Chapter 2- Biopower

Hardt and Negri's discussion of Empire begins by examining the concept of Biopower, originally conceived of by Michel Foucault¹. Foucault's conception was that biopower was power realised not simply through social superstructures but through subjectivities such as the body, itself. This power was activated from within subjects rather than from without by disciplinary structures. This view of the distribution of power through networks and nodes other than the nation/state provides the basis for Empire as existing and subsuming sovereignty away from the nation/state into other structures of social production, such as individuals, NGO's and corporations.

1 Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Empire. Cambridge,MA & London. Harvard, 2000. p.23