Tag Archives: Conferences

CPERN Call for Papers – IIPPE/CPERN/IPE Conference

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IIPPE/CPERN/IPE Conference
September 13-15, 2017
Berlin School of Economics and and Law
 
In the context of the IIPPE/CPERN/IPE conference, the ESA Critical Political Economy Research Network CPERN invites paper and panel suggestions on the suggested streams below, but also welcomes suggestions that fit with the conference themes more broadly, which are ‘inequality’ and ‘instability’.
 
To contribute to the conference’s overall themes, CPERN calls for papers and panels that seek to destabilise perceptions in political economy that breed closed talking shops and echo chambers. We aim to talk about how the urgencies of rampant inequality and instability bring us to query how and why they have become so widespread in the global  capitalist economy; to critically discuss how social and structural imbalances are fueled by extremely unbalanced power relations; and, importantly, to consider how we can tackle these issues, whether by challenging  stagnant ideas in political economy and theories, or disputing the conditions under which instability and inequality have been emerging.
 
The following reflect desired CPERN contributions based on suggestions from CPERN members and the Executive Board: Monica Clua Losada, Angela Wigger, Phoebe Moore and Caroline Metz. However, feel free to submit papers/panel proposals that may not precisely fit with the below, but fit with the conference themes instability and inequality.
 
 
Paper/panel suggestions submitted here: http://iippe.org/wp/?page_id=2928
Make sure to select ‘CPERN’ in the category of Working Groups when you submit!
 
The extended deadline is April 8 2017 23:59 CET. Please email Phoebe Moore for questions: p.moore at mdx.ac.uk
 
Themes (in alphabetical order)
 
Confronting (inherently unstable) capitalism  
This stream will critically analyse (global) anti-capitalist, anarchist, feminist, cooperative and other movements that both destabilise capitalist tendencies and represent moments that disrupt relations of domination and exploitation, but also remain unsure about how to develop into more substantial anti-capitalist movements. Panels seek contributions about how social movements have met transformations in capitalism, or new left convergences are being coopted by political parties, e.g. in Brazil, Rojava, Chile, the Czech Republic, Spain, landless workers movement, and the radical left in Africa and more.
 
Debt and financialised capitalism
This stream speaks to the interrelated workings of ‘states’ and ‘markets’ in the reproduction of (financialised) capitalism. To what extent are public and private actors cooperating in the creation, expansion and reshaping of markets? How are state-market interactions evolving in an economy reliant on and fuelled by household and student debt? How does financialised capitalism impact inequality in terms of gender, class and race? What are the current or potential forms of resistance to markets and the commodification of debt, and to financialised capitalism overall?
 
Destabilising labour processes: The machinery question
The machine question is back with a vengeance with the threat of automation, the algorithmic boss, gig economies and platform work. This stream looks at problems that the contemporary machine question poses for organising workers and resistance. To do so, we will look at extreme quantified workplaces with self-tracking and monitoring of all-of-life and affective digitalised labour, changing concepts of urban guerrillas and hacking, digital intermediation platforms and the human price of everyday rhetorics in the digital economy.
 
Regional destabilisation and uneven capitalist development
Regions have risen and fallen. This stream will look at areas of destabilisation of regional groupings and integration practices, from the much-heralded alternatives seen in the Pink Tide (and its fall), to questions of continuation and challenges to neoliberalism through regional disintegration. How has regional change impacted age-old inequalities of gender, class, race? Discussions may include the urgency of reviewing regional significance brought to the fore with Brexit, critical perspectives on the interface of EU investment politics with trade/trade agreements and on recarving  (virtual) accumulation spaces as mechanisms of capitalism’s transformativity.
 
