Michael Hardt
Encyclopedia
Michael Hardt is an American
literary theorist and political philosopher perhaps best known for Empire
, written with Antonio Negri
and published in 2000. It has been both praised and derided as the "Communist Manifesto of the 21st Century."
Hardt and his co-author suggest that what they view as forces of contemporary class oppression, globalization
and the commodification of services (or production of affects), have the potential to spark social change of unprecedented dimensions. A sequel, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
, published in August 2004, details the notion, first propounded in Empire, of the multitude
as possible locus of a democratic movement of global proportions.
The third and final part of the trilogy, Commonwealth
, appeared in the Fall of 2009.
, Hardt attended Winston Churchill High School in Potomac
, Maryland
. He studied engineering at Swarthmore College
in Pennsylvania
from 1978 to 1983. In college during the 1970s energy crisis
, he began to take an interest in alternative energy sources. Talking about his college politics, he said, "I thought that doing alternative energy engineering for third world countries would be a way of doing politics that would get out of all this campus political posing that I hated."
After college, he worked for various solar energy companies. Hardt also worked with non-governmental organizations in Central America
on tasks like bringing donated computers from the United States and putting them together for the University of El Salvador
. Yet, he says that this political activity did more for him than it did for the Salvadorans.
In 1983, he moved to Seattle to study comparative literature
at the University of Washington
. While there, he received an M.A. in 1986 and his PhD in 1990. From there he went to Paris where he would meet Negri.
Hardt speaks fluent French
and Italian
and is Professor of Literature and Italian at Duke University
and a Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the European Graduate School
in Saas-Fee
.
Hardt does not consider teaching a revolutionary occupation, nor does he think the college is a particularly political institution. "But thinking of politics now as a project of social transformation on a large scale, I'm not at all convinced that political activity can come from the university."
Hardt says visions of a public education and equal and open access to the university are gradually disappearing: the "war on terror" has promoted only limited military and technological knowledges, while the required skills of the biopolitical economy, "the creation of ideas, images, code, affects, and other immaterial goods" are not yet recognized as the primary key to economic innovation.
Interviews
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
literary theorist and political philosopher perhaps best known for Empire
Empire (book)
Empire is a text written by post-Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. The book, written in the mid-1990s, was published in 2000 and quickly sold beyond its expectations as an academic work.-Summary:...
, written with Antonio Negri
Antonio Negri
Antonio Negri is an Italian Marxist sociologist and political philosopher.Negri is best-known for his co-authorship of Empire, and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political philosophy professor in his hometown university...
and published in 2000. It has been both praised and derided as the "Communist Manifesto of the 21st Century."
Hardt and his co-author suggest that what they view as forces of contemporary class oppression, globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
and the commodification of services (or production of affects), have the potential to spark social change of unprecedented dimensions. A sequel, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire is a book written by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt published in 2004. It is a sequel to the 2000 book, Empire.- Context :...
, published in August 2004, details the notion, first propounded in Empire, of the multitude
Multitude
Multitude is a political term first used by Machiavelli and reiterated by Spinoza. Recently the term has returned to prominence because of its conceptualization as a new model of resistance against the global capitalist system as described by political theorists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in...
as possible locus of a democratic movement of global proportions.
The third and final part of the trilogy, Commonwealth
Commonwealth (book)
Commonwealth is a book by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. It completes a trilogy which includes Empire and Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire....
, appeared in the Fall of 2009.
Biography
Born in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Hardt attended Winston Churchill High School in Potomac
Potomac, Maryland
Potomac is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, named for the nearby Potomac River. The population was 44,822 at the 2000 census. The Potomac area is known for its very affluent and highly-educated residents. In 2009 CNNMoney.com listed Potomac as the fourth...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. He studied engineering at Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
from 1978 to 1983. In college during the 1970s energy crisis
1970s energy crisis
The 1970s energy crisis was a period in which the major industrial countries of the world, particularly the United States, faced substantial shortages, both perceived and real, of petroleum...
, he began to take an interest in alternative energy sources. Talking about his college politics, he said, "I thought that doing alternative energy engineering for third world countries would be a way of doing politics that would get out of all this campus political posing that I hated."
After college, he worked for various solar energy companies. Hardt also worked with non-governmental organizations in Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
on tasks like bringing donated computers from the United States and putting them together for the University of El Salvador
University of El Salvador
The University of El Salvador or Universidad de El Salvador is the oldest and one of the most prominent university institutions in El Salvador. It serves as the national university of the country...
. Yet, he says that this political activity did more for him than it did for the Salvadorans.
In 1983, he moved to Seattle to study comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
. While there, he received an M.A. in 1986 and his PhD in 1990. From there he went to Paris where he would meet Negri.
Hardt speaks fluent French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and is Professor of Literature and Italian at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
and a Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the European Graduate School
European Graduate School
The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
in Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
.
Ideas
Hardt is concerned with the joy of political life, and has stated, "One has to expand the concept of love beyond the limits of the couple." The politics of the multitude is not solely about controlling the means of productivity or liberating one's own subjectivity. These two are also linked to love and joy of political life and realizing political goals.Hardt does not consider teaching a revolutionary occupation, nor does he think the college is a particularly political institution. "But thinking of politics now as a project of social transformation on a large scale, I'm not at all convinced that political activity can come from the university."
