From Global to Multi-Scalar Sovereignty: Intersectional Political Community as Resistance

With the publication of 'Empire', Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri announced a new form of sovereignty, Empire, which implied moving from nation-state sovereignty to global sovereignty. This paper revises some of the
main aspects of the theory to understand Imperial sovereignty as well as its
post-territorial political community of resistance, multitude. In this critical
reading of some of Hardt and Negri’s concepts, sovereignty is conceived as
two-sided: a conflictual relationship between the one who rules and those
who are ruled. This conflictual approach implies the revitalization of popular
sovereignty (as opposed to the constituted order) and of territory, albeit not
limited to the nation-state. As a result, an alternative framework is offered to
explain the existing forms of sovereignties consisting of three elements: multi-scalar sovereignty, interdependence and intersectional political community. This approach, rather than taking the point of view of the states, explores
the forms of sovereignty promoted by social movements and civil society in
general.