Category Archives: Media

CONFERENCE & CALL FOR PAPERS

CALL FOR PAPERS

Care and housing are foundational for human well-being. Both deal with organising and
sustaining livelihoods: while care as a human activity reacts to the ever-given contingency
of life, housing arranges a place for undertaking everyday need-satisfying activities. In both
fields, crises have exacerbated over the last decades, manifesting in care gaps, labour
and care migration, and precarious working conditions of care workers, respectively in
overburdening costs due to the transformation of homes into assets, leading to
gentrification and segregation. Despite being seldomly investigated together, care and
housing as well as their related crises are co-constitutive.
From the 1990s onwards, two simultaneous tendencies can be observed in European care
regimes and housing systems. On the one hand, neoliberal reforms have aimed at
privatisation, commodification, marketisation, and financialisaton. This has rearranged
welfare states, promoting variegated forms of capitalism. Allegedly singular events like the
global financial crisis, subsequent austerity measures, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the
current cost of living crisis have furthermore deepened structural problems of access and
affordability. This has led to increasing socioeconomic and spatial polarisations as well as
social inequalities in the relations of gender, race, and class. On the other hand, these
developments have transformed the provision of care and housing into a contested terrain
leading to labour disputes and struggles, such as care protests, or initiatives for
expropriating institutional investors. The wide range of community-based or infrastructural
projects has to be seen against the backdrop of the increasing search for alternative care
and housing provision. On top of that, rapid technological developments and climate
change further accelerate the reorganisation of care and housing arrangements and
practices built up by all parties involved in both contested fields.

Given these multiple transformations, the conference “Transformative Change in the Contested Fields of Care and Housing in Europe” seeks to analyse the contemporary developments in care regimes and housing systems and respective configurations of care
and housing. 

Of particular interest is research which reflects on the connections of the two
fields. We aim at a broad interdisciplinary dialogue of social sciences to grasp different
perspectives of these multidimensional changes. Thus, we welcome scholars from
disciplines like sociology, socioeconomics, political economy, political science, geography,
philosophy, history, and interdisciplinary strands like gender and intersectionality studies
to contribute to the common investigation and discussion of the contested and entangled
fields of care and housing in Europe. We welcome both, theoretical approaches, and
empirical research, to analyse and reflect on the contemporary transformations, its causes,
and effects as well as commonalities and differences between fields and countries,
between city and countryside.

The conference aims at addressing the following questions with the explicit intention of
using multiple theoretical perspectives and to grasp the broad diversity of European
countries, regions, and cities:

• What are the driving forces of transformative change in the fields of care and housing?
Which social, economic, political, cultural, and technological dynamics and which
norms and values, demands and claims shape modes of care and housing provision?
• How do markets, the state, the family and the community reorganise care and
housing? What are other key actors in different institutional contexts at multiple levels
(from local to global)?
• Which disputes take place in “doing care” and “doing housing”? How do these relate
to multi-scalar struggles over working conditions, wages, and affordability as well as
the design of liveable neighbourhoods?
• What are relevant economic and political orders, welfare regimes, and social policies
and how do they structure different forms of care and housing provision?
• How do new modes, forms, and arrangements of care and housing provision promote
a different understanding of life and work? How are they interrelated with the
reorganisation of paid, unpaid and volunteer, professional and lay work and new forms
of work organisation?
• How are modes of care and housing provision and the transformative change in the
configuration of care and housing affected by the development and implementation of
digital technologies? How does technological change influence the meaning and
organisation of care and housing?
• How are modes of care and housing provision and the transformative change in the
configuration of care and housing affected by the climate crisis? How does it contribute
to changes in the governance of communities, neighbourhoods, and the living
environment to reconfigure care and housing provision?
• How do social, economic, gendered, and ethnic inequalities and socio-spatial
polarisations shape the organisation of care and housing? How do they affect
transformative change, social and ecological demands, and digitalisation of care and
housing arrangements?
• What are the commonalities and differences in the provision of care and housing?
How can theoretical and methodological approaches contribute to a better
understanding of care and housing in Europe? What are the potentials and limitations
of approaches that integrate both fields?

Abstract submission:

We invite researchers to submit an abstract (250-300 words and full affiliation of the
author/s) by 31st July 2023 and will inform you about the acceptance of your paper by 31st
August 2023. Please send your submissions to contestedcareandhousing@jku.at. The
conference language is English. Travel and accommodation costs will not be covered by
the organisers; there are no conference fees.

