CAPPE
Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics
Public Lecture Series
Social Movements & Radical Politics
David Bailey | University of Birmingham
The Problem of Protest in Political Economy
Anti-Austerity and Contemporary Capitalism
23rd October 2018 | 6.30pm – 8.00pm | Edward Street Lecture Theatre
ALL WELCOME
The political economy literature has tended to underplay the role of anti-austerity protest in understanding contemporary capitalism. When anti-austerity protest is considered it is often depicted as either a dependent or an independent variable; whereas really a more accurate account would consider it to be both. The approach developed in this talk therefore discusses the way in which anti-austerity protest has, and might be, considered in relation to contemporary capitalism. It focuses especially on the development of different forms of anti-austerity protest as they have emerged in advanced industrial democracies in the post-2008 context. In doing so, it tries to show how we can understand these instances of dissent as both generated by, and generative of, developments within contemporary advanced capitalism; and thereby attempts to deal with some of the more general problems of integrating protest within theories of political economy. In doing so, the paper provides an overview of the concrete role of anti-austerity protest in the different political economies of the UK, US, Germany, Spain and Japan.
David J. Bailey is a senior lecturer in the University of Birmingham. His research and teaching focus on left parties, protest movements, and political economy, and the relationship between each of these, usually within the European context. He recently published a co-authored book, Beyond Defeat and Austerity: Disrupting (the critical political economy of) Neoliberal Europe, with the Routledge/RIPE Series in Global Political Economy, and has recent articles in British Journal of Political Science, New Political Economy, Comparative European Politics, and Socio-Economic Review. He is the vice-chair of the Critical Political Economy Research Network of the European Sociological Association; book reviews editor for the journal, Capital and Class; and the review essays editor for Comparative European Politics.
Other talks in the series will include:
Oct 23rd David Bailey (University of Birmingham) – The Problem of Protest in Political Economy: Contesting Contemporary Capitalism
13th November – Bice Maiguascha (University of Exeter) – Resisting The ‘Populist Hype’: A Feminist Critique
Nov 20th Mathijs Van Der Sande (Radboud University) – Direct Democracy and Charismatic Leadership
Dec 4th Ruth Kinna (Loughborough University) and Maria Rovisco (University of Leicester), with Robin Dunford: Radical Subjects in International Politics, celebration of Rowman and Littlefield book series
Jan 15th Dan Conway (University of Westminster) – Queer Activism (Hosted with Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender)
Jan 29th Anna Feigenbaum (Bournemouth University) – From Resilience to Resistance – Police Use of Force and Riot Control Cultures
Feb 12th Holly Ryan (Manchester Met) – Social Movements in Argentina and Brazil
Feb 26th Sumi Madhok (LSE) – Coloniality and the Gendered Politics of Protest in a State of Exception
March 12th David Wearing (Royal Holloway) – UK ties with the Gulf Arab monarchies: time for a change?
