Paper short abstract:

This paper critically examines a confluence of neo-Darwinism, game theory and neoliberalism in recent developments in entomology, before drawing on new materialism and relational ontology to problematise this and outline a way of thinking human and apian forms of life as complex biosocial becomings.

Paper long abstract:

Honeybee colonies have long been thought of as nonhuman societies or communities in nature, and perceived as the epitome of cooperation and collectivism. Bees have therefore been energetically enrolled into social and political discourse, and the cultural history of the honeybee has been a barometer of changing political inflections of the ideas of collectivism and individualism. This paper argues that this 'bee politics' is not restricted to quotidian discourse but encompasses scientific knowledge of bees, and thus examines the political and social ontologies entangled with the turn to conflict in modern entomology, tracing a confluence of neo-Darwinism in evolutionary biology with game theory and neoliberalism in political and economic thought. Theoretical resources from science studies, new materialism and relational ontology are drawn upon in order to disentangle and problematise the shared assumptions underpinning these discursive assemblages, and to outline an alternative way of thinking about both human and apian forms of life in terms of complex biosocial becoming.