“Transformative Change in the Contested Fields of Care and Housing in Europe “

We invite you to participate in the conference, which aims at addressing diverse questions with the explicit intention of using multiple theoretical perspectives and to grasp the broad diversity of European
countries, regions, and cities.

31st July, 2023

Submission Deadline

We invite researchers to submit an abstract (250-300 words and full affiliation of the
author/s) by 31st July 2023 and will inform you about the acceptance of your paper by 31st
August 2023. Please send your submissions to contestedcareandhousing@jku.at. The
conference language is English. 

Organised by:

Johannes Kepler University Linz, 
WU Vienna,
Austrian Academy of Sciences – ÖAW,
University of Graz,
Competence Centre for Infrastructure Economics, Public Servies and Social Provisioning,
Sorgenetz

Organizers and chairs:
Brigitte Aulenbacher
Andreas Novy
Valentin Fröhlich
Benjamin Baumgartner
Florian Pimminger
Hans Volmary
Administration:
Tobias Eder

 

Program & Streaming Link for Public Lecture by 5th visiting professor Julia Steinberger

PUBLIC LECTURE BY julia steinberger

Find our Program and the Streaming Link for the event here:

More Information

“Living Well Within Limits”

For our international community, we provide a streaming of the event.

LINKS

Permanent Call for IKPS Polanyi Papers

Permanent Call for Polanyi Papers

Polanyi Paper series​

March, 2023

The “Polanyi Papers” series of the IKPS plans to collect texts which deal with ongoing transformations and explore contemporary challenges inspired by Karl Polanyi or further the debates on Polanyi’s work and concepts.

The series is open for contributions by international scholars but also, students, doctoral students and/or Ph.D. holders who have written a paper on his work or on a topic on current issues which utilizes Polanyi’ work as a theoretical framework and starting point. The paper series aims to contribute to the international debates on the contemporary relevance of Karl Polanyi’s work. In particular for young researchers, it offers the opportunity to contribute to the international debate on Polanyi’s work and have their work discussed by international experts. Papers should not exceed 6000 words and will be reviewed by the IKPS team.

If you wish to submit a paper, please send it to Maria Markantonatou or Roland Atzmüller

Emails: markantonatou@gmail.com, roland.atzmueller@jku.at

Author’s Guide​
All submissions should be prepared in accordance with this guideline and submitted to the series editors by email
• as a WORD document (set in Calibri)
containing,
• Full title (& subtitle)
• all authors’ full names
• short author CV – 150 words max. each
• abstract – 200-300 words
• main text file – under 6000 words subdivided into at least 3 sub-sections including titles
• references in APA 7th style

The IKPS will use an uniform cover page, Impressum and format the paper text, images and graphs according to the series’ formatting style.

Public Lecture by 4th visiting professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus

We cordially invite you to our next Public Lecture!

Public lecture by 4th visiting professor bernhard ebbinghaus

Welfare state resilience as a countermovement in economic crises?
Europe facing the Great Recession and the Pandemic

January 2023

The lecture will be held in German.

The lecture discusses the use of employment policy in the two major economic crises of the twentieth century. It explores the two crisis periods: the Great Recession following the global financial market crash of 2008 and the health challenge plus economic crisis during the Coronavirus pandemic since early 2020. These have been laboratories of ad hoc and lasting changes in welfare states. Comparing welfare states across Europe, the analysis will investigate the social and employment policies to increase the resilience of welfare states through enhancing the absorptive and adaptive capacity during a crisis. It also pays attention to the role of social partners in coping with the two crises. The empirical analysis focuses on the use of job retention and other policies to stabilize income and reduce unemployment during the crisis, using policy trackers and macro-indicators.

