Disaster Capitalism and Critical Political Economy: Catastrophe or Emancipation?
the next CPERN stream of panels will be at the European Sociological Association Conference, in the city of Porto, Portugal, from August 27th to 30th, 2024.
The Call for Papers is now open. Join us in Porto next August!
CPERN is Research Network 06 of the European Sociological Association – when submitting abstracts make sure to indicate that you want your paper to be included in our stream of panels (RN06).
Disaster Capitalism and Critical Political Economy: Catastrophe or Emancipation?
Capitalist crises continue to proliferate. From the Climate Crisis, through the Covid crisis, and on to the Polycrisis. This is Disaster Capitalism.
It sees the decaying global order being replaced with multipolar militarization: “forever wars”, the Russian neocolonial genocidal invasion of Ukraine, the horrific mass killing of civilians amidst the reinvigorated Israel-Palestine conflict, military uprisings across Africa, and heightened geo political tensions in the Asia Pacific.
Advances in technology take the form of automated alienation.
The ongoing drive for expansion creates yet more degradation of our planet and the climate disaster worsens by the year.
We need critical political economy to understand, explain, and help transform, disaster capitalism.
Yet, the capitalist drive towards destruction also undermines the capacity for critique. Academia is subordinated to the needs of capitalist growth; and critical perspectives are marginalised. Conservative forces seek to neutralise the potential for resistance; manufacturing divisive culture wars, and channeling blame towards the most vulnerable in society.
It is in this context that we need, more than ever, an intellectual and political project to inform existing experiments in resistance and emancipation, which are also proliferating, and which offer routes beyond this catastrophe.
We especially (but not exclusively) invite abstracts on:
- Understanding contemporary Disaster Capitalism
- Opportunities and trajectories of emancipation
- Digital capitalism, AI, and automated alienation
- Coercion and consent in Disaster Capitalism
- The new militarised multipolarity
- The interconnection of global production, finance, and disaster
- New challenges to neo colonialism and racialized exclusion in Disaster Capitalism
- The Climate Crisis and Its Alternatives
- Social reproduction in and against Disaster Capitalism
Abstracts must be submitted through the conference platform, which is available here.
Deadline: January 15th, 2024
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We hope to see you there.
CPERN Board: David Bailey, Yuliya Yurchenko, Bernd Bonfert, Owen Worth
Critical Political Economy Research Network (RN06) 