Hope and abundance: the counter globalisation movement as multitude breaking the logic of pathological modernity

Abstract

Using the theoretical work of Hardt and Negri s Empire and Beck s Risk Society, I define current experiences of modernity as pathological . The term pathological modernity is used because it portrays a modernity dominated by spirals of crisis that are aggravated by the solutions proposed to solve them. Like the war on terror and environmental degradation, I argue that many crises facing the world today reflect the characteristics of capital as they globalised, branded, hybridised, boundless and endless.

Pathological modernity has various dimensions including a Cartesian logic underscored by an eternal truth , free-market fundamentalism, certainty in decision making, and a scientism which believes all challenges can be overcome. Additional dimensions include an operational form of biopower, pathological reflexivity, and a frontier disposition that continually encloses non-commodified spaces (or commons) creating a crisis of scarcity.

Despite its dominance, pathological modernity is being challenged on many fronts. Amongst these is the counter-globalisation movement (CGM). A heterogenous movement, it represents a qualitatively different form of globalisation and logic that brings it into conflict with pathological modernity.

Using participatory research I investigate this movement grounding it within Hardt and Negri s (2004) multitude . Extending Hardt and Negri s descriptions, I propose that the multitude works in common to establish new commons in both the physical and cultural spheres. Concentrating on the cultural commons I argue that these represent a new form of biopolitics and promote abundance where scarcity once existed. The four cultural commons identified are hope, trust, safety and intellect.

Based on the work of Marcel Mauss, I argue that the reciprocal, free and open exchange and sharing of these cultural commons creates authentic communities based on openness, alterity and abundance. While the CGM works to establish new commons, pathological modernity encloses and commodifies them, turning hope into material aspirations; trust into anxiety; safety into security; and intellect into intellectual property.