From: "Lowe Laclau" <lowelaclau-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Fwd: [VT_THEORY] on empire and negri
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 09:16:14 -0400



There does not seem to me to be a difference in Balibar's and Negri's conception if this depiction of Balibar is correct. From a statement Virno made in 2003 at the Public Spaces lecture with Negri he seemed to suggest that HE was conceiving at least multitudes relation with the common in a different sense that Balibar. In the article Multitude et principe d'individuation on the Multitudes Web Virno in fact defines it in much more complex terms, which I don't think are at all at odds with Negri's definition, just a very different way of exploring whats behind the common and the multitude. 

 

But here from the Pour une definition ontologique de la multitude Negri is quite specific: 

 

"Si l'on pose la multitude comme un concept de classe, la notion d'exploitation sera définie comme exploitation de la coopération : coopération non des individus mais des singularités, exploitation de l'ensemble des singularités, des réseaux qui composent l'ensemble et de l'ensemble qui comprend les réseaux, etc."

 

Insofar as the notion is defined against this backdrop of exploitation the multitude CAN perhaps be a meaningful term as a concept in itself, but its very important this insistence on recognizing production conditions for Negri. Because its never exploitation in an of itself that defines the multitude as a class concept, but always the exploitation of cooperation. Capital I guess he would say, exploits our coexistance in a way that makes us productive singularities, but under the command of capital and not of the cooperation of social labor-power. 


There is also an interview by Balibar in the same edition of Multitudes (I think from 2002) about anthropological difference that dealt with defining the "multitude" as a concept, which while he doesn't say anything specific about the concept, seemed to suggest he was sympathetic with all such work delving into the definition of the ontologizing our new biopolitical terrain. 

 

Lowe

 



>This rendering of 'the multitude' seems closer to that of Balibar, 

>who in _Masses, Classes, Ideas_, _Spinoza and Politics_ and a couple 

>of other places tries to rethink Marx's use of 'the proletariat' as 

>a 'class for itself' along the lines of Spinoza's concept of the 

>multitude as he understands it.  In Balibar there doesn't seem to be 

>a multitude in itself, only a potentiality existing in forms of 

>subjectivity inherent to the diverse practices of domination in 

>class societies.  Maybe the real issue is a shift in Negri's work on 

>the multitude post _The Savage Anomaly_ or even _Insurgencies_?   

>Certainly Balibar, Montag, Macherey et al seem to have been much 

>more sympathetic to the 1980s and 1990s material than to  _Empire_.   

>See, for example, Montag's very appreciative comments on Negri in 

>_Bodies, Masses, Power_ and his review article on _Insurgencies_ in 

>HM a few years ago.  There are also discussions of what seems 

>similar to 'postmodern fascism' as you describe it in the books of 

>Balibar and Mike Hill that appeared this year (i.e., _We, the People 

>of Europe?_ and _After Whiteness_ respectively).  Thanks for posting 

>the link to the Virno book, I will certainly read it when I find 

>time, as what you have said here of it sounds very promising. 

> 

>I hope to publish an interview with  Warren Montag (which has 

>already appeared in Greek) in the next few months (in the next issue 

>of borderlands) that has some critical comments on _Empire_.  We 

>will certainly publish an interview with Mike Hill in that issue on 

>whiteness.  Hopefully at some point in the future we will have some 

>papers discussing _The Multitude_ if that text generates sufficient 

>interest; certainly comparative discussions of that text with that 

>of Virno could be interesting. 

> 

>David 

> 

> 

> 

>     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- 




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