Dent, C. (2025). Road deaths as problematisation: thanatopolitics and economised thoughts. Griffith Law Review, 1–19.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10383441.2025.2452029
ABSTRACT
The persistence of the road toll suggests that a new perspective may be of value – either to consider new insights to reduce it, or to allow a greater acceptance of the relatively limited number of deaths. The theories of Michel Foucault offer an avenue to both. Applying his version of ‘problematisation’ emphasises the fact that the key driver for the regulation of road behaviour is economic – allowing the efficient transit of individuals and goods from one place to another – rather than safety. This view suggests that his understanding of ‘thanatopolitics’ applies; in that a number of deaths are ‘allowed’ to happen in order for the rest of the ‘population’ to live (better). Conversely, Foucault’s deployment of internalised ‘norms’ as the dominant form of self-regulation raises the possibility that the internalised lives of road users, their thoughts, are similarly driven by their economic (and social) relationships. These offer distractions that impact on their engagement with the road and their risk assessment decisions. The inability of the State to discipline thoughts, as a result, limits its capacity to reduce the road toll.
KEYWORDS:
Road rules Foucault problematisation thanatopolitics thought as practice
Foucault News 