NEW DATE!!!
January 18th 2023, 7:00 pm (CET)
Urania, Dachsaal 
The lecture will be held in German


Organized by:

University of Vienna
Institute for Multilevel-Governance and Development (WU Vienna);
International Karl Polanyi Society

 

In cooperation with Stadt Wien

 

More ‘News’: 

Linz, 04th – 06th December 2023: Transformative Change in the Contested Fields of Care and Housing in Europe
You can now read the final Program & find the streaming link for the Public Lecture by Julia Steinberger here!
Now Open! Permanent Call for contributions by international scholars but also, students, doctoral students and Ph.D. holders.
POSTPONED! Join us for the public lecture by our fourth Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus on January 18th
We invite you to dive deeper with us into the topic of “provisioning” with the fields of care & housing
We are delighted to invite you to our New Webinar Series on “Shaping Provisioning Systems for Social-Ecological Transformation”
Einstieg in das Leben und Werk Karl Polanyi’s – die Vorträge als Videos
Einladung zu unserer Ausstellungs-Finissage
Join us for the public lecture by our third Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Ayşe Buğra on May 17th @7pm

Read our new Debate on the Contested Provisioning of Care & Housing

New Debate!

the Contested Provisioning of Care & Housing

15th of September, 2022

Andreas Novy & Brigitte Aulenbacher

The Austrian Academy of Science has funded a three year research project coordinated by Johannes-Kepler University Linz and Vienna University of Economics and Business on “The Contested Provisioning of Care and Housing” (www.contestedcareandhousing.com). The project, which finances four PhD-students, investigates current transformations of care and housing provision by drawing on insights from Karl Polanyi. Care and housing are undergoing profound changes in contemporary market societies: on the one hand, we are witnessing a market shift towards enforced commodification of care and housing, on the other hand, there is a community shift potentially going along with their decommodification. Both, market- and community-based forms of care and housing provision are embedded in relations of dominance and inequality and are thus contested. In this context, the IKPS has organized a debate on the “Contested Provisioning of Care and Housing”. It invited contributions shedding light on the contestation of care and housing provision by drawing on Polanyi’s core concepts:

(1) his substantive understanding of the economy, defined broadly as the organization of livelihoods,
(2) his four economic principles of (market) exchange, reciprocity, redistribution and householding,
(3) his concept of fictitious commodities and the related research on the commodification of goods (like housing) and services (like care) which have not been produced for exchange on markets and
(4) his analysis of a double movement of marketization (movement) and social protection (countermovement) that characterizes market societies. The contributions to this debate ideally try to discuss some of the following questions:

  • What are commonalities and particularities of care and housing provision/regimes in different countries? How can Polanyian concepts enrich such (regime) analyses?
  • What are commonalities and particularities of double movements, of marketization and social protection in care and housing?
  • How does the sector-specific composition of the principles of economic behavior and dynamics of the double movement impact relations of dominance and inequality as well as their contestation in the field of care and housing?

The debate strived to bring together experts from both research areas, to exchange and advance perspectives on care and housing and, moreover, to discuss how Polanyi’s work can inspire the investigation of their contested societal provisioning.

Benjamin Baumgartner

Valentin Fröhlich

Florian Pimminger

Hans Volmary

Read the essays on the Contested Provisioning of Care and Housing here: 

Invitation to our Fall Webinar Series

Fall 22 Webinar Series

Shaping provisioning systems for social-ecological transformation

We are delighted to inform you of our upcoming Fall 22 webinar series on “Shaping Provisioning Systems for Social-Ecological Transformation” after our sucessful  Deglobalization & Social-Ecological Transformation  series.

31st July, 2022

Shaping Provisioning Systems for Social-Ecological Transformation Webinar Series

In light of accelerating social-ecological crises, the IPCC report calls for “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society to limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius”. How can such an unprecedented transformation take place? Climate research has increasingly highlighted the insufficiency of individual behavioral changes (e.g. green consumerism), shifting the attention to the framework conditions – so-called provisioning systems (e.g. those for energy, food, or mobility) – that enable and constrain individual behavior. Provisioning systems, including elements such as infrastructures and diverse regulations, structure how everyday life can be lived, thereby establishing the conditions of possibility for climate-friendly living. While it is desirable to behave responsibly within existing framework conditions, it is much more important that more and more actors work together to change them. Thus, the key challenge of a social-ecological transformation consists in shaping provisioning systems collectively in a coordinated and goal-oriented way. This webinar series, consisting of three webinars, addresses this challenge from various angles. 

Dates
October 4th 2022, 6:30 pm (CET)
A match made in heaven? Synergies between ecological and social provisioning outcomes

October 18th 2022, 6:30 pm (CET)
My good life without me? Potentials and obstacles in democratizing provision systems for a social-ecological transformation

November 8th 2022, 6:30 pm (CET)
Transformation, here and now? Intervention strategies for a social-ecological transformation in diverse provisioning systems

Facilitators: Colleen Schneider, Richard Bärnthaler, Andreas Novy.

