The Power of Knowledge. Technocratic Models and Governmental Practices in the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the Eighteenth Century

This work aims to investigate the case study of the Marquis of Branciforte, viceroy of New Spain, at the end of the eighteenth century. In particular, the study uses the existing bibliographic material and some archival evidence to highlight how, during the last years of Spanish colonisation, new governance techniques were put in place. In order to do so, the specific episode of the smallpox epidemic outbreak in 1797 has been used to demonstrate how statistical technologies and biopolitics constituted fundamental elements of the pair between power and knowledge.