasingly probable. Rose categorizes five different areas in which humans are prompted with new decisions regarding their health and well-being: molecularization, optimization, subjectification, somatic expertise, and economics of vitality. "These new modes of managing human life on levels from the gene to the population are mapped in the eight chapters of Rose's study," Squier observed. In the course of such questioning, Rose describes various frontiers of genetic medicine, including genetic markers for alcoholism and cancer risk in individuals.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Acta Sociologica, July, 2000, Helen Ilpo, review of Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought, p. 157.

American Political Science Review, March, 1997, Jodi Dean, review of Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism, and Rationalities of Government, p. 164.

American Scientist, July, 2007, Susan M. Squier, review of The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-first Century, p. 370.

Canadian Journal of Law and Society, September 22, 1997, William Walters, review of Foucault and Political Reason, pp. 296-299.

Canadian Journal of Political Science, December, 1996, Eric Darier, review of Foucault and Political Reason, p. 815.

Canadian Journal of Sociology, March 22, 1991, review of Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self, p. 223.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, January, 2000, E.R. Gill, review of Powers of Freedom, p. 1012.

Community Mental Health Journal, October, 1992, Richard U'Ren, review of Governing the Soul, p. 462.

Contemporary Sociology, September, 1997, William G. Staples, review of Foucault and Political Reason, p. 598; May, 1998, Jonathan Simon, review of Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power, and Personhood, p. 267.

Criminal Law Review, August, 1987, review of The Power of Psychiatry, p. 591.

Families in Society, February, 1991, review of Governing the Soul, p. 128.

International Journal of the Sociology of Law, September, 2000, Barry Vaughan, review of Powers of Freedom, pp. 268-270.

Isis, March, 1998, Graham Richards, review of Inventing Our Selves, p. 119.

Journal of Biosocial Science, September, 2007, Jessica Lovaas, review of Powers of Freedom, p. 352.

Journal of Law and Society, June, 2002, Gary Wickham, review of Powers of Freedom, pp. 364-373.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, June, 1998, Paul Heelas, review of Inventing Our Selves, p. 379.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2000, review of Governing the Soul, p. 7; February, 2004, review of Essential Foucault: Selections from Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, p. 4.

Social Forces, March, 1991, review of Governing the Soul, p. 972.

Sociological Review, November, 1990, Christopher Dandeker, review of Governing the Soul, p. 794; August, 1997, Mike Michael, review of Inventing Our Selves, p. 512; November, 1999, Frederic Vandenberghe, review of Powers of Freedom, p. 824.

Sociology, November, 1990, David Armstrong, review of Governing the Soul, p. 746; May 1, 1997, Emmanuelle Tulle-Winton, review of Foucault and Political Reason, p. 365.

Theory, Culture & Society, December, 2001, review of The Politics of Life Itself, p. 1.

ONLINE

Academy for the Study of the Psychoanalytic Arts Web site,http://www.academyanalyticarts.org/ (June 30, 2008), author information.

London School of Economics and Political Science Web site,http://www.lse.ac.uk/ (June 30, 2008), author faculty profile.