We continue to witness each year the eruption of “leaderless” social movements. From North Africa and the Middle East to Europe, the Americas, and East Asia, movements have left journalists, political analysts, police forces, and governments disoriented and perplexed. Activists too have struggled to understand and evaluate the power and effectiveness of horizontal movements. The movements have proven able to pose democratic ideals, sometimes to force reforms, and to pressure and even overthrow regimes – and, indeed, widespread social processes have been set in motion in coordination with or as consequence of them – but the movements tend to be short-lived and seem unable to bring about lasting social transformation. Many assume that if only social movements could find new leaders they would return to their earlier glory and be able to sustain and achieve projects of social transformation and liberation. Where, they ask, are the new Martin Luther King Jr.s, Rudi Dutschkes, Patrice Lumumbas, and Steven Bikos? Where have all the leaders gone? Leadership has become a conundrum that today’s movements seem unable to solve, but the leadership problem in revolutionary and progressive movements is not entirely new. In this lecture Michael Hardt will use some examples from past theory and practice to situate and clarify some of the issues and alternatives involved in the organization of social movements today.
Michael Hardt ist Professor of Literature an der Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Mit Antonio Negri hat er gemeinsam die Bücher Empire, Multitude, Commonwealth und Declaration verfasst. Im Oktober 2017 erscheint ihr neues Buch Assembly.
Die Veranstaltung ist kostenlos.
Eine Veranstaltung des Bildungswerk Berlin der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Diese Veranstaltung wird realisiert aus Mitteln der Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin.
Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt und wird konsekutiv ins Deutsche übersetzt.
