Empire and Education

Empire is in a state of emergency. A global pandemic and an ongoing secular crisis of capitalism, ecological instability, racism and ethnic conflict, geopolitical tensions, and specters of war all haunt the global order. Education preforms a key role in producing the subjective capacities that nourish Empire within its current neoliberal form. Simultaneously, education and pedagogy contain creative elements, presenting an immanent surplus that always exceeds incorporation. Empire and Education builds on the influential work of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri to examine the role of education and pedagogy in the making and unmaking of Empire within our historical conjuncture. The essays included in the book, which include an interview with Michael Hardt, mobilize concepts of biopolitics, swarm intelligence, revolution, love, stupidity, the body, multitude, networked solidarity, and the common to imagine pedagogical possibilities for collective life beyond Empire. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory.

Alexander J. Means is Chair and Associate Professor of Educational Foundations, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

Amy N. Sojot is a PhD candidate in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

Yuko Ida is a PhD student in Educational Foundations, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

Manca Sustarsic is a PhD candidate in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.