Organized by:
Institute for Multilevel-Governance and Development (WU Vienna);
Institute for Ecological Economics (WU Vienna);
International Karl Polanyi Society

In cooperation with Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Brussels 

 

Find out more about our Webinar Series

Meeting-ID: 917 1394 9872
Zoom Code: 178033

Meeting-ID: 912 8678 2433
Zoom Code: 870479

Meeting-ID: 930 5273 9179
Zoom Code: 858852

More ‘News’: 

Linz, 04th – 06th December 2023: Transformative Change in the Contested Fields of Care and Housing in Europe
You can now read the final Program & find the streaming link for the Public Lecture by Julia Steinberger here!
Now Open! Permanent Call for contributions by international scholars but also, students, doctoral students and Ph.D. holders.
POSTPONED! Join us for the public lecture by our fourth Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus on January 18th
We invite you to dive deeper with us into the topic of “provisioning” with the fields of care & housing
We are delighted to invite you to our New Webinar Series on “Shaping Provisioning Systems for Social-Ecological Transformation”
Einstieg in das Leben und Werk Karl Polanyi’s – die Vorträge als Videos
Einladung zu unserer Ausstellungs-Finissage
Join us for the public lecture by our third Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Ayşe Buğra on May 17th @7pm

Vorträge zur Ausstellung zum “Nachsehen”

Vorträge zur Ausstellung zum "Nachsehen"

Polanyi zum kennenlernen

Unsere Ausstellung “Karl Polanyi – Von der entfesselten Wirtschaft zur solidarischen Gesellschaft” ist ein hoch informativer, dichter Beitrag zu unserer Aufgabe das Werk dieses großen Denkers zu vermitteln. Die Vorträge zu seiner Zeit in Wien und dem Konzept der Ausstellung dienen als hervorragender Einstieg in seine Biografie.

10th May, 2022

Die Vorträge als Einstieg ins Werk Polanyi’s

Am 3.Mai 2022 fand die feierliche Eröffnung der Ausstellung “Karl Polanyi – Von der entfesselten Wirtschaft zur solidarischen Gesellschaft” im österreichischen Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien statt.

Die von der International Karl Polanyi Society publizierte Ausstellung zum Leben und Wirken Karl Polanyis war damit zum ersten Mal in Wien zu sehen. Besucher_Innen bekamen Einblick in Polanyis Werk durch informative Vorträge von Expert_Innen wie Brigitte Aulenbacher und Claus Thomasberger.

Eröffnung durch Harald Lindenhofer vom Wirtschaftsmuseum Wien

Begrüßung durch Andreas Novy

Claus Thomasberger “Karl Polanyi und das rote Wien”
Karl Polanyi und das Rote Wien – eine vielschichtige Beziehung: 1886 in Wien geboren, kam Polanyi im Jahr 1919 – schwerkrank und durch eine Kriegsverletzung geschwächt – in die Stadt zurück. Hier traf er seine spätere Frau. Hier wurde seine Tochter geboren. In Wien arbeitete er bis 1933, als er sich aus politischen Gründen zur Emigration gezwungen sah, als Redakteur des „Österreichischen Volkswirts“, der damals wichtigsten mitteleuropäischen Wirtschafts- und Finanzwochenzeitung. Gleichzeitig beteiligte er sich an der Debatte über die sozialistische Rechnungslegung, die von Ludwig von Mises, dem in den 1920er Jahren führenden Vertreter der Schule der Österreichischen Schule der Volkswirtschaftslehre, initiiert worden war, wie auch an den Strategiediskussionen, die am Rande des Austromarxismus geführt wurden. In Wien verbrachte Polanyi die prägenden Jahre seines Lebens. Der Vortrag zeichnet in wenigen Strichen nach, wie sich Polanyis Erfahrungen im Roten Wien in seinen späteren Werken, die ihn zu einem der bedeutendsten Sozialwissenschaftler des 20. Jahrhunderts werden ließen, niederschlugen.

