Hegemony: New Power in the Age of Empire

The complex processes we have called globalization are usually identified as increased movement across borders of people, information and capital. These borders are thereby seen as vanishing, and we are assumed to be entering “smooth space” through what David Harvey called time-space compression. The process is hailed by proponents as a condition where the logic of capital finally plays freely to the benefit of all, and lamented by critics as the accommodation of law to benefit multi-national corporations and to the disadvantage of the poor.

Power is at the centre of the controversy. Hegemony as a theoretical concept originated in the thought of Gramsci as the point where ideology is so saturated in a society that it seems natural to all its members. The age of globalization has been called the age of the American Empire, and lines are drawn between European hegemony in modernity to US

military and corporate control in postmodernity. The question we are interested in pursuing is what hegemony, what relations of power are present under the current state of affairs, and what possibilities are there for resistance?

The argument put forward by Hardt and Negri in the popular but controversial Empire is that in the age of postmodernity hegemony takes a form where no state can be positioned at the centre. Concepts commonly used to theorize global power are insufficient under the new Empire, based nowhere, a system so deep and complex that we can no longer determine its exact features, thriving on hybrid and fragmentary subjectivities. This new power opens new possibilities for resistance and global solidarity.

The book project aims to theoretically explore current power issues and venues for resistance. We imagine it as a collection of essays and articles each exploring or criticizing aspects of what is discussed above. Chapters considered for publication may be adopted from previously published works. We accept chapter proposals and finished contributions.

Submission deadline is October 1^st, 2007.

Click here for submission information.