Confirmed speakers and contributors: David Bailey, Adam Fishwick, Michael Goddard, Baruch Gottleib, Ted Huang, Athina Karatzogianni, Zoe Malone, Caroline Metz, Johnna Montgomerie, Phoebe Moore, Anitra Nelson, Alex Nunn, Sophie Price, Alex Prichard, Dani Tepe-Belfrage, Leo Uestebay, Wanda Vrasti, Angela Wigger, Owen Worth, Yuliya Yurchenko
 

CPERN (RN06) CfP at the 13th ESA conference

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Call for Papers – ‘Resisting Capitalism in, under and beyond Authoritarian Neoliberalism – Radical Praxis, Real democracy and (Prefigurative) Alternatives in the 21st Century’
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The Critical Political Economy Research Network (CPERN/ RN06) is inviting paper and panel submissions for its sessions at the 13th European Sociological Association (ESA) Conference in Athens, 29 August to 1 September 2017.
Capitalism has been resilient to various crises and contradictions, including the current global crisis. At the same time, ever more cracks are opening up, pointing to avenues of resistance and alternatives to capitalism. We interrogate the mechanisms and processes that facilitate the reproduction of the continued accumulation of capital: reproductive labour, inequalities of class, gender, race and ethnicity, capitalist competition and technological innovations, the ubiquitous role of debt, the disciplinary role of the judicial and administrative state apparatus and in particular, coercive state practices that suppress and marginalise anti-capitalist oppositional forces.
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We are keen to receive paper proposals which focus on the analysis and critique of features of capitalism and anti-capitalist resistance. Some of the topics we would like to invite abstracts in are:
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  • Capitalist spheres of production, trade and finance
  • Authoritarian neoliberalism, coercion and the disciplining of labour
  • The role of trade unions, social movements and new Left political parties/platforms
  • Anarchism, feminism, new materialism and Marxism – Building alternatives from horizontal escapes
  • The materialities of ecological challenges
– The political economy of migration and human trafficking
  • Damaged lives, intensified precarisation and the rise of inequalities

  • Reclaiming the Caliban and the Witch: social reproduction as a source of value-creation

We are interested in all of the above plus more, and wish for the conference to cover a wide range of topics. As such, we seek contributions from scholars and activists with an interest in political economy research, regardless of their disciplinary affiliation and whether they are in academia or not. We also hope to attract a diverse range of participants, from a variety of countries and backgrounds.

Notes for authors
Abstracts should not exceed 250 words. Abstracts must be submitted online to the submission platform, see below. Abstracts sent by email cannot be accepted. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and selected for presentation by the Research Network; the letter of notification will be sent by the conference software system in April 2017.
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New Abstract submission deadline : 15 February 2017.
Conference website and abstract submission platform: http://www.europeansociology.org/conferences/13th-conference-2017/. 
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If you have further questions regarding this call, the conference or the Critical Political Economy Research Network, feel free to contact monica.clualosada@utrgv.edu or a.wigger@fm.ru.nl.
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Do not hesitate to share the call with colleagues and students who might not be part of the CPERN community yet!

CPERN & IIPPE Call for Papers and Activist Proposals: The Political Economy of Inequalities and Instabilities in the 21st Century

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7th Annual Conference in Political Economy – “The Political Economy of Inequalities and Instabilities in the 21st Century”

Berlin School of Economics and Law, Berlin, September 13-15, 2017.

Organised by International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE), Critical Political Economy Research Network (CPERN) & Berlin Institute for International Political Economy (IPE)

CPERN is co-organising this conference. If you have any questions about submitting panels or papers to a CPERN stream contact Phoebe Moore p.moore@mdx.ac.uk

IIPPE, CPERN and IPE call for general submissions for the Conference but particularly welcome those on its core themes of inequalities and instabilities, which will be the focus for the plenary sessions. Proposals for presentations will, however, be considered on all aspects of political economy. New participants committed to political economy, interdisciplinarity, history of economic thought, critique of mainstream economics, and/or their application to policy analysis and activism are encouraged to submit an abstract.

Submissions may be made as (a) proposals for individual papers (b) proposals for panels (c) proposals for streams of panels (d) proposals on activism. CPERN is looking particularly for papers and panels on the themes of inequality and instability in the areas of critical global political economy, as explained further in the Electronic Proposal Form.

To submit a proposal, please go to this Electronic Proposal Form, and follow the instructions carefully. (Copy and paste the link into your Internet browser if not working with a click:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvn0ZIEGLNtGtCck-WJvhLbTtm0kZkzAmKTNb9yxUjDrjtng/viewform)

The extended deadline for proposals is 8 April 2017 at 23.59. All other deadline dates are stated in the Electronic Proposal Form.

For general information about IIPPE, its Working Groups, and the Conference, click here. For general information about CPERN, click here. For general information about IPE, click here.

We look forward to an outstanding IIPPE/CPERN/IPE Conference in Berlin.

