Activity

Harvey has drawn attention to a different way of resolving crises of over-accumulation, which he refers to with the concept of ‘spatial fix’. This concept has two senses – one literal, the other metaphorical.

In addition, his historical materialism – like all materialisms – assigns primacy to ‘production’. From this standpoint the international system is regarded as influenced by the ‘mode of production’ that obtains in the given epoch.

By dint of their reticular, mobile character, transnationals therefore possess primacy in the context of Empire, reducing states to the rank of mere ‘instruments’.

Empire is a ‘smooth space’, as Hardt and Negri put it with reference to a concept coined by Deleuze. It does not experience the ‘asperities’ that are the borders or political and/or economic inequalities characteristic of the national ancien régime.