Empire, Biopolitics, and Communication

Abstract

Hardt and Negri's description of Empire is in a large part based on Michel Foucault's account of biopolitics. For Hardt and Negri, the biopolitical nature of Empire means that social forms and modes of subjectivity are considered as the result of communication processes, and that imperial domination is exercised through networks of communication. However, this reading of Foucault is problematic inasmuch as he never reduced communication or modes of subjectivity to a product of biopolitical society. As a consequence of this partial reading, Hardt and Negri fail to consider the specificities of biopolitical communication. Furthermore, by taking the Internet as the model for communication and social forms in Empire, Hardt and Negri seem to ignore the constitutive nature of communication and address the role communication could take in the liberation process of the multitude.