The Conference Organising Committee,

Al Campbell, Trevor Evans, Niels Hahn, Phoebe Moore, Alfredo Saad Filho

Call for Papers – Mid-term conference: (Conflicting) Political Ontologies and Implications for Transformative Action

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CPERN in collaboration with the Institute of Labour Studies, Ljubljana:  (Conflicting) Political Ontologies and Implications for Transformative Action  

27-28th of May 2016, Department of Sociology, University of Ljubljana

Ontology is often overlooked in discussions about political thought and action. Several emerging debates reflect different and conflicting positions that are often either assumed, invisible or intentionally opaque. Breaking down the apparent barriers between philosophy and theory and theory and action, we welcome discussions on ontologies of power and transformative action. Critical realists have long demanded that ontology be taken seriously and have encouraged discussions on how ‘reality’ conditions action. New materialist and anti- and post-capitalist debates tease out the assumptions across Marxism and poststructuralism, and demand new ways of thinking about specific thought formations, ethical and moral frameworks. The current crisis has forced us to think, explore, and practice multiple ways of organising, resisting and building prefigurative practices. Understanding ontology not only as a philosophical standpoint but also as a myriad of calls for action will allow us to understand how people organise and what motivates us to do so/prevents us from doing so, and to initiate new ways of communicating and reflecting on our own ontological praxis.

We are keen to receive paper proposals which focus on exploring political and social ontologies for transformative action. Some of the topics we would like to invite in particular are:

  • Ontologies of capitalist spheres of production, trade and finance
  • Ontologies of praxis in trade unions, social movements and new Left political parties/platforms
  • Anarchism, feminism, new materialism and Marxism – ontological friends or foes?
  • The materialities of ecological challenges
  • The political economy of migration and human trafficking
  • Building tomorrow’s future today (with yesterday’s historical conditions) – Prefigurative practice and its relationship to time, space and capitalism
  • Damaged lives, intensified precarisation and horizontalist escapes
  • Reclaiming the Caliban and the Witch: social reproduction as a source of value-creation  

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The ESA programme (containing the CPERN sessions) is now online

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Dear all,

The programme for the forthcoming European Sociological Association
conference can now be found on the conference website. See here –
http://www.esa11thconference.eu/home – for more details.

When clicking on the programme link, the drop-down menu on the right of the
screen gives you numerous options. Here you can select the CPERN sessions
(or those for any other network, should you wish) – we are RN06 Critical
Political Economy. I hope that you agree that we have been able to put
together an exciting and diverse series of sessions organised around the
themes touched upon in our call ‘Whose critique, whose crisis and whose
change?’

You will also see that two of our panels have been organised with two other
ESA networks – RN08 Disaster, Conflict and Social Crisis, and RN18
Sociology of Communications and Media Research. This cooperation extended
to the two high-profile semi-plenary sessions organised with these networks
– please click on the SPS link at the top of the drop-down menu for more
details (the sessions are 02SPS and 08SPS).

Best wishes,

Ian

CfP: European Sociological Association 11th Conference – Torino, 28-31 August 2013 – ‘Crisis, Critique and Change’

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European Sociological Association 11th Conference – Torino, 28-31 August 2013 – ‘Crisis, Critique and Change’ 


Call for Papers, Critical Political Economy Research Network (RN06) – DL 1 February 2013

WHOSE CRISIS, WHOSE CRITIQUE AND WHOSE CHANGE?

The recent years have, in the eyes of many, been characterised by a multiplicity of crises, the growth in significance of critiques of the current state of affairs, and increasing demands for change. However, the uneven impact of crises, the concentration of voices of critique in only parts of society and the world, and the very different demands for change that have been articulated, force critical political economy scholars to ask the question ‘Whose crisis, whose critique and whose change?’

This observation has many aspects to it. For example, apart from the initial shock in late 2008, many of those towards the top of different societies have suffered very little (if any) decline in wealth and incomes over the last few years. Moreover, the critiques have come from the radical Right as much as from more progressive currents of thought such as the Occupy, Indignados and other movements. Finally, very real change may be taking place, but in Europe for example it is often in the form of brutal and authoritarian structural adjustment programmes, social and political polarisation/conflict and a more general crisis of everyday living for the majority of the population (e.g. the rise in bankruptcies, evictions and imprisonments related to debt, the reductions of salaries, social rights and entitlements).