Hardt says visions of a public education and equal and open access to the university are gradually disappearing: the "war on terror" has promoted only limited military and technological knowledges, while the required skills of the biopolitical economy, "the creation of ideas, images, code, affects, and other immaterial goods" are not yet recognized as the primary key to economic innovation.
Co-authorship with Antonio Negri
Most of Hardt's works have been co-written with Antonio Negri, who was in prison for most of his career.Books
- Gilles Deleuze: an Apprenticeship in Philosophy, ISBN 0-8166-2161-6, 1993
- Labor of Dionysus: a Critique of the State-form, with Antonio NegriAntonio NegriAntonio Negri is an Italian Marxist sociologist and political philosopher.Negri is best-known for his co-authorship of Empire, and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political philosophy professor in his hometown university...
, ISBN 0-8166-2086-5, 1994 - EmpireEmpire (book)Empire is a text written by post-Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. The book, written in the mid-1990s, was published in 2000 and quickly sold beyond its expectations as an academic work.-Summary:...
, with Antonio Negri, ISBN 0-674-00671-2, 2000 - Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of EmpireMultitude: War and Democracy in the Age of EmpireMultitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire is a book written by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt published in 2004. It is a sequel to the 2000 book, Empire.- Context :...
, with Antonio Negri, ISBN 1-59420-024-6, 2004 - CommonwealthCommonwealth (book)Commonwealth is a book by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. It completes a trilogy which includes Empire and Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire....
, with Antonio Negri, ISBN 0674035119, 2009
Film appearances
- Marx ReloadedMarx ReloadedMarx Reloaded is a 2011 German documentary film written and directed by the British writer and theorist Jason Barker. Featuring interviews with several well-known philosophers, the film aims to examine the relevance of Karl Marx's ideas in relation to the global economic and financial crisis of...
, ArteArteArte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
, April 2011. - Examined LifeExamined LifeExamined Life is a 2008 documentary film directed by Astra Taylor. The film features eight influential contemporary philosophers walking around New York and other metropolises and discussing the practical application of their ideas in modern culture....
, Sphinx Productions, 87 min., 2008. - Antonio Negri: A Revolt that Never Ends, ZDFZDFZweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
/ArteArteArte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
, 52 min., 2004.
External links
- Michael Hardt @ European Graduate SchoolEuropean Graduate SchoolThe European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
. Faculty Page with Biography, Bibliography and Video Lectures. - Michael Hardt @ Duke UniversityDuke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
- Full text of Empire http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/negri/HAREMI_printable.pdf
- Slavoj ŽižekSlavoj ŽižekSlavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....
. "Have Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri Rewritten the Communist Manifesto For the Twenty-First Century?" European Graduate SchoolEuropean Graduate SchoolThe European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
. (2001) - Michael Hardt. "Sovereignty" Theory & Event. Volume 5, Issue 4, 2001
- Michael Hardt. "The Withering of Civil Society" Social Text. No. 45 Winter, 1995. pp. 27–44
- Michael Hardt. "Porto Alegre - Today's Bandung?" New Left ReviewNew Left ReviewNew Left Review is a 160-page journal, published every two months from London, devoted to world politics, economy and culture. Often compared to the French-language Les Temps modernes, it is associated with Verso Books , and regularly features the essays of authorities on contemporary social...
. No. 14, March–April 2002 - Ed Vulliamy. "Empire hits back" The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. July 15, 2010. Profile of Hardt in the Guardian.
Interviews
- Real Democracy: An interview with Michael Hardt Michael Hardt talks to Shift Magazine about the global democracy movement.
- Astra TaylorAstra TaylorAstra Taylor is a Canadian-American documentary filmmaker and writer, best known for her 2005 film, Zizek!, about the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and for her 2008 film, Examined Life....
's 2008 film Examined LifeExamined LifeExamined Life is a 2008 documentary film directed by Astra Taylor. The film features eight influential contemporary philosophers walking around New York and other metropolises and discussing the practical application of their ideas in modern culture....
features Hardt rowing a boat in Central Park and ruminating on revolution. - "For the Love of the Multitude" a conversation with Michael Hardt on The T-Machine
- "The Collaborator and the Multitude: An Interview with Michael Hardt" Hardt talks about Multitude, the sequel to Empire. (2004)
- "An Interview with Michael Hardt" (March 27–28, 2004) Hardt talks about the Free Trade Area of the AmericasFree Trade Area of the AmericasThe Free Trade Area of the Americas , , ) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas but Cuba. In the last round of negotiations, trade ministers from 34 countries met in Miami, United States, in November 2003 to discuss the proposal...
with dissidentvoice.org. - "Conversation with Michael Hardt" Part of the 'Conversations with History' series organized by Harry Kreisler.
- Croatian Radio Interview
- "Power Within a Global Paradigm: Prof Michael Hardt Speaks in Olin"
- "Interview with Aut-Op-Sy" Interview conducted by the autonomist email list "Aut-Op-Sy".