The Common in Hardt and Negri: Substantiating the concept through its urban, digital and political moments A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Politics in the Faculty of Humanities Doctor of Philosophy in Politics 2017 Kelvin Charles School of Social Sciences Politics Blank page 2 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 7 Lay abstract .......................................................................................................................... 8 Dedication .......................................................................................................................... 10 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 10 The Author ......................................................................................................................... 10 Thesis Introduction ........................................................................................................... 13 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 13 2. The common(s) in the wider literature ................................................................... 16 3. Body and Affect ......................................................................................................... 23 4. The basis of the common in Hardt and Negri ....................................................... 26 5. Research Questions ................................................................................................... 29 5. Methodology and Method ....................................................................................... 30 7. Contribution of the thesis ......................................................................................... 38 8. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 39 Chapter 1 Towards a Theory of the Common .............................................................. 43 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 43 2.1 Negri and Autonomism .......................................................................................... 44 2.2 Negri in France......................................................................................................... 53 3.1 The conceptual tools of Empire .............................................................................. 60 3.2 From IWC to Empire ............................................................................................... 61 3.3 Immaterial Labour ................................................................................................... 66 3.4 The multitude ........................................................................................................... 69 4.1 The Urban Common................................................................................................ 74 4.2 The Digital Common ............................................................................................... 78 4.3 A Politics of the common ....................................................................................... 81 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 87 3 Chapter 2 The Urban Common: Production and Resistance in the City .................. 92 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 92 2.1 Harvey’s Historical-Geographical Materialism .................................................. 95 2.2 Urbanisation and Capital ....................................................................................... 99 3.1 Two Foundations of the Urban Common .......................................................... 103 3.2 Contemporary Production and the Urban Common ....................................... 104 3.3 Contrasting Theoretical Approaches .................................................................. 108 3.4 Distinguishing the Urban Common ................................................................... 113 3.5 The Politics of the Urban Common ..................................................................... 121 4. Occupy and the Urban Common .......................................................................... 126 5. A struggle for the common .................................................................................... 131 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 137 Chapter 3 The Digital Common: Networks of Resistance ........................................ 141 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 141 2.1 Castells and The Rise of the Network Society ................................................... 144 2.2 The Birth of the Internet ....................................................................................... 148 2.3 Digital (Anti) Globalisation .................................................................................. 152 3.1 The Common and the Limits of Technological Determinism ......................... 157 3.2 Production of the Digital Common .................................................................... 163 3.3 The Paradox of Incommunicability..................................................................... 166 4. From the ‘logic of networking’ to the ‘logic of aggregation’ ............................. 169 5. The Digital Common ............................................................................................... 177 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 189 Chapter 4 The Politcal Common: Radical Organisation against Capital ................ 194 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 194 2. 1 Dean: Capitalism and the Party .......................................................................... 197 2.2 Communicative Capitalism ................................................................................. 201 2.3 The Party and the ‘gap’ ......................................................................................... 204 3.1 Hardt and Negri and the basis for the Political Common ............................... 211 4 3.2 Democracy of the common .................................................................................. 213 3.3 Representation and ‘the political’ ....................................................................... 216 4. Political Organisation of Encampments ............................................................... 222 5.1 Toward a Substantiation of the Political Common ........................................... 229 5.2 Constitutive Democracy ....................................................................................... 234 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 242 Thesis Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 246 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 246 2. Method, Structure and Contribution .................................................................... 247 3. Limitations of the research ..................................................................................... 258 4. Future research ........................................................................................................ 259 Word Count: 79961 5 Blank page Abstract The concept of the common, found in Hardt and Negri, provides the possibility of theorising struggle that avoids the critiques that suggest Empire remains intangible, ethereal and postmodern. The concept, however, remains fragmentarily developed by the authors themselves, and is rarely the subject of sustained analysis in the secondary literature. Therefore, in order to substantiate the concept, I consider the common through three distinct moments which I identify as the urban, digital and political moments. This task is achieved through theoretical interlocutions and reflections on the 2011 Occupy movement. Throughout this thesis, and through each moment of the common, I argue that the concept must be understood as distinctly physical. Firstly, struggles over the urban common revolve around the physical (re)production of ideas, knowledge, culture and relationships in urban environments. Whilst the digital common often implies a lack of physicality, I argue that the common offers a means of thinking social media and perpetual connectivity primarily as a process of transforming the way humans engage with one another and their environments, and the radical possibilities therein. I argue that these moments of the common necessitate the development of an appropriate political moment of the common. Through centring on the physicality of struggle, Hardt and Negri’s concept of the common is substantiated