For this reason we are interested in hosting a wide range of topics in our sessions that are linked to the above themes. For instance, this could include the sharp growth of precarious labour and insecurity, the rise of state authoritarianism, the question of resistance and dissent from all sides of the political and social spectrum, the crises of welfare states and everyday living, and so on. More broadly, this could also include the crises and continuities in ‘living dead’ neoliberalism, the evolution of Eurozone governance, the possibilities for more progressive ‘models of capitalism’ in the future, the lessons that can be learned from the ‘pink tide’ in Latin America, the Arab uprisings, etc..

We are interested in all of the above plus more. As such, we seek contributions from those with an interest in political economy research, regardless of their disciplinary affiliation and whether they are in academia or not. We also hope to attract a diverse range of participants, from a number of countries and backgrounds.

We invite submission of papers and panel proposals for our open sessions – please see the instructions below and in the general CfP in the attachment. Moreover, at the Torino conference we have two joint sessions with other ESA networks. If you are interested in participating in these joint sessions, please indicate this on your submission. 

RN06 JOINT SESSION WITH RN08 DISASTER, CONFLICT AND SOCIAL CRISIS

The Eurozone Crisis as an Opportunity: Structural Changes within the Member States of the Eurozone and the European Union

(Chair: Laura Horn (RN06) and Nikos Petropoulos (RN08) )

This joint panel with RN08 invites submissions on the theme of ‘The Eurozone Crisis as an Opportunity: Structural Changes within the Member States of the Eurozone and the European Union’. The focus will be on the structural – economic, political, and social changes – within the member states themselves. Special emphasis will be on the states that have especially been affected by the debt crisis and have taken part of the ECB/IMF/EU bail-out mechanism (e.g. Ireland, Portugal, Greece) or have received loans from EU/ECB to support their bank system (e.g. Spain). Papers may also focus on structural changes, if any, within the ‘solvent’ states of the Eurozone and the European Union (Germany, Finland, Holland, Austria, the Czech Republic). Priority will be given to comparative empirical and critical analysis. 

RN06 JOINT SESSION WITH RN18 SOCIOLOGY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA RESEARCH

Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communication in Times of Capitalist Crisis and Change

(Chair: Ian Bruff (RN06) and Christian Fuchs (RN18))

This joint panel with RN18 invites submissions on the theme of ‘Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communication in Times of Capitalist Crisis and Change’. Abstract submissions could, for example, focus on the role of media and communication in critical political economy approaches to the crisis, the role of critical political economy approaches in the sociology of communications and the media, or indeed any other aspects of topics and issues linked to this theme. In other words, this joint session focuses on the intersection of Critical Political Economy and the Sociology of the Media and Communication. It is interested in contributions that focus on one or more of the following questions:

  • Which approaches that are based on Marx, Critical Political Economy, or Marxism are there today for understanding the current crisis and ongoing changes?
  • What is the role of the media and communication in these approaches?
  • What is the role of Critical Political Economy, Marx, and Marxism in the Sociology of the Media and Communication?
  • What is the role and value of Marx today for understanding crisis, change, capitalism, communication, and critique?


 INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Authors are invited to submit their abstract either to the general session (open) or any specific session. Please submit each abstract only to one session. After abstract evaluation, coordinators will have the chance to transfer papers between sessions where applicable.

Abstracts should not exceed 1750 characters (including spaces, approximately 250 words). Each paper session will have the duration of 1.5 hours. Normally sessions will include 4 papers.

Abstracts can only be submitted online no later than 1st of February 2013 to the conference website http://www.esa11thconference.eu. Abstracts sent by email cannot be accepted.

The information requested during abstract submission include: 1) name(s), affiliation(s) and email of all the author(s); 2) contact details of presenting author (postal address, and telephone in addition to email); 3) title of proposed presentation; 4) up to 4 keywords (optional).

Submitting authors will receive an email of acknowledgement of successful submission receipt. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and selected for presentation by the relevant Research Network or Research Stream; the letter of notification will be sent by the conference software system in early April 2013. Each author cannot submit more than two abstracts (as first author).

Abstract submission deadline: 1 February 2013
Abstract submission platform: http://www.esa11thconference.eu