@article{THESIS,
      recid = {1638},
      author = {Mckay, Francis},
      title = {Homo-eudaimonicus: Affects, Biopower, and Practical  Reason},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {Ph.D.},
      address = {2016-06},
      number = {THESIS},
      pages = {281},
      abstract = {This dissertation examines the topic of “global  well-being” (as something distinct from global health or  global mental health) through an emergent discourse in the  science and politics of happiness on “subjective  well-being.” It is argued that this discourse attempts to  combine two traditions of thinking about well-being: the  ancient eudaimonic tradition on the one hand, and the  tradition of political economy on the other. Consequently,  it examines a new configuration of both—a political economy  of eudaimonia—and a new kind of person emerging at the  center of that discourse, a paradoxical biopolitical figure  I call homo-eudaimonicus. Through the example of  mindfulness meditation, I offer a history and ethnography  of that person as it turned up in science, politics and  personal practice, highlighting in particular the  importance of three kinds of “teleological affects”  (mindlessness, tranquility and compassion) that, taken  together, represent the affective dimensions of  homo-eudaimonicus. Finally, through these teleological  affects, I also argue for a rethinking of the bios in  biopower, to include not just the concept of life itself,  but the good life, and with that a teleo-power grounded in  experiences of affective fullness.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/1638},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.1638},
}