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Biology and Politics (or Biopolitics) has been a part of the political science firmament since the 1960s. Over time, it has become less an odd outlier in the discipline and more a tolerated (and sometimes respected) part of the enterprise. After about 50 years of existence, this is a proper time to reflect on where biopolitics has been, where it is now, and where it might go as an academic endeavor. Indeed, some have said that the best step would for biopolitics to no longer be seen as a special, narrow part of political science – but a part of every field in the discipline, integrated into the larger world of the study of politics.

In 2013, the television programme Hannibal debuted on television. Taking characters and narrative from three novels by Thomas Harris (Red Dragon (1981), Silence of the Lambs (1989) and Hannibal (1999)) over three seasons, the audience got to spend time with Dr Hannibal Lecter. Appearing 32 years after the first book and 27 years after Hannibal’s first screen appearance, much has changed in Dr Lecter’s world and the most interesting of these changes is the gender of characters.

In Red Dragon, Dr Alan Bloom and Freddy Lounds are men, and in the television series, they are women. This chapter argues that another change in genders occurs as Will Graham replaces Clarice Starling as the person Lecter seduces. It also introduces a female psychiatrist for Dr Lecter. These changes alter the presentation of the specific characters but also that of the overall narrative arc of the television series.

This chapter will identify and evaluate these shifts in gender and consider how these changes impact the viewer experience. The change of the familiar to the unfamiliar is uncanny, and it is this argument that adds to the presentation of Will and Hannibal as figures of horror and increases audience anxiety and fear.

Since the arrival of mass production, commodification has been plaguing markets – none more so than that for music. By separating production and consumption in space and time, commodification challenges the very conditions underlying economic exchange. This chapter explores authenticity as the institutional response to the commodification of music, rekindling the relationship between isolated market participants in the increasingly digitized world of music. Building upon the “Production of Culture” perspective, we unpack the commodification of music across five different institutional realms – (1) production, (2) consumption, (3) selection, (4) appropriation, and (5) classification – and provide a thoroughly relational account of authenticity as an institutional practice.

Purpose – To consider the issues of cognitive freedom and neuropolitics via a comparison of d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) use in the 1960s and the emerging twenty-first century debate about nootropics.

Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon theoretical concepts from the study of biopolitics and on the tools of narrative policy analysis, this qualitative analysis uses multiple sources from scientific, mass media, regulatory, and the secondary literature.

Findings – LSD use in the 1950s and 1960s caused an unprecedented social confrontation with the consequences of a key sector in society deciding to use synthetic chemicals to alter personality and consciousness in ways that did not necessarily accord with mainstream society. As such, the era contains key lessons that can inform the new debate about neurological enhancement.

Research limitations/implications – The present study provides a starting point and historical context for development of regulatory policy for the coming era of nootropics and cognitive enhancement.

Originality – This chapter analyzes LSD use in the 1950s and 1960s not as a form of moral panic but as a technological adaptation that raised crucial questions about the possibilities and limits of psychedelic citizenship.

Since Barker, Gupta, and Iantaffi (2007), in both mainstream cultural products and academic literature dealing with BDSM, there has been an increase in emanations of the “healing narrative,” which suggests that BDSM practices offer therapeutic potential. However, no significant attempt has been made to explore in greater detail the problematic relationship between this healing narrative and the history of pathologization of sadomasochistic desires and practices. Barker et al. (2007) rightly point out that in suggesting BDSM has healing potential, one runs the risk of implying that individuals who practice BDSM are in need of healing to begin with. This could be damaging to the image of BDSM, which after centuries of pathologization finally appears to be moving into a realm of acceptability. However, the experiences of BDSM practitioners who describe their practices as healing should not be discounted and could actually help to cultivate a more positive reputation, which makes the issue a political one. In this chapter, through an exploration of the concept of “healing” in cultural objects such as the film Secretary (2002, directed by Steven Shainberg) and the Showtime cable television series Billions (2016–present), this issue will be investigated further, leading to a way out of the apparent double bind. The aim is to come to an understanding of the therapeutic potential of BDSM, which would not only reframe the discourse of pathologization surrounding BDSM but also further the political goal of creating space for BDSM practitioners to explore their desires without having to experience stigmatization.

This chapter examines the 1999 trial of Aaron McKinney for the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming whose death propelled forward an incipient movement to legislate against hate crimes. It explores the competing ways in which Aaron McKinney was conjured as a legal persona, defined through the opposing lenses of gay panic and of homophobic hate. It situates those personae in conflicting narratives of criminal culpability emerging out of indeterminate legal doctrines and definitions (the unwritten law; the meaning of ‘malice’), and argues that in conjuring them, adversarial criminal trials necessarily destabilise the ‘default legal person’. In doing so, trials performatively reconstruct the past in ways that both mark and mask a past events. In the McKinney case, contests over his culpability emerged against a backdrop of loss, both epistemological and affective, generating a projective reckoning with Shepard’s death in ways that enabled a politically transformational mourning process.

Kevin Au graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a BBA and earned his Ph.D. in management/international business at the University of British Columbia. He co-founded the CUHK Center for Entrepreneurship and has been an associate director. He also serves as associate director of the MBA programme. His research interests are international management, entrepreneurship, family business, social network and cross-cultural research methodology. He has published dozens of academic articles, cases and book chapters, and served on the editorial boards of several academic journals. He has provided consulting and training for the government and business corporations. His clients include the Central Policy Unit, Hong Kong Cyberport, Ove Arup and a number of business startups and family businesses in Hong Kong.