Michael Hardt. The Common in Communism. 2009 1/9

http://www.egs.edu/



"Michael Hardt, speaking about the common in communism, capitalism and socialism, nature of economic and social production, economy, property, labor, conditions, regulation, privatization, nationalization, economic and financial crisis, political evolution, climate change, Karl Marx in a lecture at the European Graduate School, or EGS, in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Free Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland Europe 2009 Michael Hardt.

Michael Hardt. Michael Hardt, born 1960 is an American literary theorist and political philosopher based at Duke University. Michael Hardt's recent writings deal primarily with the political, legal, economic, and social aspects of globalization. Perhaps his most famous work is Empire, a book about the current global power structure, written with Antonio Negri. The sequel to Empire, called Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, describes the possible democratic alternatives to that structure, was released in August, 2004, and details the idea of the multitude (which Michael Hardt and Negri initially elaborated in Empire) as the potential site of a global democratic movement. Many of Michael Hardts seminars focus on the work of important figures in the history of critical theory and political theory, such as Marx, Jefferson, Gramsci, Foucault, Deleuze, and Guattari.

Sometimes referred to as the "Communist Manifesto of the 21st Century", Empire proposes that the forces of current class oppression, namely - corporate globalization and commodification of services (or "production of affects") have the potential to fuel social change of unprecedented dimensions.

Born in Washington DC, Michael 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, Michael Hardt began to take an interest in alternative energy sources. Talking about his college politics, Michael Hardt 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, Michael Hardt worked for various solar energy companies. Michael Hardt also worked with NGOs in Central America, doing tasks like bringing donated computers from the U.S. and putting them together for the University of El Salvador. Yet, Michael Hardt says that this political activity did more for him than it did for the El Salvadoreans. In 1983 he moved to Seattle to study comparative literature. From there Michael Hardt went to Paris where he would meet Negri and write his dissertation under Negri's guidance. Michael Hardt speaks fluent French and Italian, and is Professor of Literature and Italian at Duke University. In 2006, Michael Hardt was a member of the group of 88 Duke professors who signed a statement supporting the accuser in the Duke rape case.

Michael Hardt also works on modern Italian literature and culture. His oevre includes: Gilles Deleuze: an Apprenticeship in Philosophy, Labor of Dionysus: a Critique of the State-form, with Antonio Negri, Empire, with Antonio Negri, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, with Antonio Negri, and Commonwealth, with Antonio Negri. "



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Ey5ioS4GU&feature=sdig&et=1254525123.46