Natural Hegemonies

Abstract

American capitalism finds its force and legitimacy in hegemonic understandings of nature and society, especially as expressed in human biology. In this article, I address the ways American capitalism depends on the deployment of sleep and wakefulness within the institutional contexts of school and labor, with particular attention to the recent medicalization of sleep disorders. Across American institutions and social science literature, I argue that sleep, like capitalism, has been discursively ascribed the powers of inevitability and universality, rendering them both transhistorically natural. To make these claims, I draw on ethnographic research in sleep clinics with scientists and clinicians, interviews with disordered sleepers, and textual and policy analysis. In conclusion, I offer suggestions toward elucidating the historical and continuing biopolitical projects of capitalism.

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