Great Crisis of Capitalism - A Second Great Transformation?

The transatlantic financial and economic crisis is regarded as the most severe crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Once more, the future of capitalism appears to be highly uncertain. Are we currently witnessing another transition period or “Great Transformation” as Karl Polanyi analyzed for the period after World War I?

Although both the United States and the EU have succeeded in stabilizing their economies after the crash of 2008, a return of speculation and bubbles, diverging economic development in the Euro Zone, high levels of public debt, economic stagnation, the threat of deflation, and a sharp increase in unemployment and social misery in many countries are among the lasting concerns in the aftermath of the crisis.

These are not even the only challenges globalized capitalism is currently facing: Climate change and the need of a wide range of restructuring and reforms in the energy system in particular, the impact of the next generation of digital technologies on industries, services, and labor markets, demographic changes and (forced) migrations, imperialist rivalry, failing states, uneven developments and increasing inequality, have led to an ongoing debate concerning the multiple crisis of capitalism.

The lecture series aims to promote a discussion of general and specific aspects of contemporary capitalist transformations. It is a joint initiative of Berlin-based scholars from various academic institutions working in diverse areas related to (international) political economy and comparative capitalism.

Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformations in European Industrial Relations

Lucio Baccaro, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne

Why is International Cooperation Failing? How the Clash of Capitalisms Undermines the Regulation of Finance

Thomas Kalinowski, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

Violence in Classical Liberalism versus Neoliberalism: Punishment, Threats, and Structural Violence

S.M. Amadae, University of Helsinki

Kapital im Überfluss? Die politische Ökonomie des Asset-Manager-Kapitalismus

Benjamin Braun, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln

Speculative Urbanism and the New Volatility of City Life

Michael Goldman, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

The Neoliberal Spirit of Populism

William Davies, Goldsmiths, University of London

Russlands Gegenströmung. Akteure und Schlüsselkonzepte eines neuen illiberalen Konservatismus

Katharina Bluhm, Freie Universität Berlin

Vermarktlichung von Arbeitsmarktdienstleistungen: Dilemmata wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Aktivierung

Ian Greer, Cornell University

Emmanuel Macron's Challenge: French Capitalism in Transition

Bruno Amable, University of Geneva

Intelligent Manufacturing and Socio-Economic Rebalancing in China – Changing production networks, work and industrial relations

Boy Lüthje, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China

Das Finanzregime als "vierte Gewalt"

Joseph Vogl, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin