The global nature of the current financial crisis has turned attention to the uneven geographical development of capitalism and reminded us that "crisis" is an important mechanism in its historical transformation.
Turning a historical lens on the role of crises of capital, social theorists have examined connections between the contemporary crisis and the oil crisis of the 1970s, which had important reverberations globally, not least in the state socialist polities of Europe.
Inspired by scholarship that traces the origins of neoliberalism to the crisis of the 1970s, this summer school aims to draw out the relationships between the neoliberal response to crisis and the socialist world. We seek to historicize how the crisis effected the trajectory of economic and social policy, as well as of political discourse, in East Europe, and to examine what role the second world played in adaptations to the crisis as global markets expanded and the region became increasingly intertwined with capitalist economies.
Exploring these connections, the course seeks to historicize and spatialize the rise of a set of ideologies, policies, and governmentalities described as "neoliberalism" that became the dominant political economic response to the crisis in many parts of the world.Focusing on this region which is often taken as a model case of neoliberalization, we ask how socialist countries figured as debtors and creditors in the global economy, how their relation to debts and credits influenced their take on liberalization, and what specific linkages and tensions we find between processes and discourses of liberalization and of neoliberalization.
Our goal is to enhance critical understanding of the complicated relations between "socialist" and "capitalist" worlds, on the one hand, and of the intersection of (post)socialism and (neo)liberalism, on the other. By exploring neoliberalization in relation to longer-term liberalization processes in formerly state socialist polities in Europe, we therefore engage the debate on whether neoliberalism signifies fundamental continuity or a historical-institutional rupture in relation to liberalism.
Period
04-07-2011 - 15-07-2011 (2 weeks)
Target group
The course invites applications from graduate students, researchers, and junior scholars in the social sciences. Undergraduates without a university degree will not be considered. Pre-requisites: Working knowledge of substantive issues in the areas of socialism, postsocialist transformation, (neo)liberalization, and/or crises of capital is recommended
Course aim
This summer school course will bring together an interdisciplinary team of international and local scholars whose research revisits the complex link between "socialist liberalization" and "postsocialist neoliberalization" in the context of uneven geographical development of capitalism and its systemic crises. Aiming to problematize analytical and advocacy approaches which serve to obscure certain continuities and ruptures, we will explore four analytic themes: 1) the "socialist origins of neoliberalism"; 2) connections between "liberalizing socialisms" and "neoliberalizing postsocialisms"; 3) the importance of the term liberalism and the near absence of critiques of neoliberalism (as such) in the region; and 4) the dynamics of crisis: finance and debt in socialist and postsocialist states.
Credits
2.0 ECTS credits
Course fee
EUR 550 [Convert to USD]The tuition fee is due by May 28, 2011.The tuition fee includes participation in the summer course, some administrative costs, an orientation program and welcome pack, access to the CEU Library and IT facilities, reading materials, printing quota, and some social activities. EUR 500 [Convert to USD]Early Bird fee (500 EUR) is available for tuition payment made by April 30, 2011.
Course leader
Mary Taylor, The City University of New York, Center for Place, Culture and Politics, Graduate Center, US; Csilla Kalocsai, University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Center for Women's Studies in Education, Canada; Judit Bodn
Scholarships
Financial aid is available in the following categories:- tuition waiver- accommodation grant- travel grant (full or partial)
(Neo)liberalization of Socialism and Crises of Capital