Maria Markantonatou “Understanding the Covid pandemic – Inspired by Karl Polanyi”
To cope with the effects of the lockdowns and to try to return to “normality”, governments around the world, and even self-portrayed neoliberal ones, resorted to massive spending and the breaking of pre-pandemic fiscal orthodoxies. Thus, a current understanding of the pandemic management is that “The state is back. Long live globalization”, that states have “a choice between authoritarian nationalism and an open global order” and that “the return of government” ends an era “in which power and responsibility migrated from states to markets”. Is this the case? Does the rise of authoritarian nationalism conflict with the neoliberal globalization of the past decades? Karl Polanyi stressed that the self-regulating market system was not established spontaneously, and the state intervened to assist the maintenance of the market and correct the effects of crises borne by capitalist dynamics. What does this tell us about today’s state interventions implemented to correct the pandemic crisis effects? Do they restore or challenge the pre-pandemic economic governance?


Brigitte Aulenbacher “Von der entfesselten Wirtschaft zur solidarischen Gesellschaft: Das Ausstellungskonzept”
Wie ein roter Faden zieht sich die hochaktuelle Frage, wie die Menschheit die industrielle Zivilisation überleben kann, durch Karl Polanyis Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte des Kapitalismus hindurch, in der er das Verhältnis von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft und die Herausbidlung der “Marktgesellschaft” wie des “Maschinenzeitalters” thematisiert. Als scharfsichtiger Kritiker des Wirtschaftsliberalismus zeigt er, wie die ökologischen und sozialen Lebensgrundlagen zerstört werden, wenn Märkte der Gesellschaft den Takt vorgeben und Natur, Arbeit und Geld wie Waren gehandelt werden, und wie die Gesellschaft sich zu schützen sucht. Der Vortrag arbeitet heraus, wie seine Denkfiguren dazu beitragen können, die Transformation des Gegenwartskapitalismus zu verstehen, und seine demokratisch-ökosozialistische Vision einer freien und gerechten Gesellschaft die Suche nach Wegen in eine post-kapitalistische Zukunft anregen kann.

Die Vorträge der Aussellungs-Eröffnung jetzt zum "Nachsehen" auf unserem YouTube-Kanal

So viele spannende Vorträge, so oft gleichzeitig, Lebensbedingungen, die nicht mit Abendveranstaltungen oder den Veranstaltungsorten zusammengehen - wir fördern Bildung in Eigenregie - wann Sie wollen und wo Sie wollen - Wir wollen zur proaktiven Lebensführung beitragen und die Möglichkeit geben, dass unsere Inhalte auch abseits der physischen Veranstaltungen zugänglich sind.

More ‘News’: 

Linz, 04th – 06th December 2023: Transformative Change in the Contested Fields of Care and Housing in Europe
You can now read the final Program & find the streaming link for the Public Lecture by Julia Steinberger here!
Now Open! Permanent Call for contributions by international scholars but also, students, doctoral students and Ph.D. holders.
POSTPONED! Join us for the public lecture by our fourth Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus on January 18th
We invite you to dive deeper with us into the topic of “provisioning” with the fields of care & housing
We are delighted to invite you to our New Webinar Series on “Shaping Provisioning Systems for Social-Ecological Transformation”
Einstieg in das Leben und Werk Karl Polanyi’s – die Vorträge als Videos
Einladung zu unserer Ausstellungs-Finissage
Join us for the public lecture by our third Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Ayşe Buğra on May 17th @7pm

Finissage im Wirtschaftsmuseum

Events

fINISSAGE & SOMMERPARTY IM WIRTSCHAFTSMUSEUM

Nach einer erfolgreichen ersten Schau der IKPS Ausstellung “Karl Polanyi – Von der entfesselten Wirtschaft zur solidarischen Gesellschaft”, freuen wir uns auf die Finissage und gleichzeitige Sommerparty  im Wirtschaftsmuseum Wien.

10th June, 2022

Einladung zur Finissage
Im Rahmen einer kleinen aber feinen Abschlussveranstaltung laden wir unsere Mitglieder und Interessierte am Dienstag, den 21. Juni 2022 um 18:30 zum gemeinsamen Closing der Ausstellung im Wirtschaftsmuseum Wien in der Vogelsanggasse 36, 1050 Wien.

Programm:
Eröffnung & Moderation: Brigitte Aulenbacher (JKU/IKPS)

Keynotes:

Brigitte Aulenbacher (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, IKPS)
Von der entfesselten Wirtschaft zur solidarischen Gesellschaft: Das Ausstellungskonzept

Wie ein roter Faden zieht sich die hochaktuelle Frage, wie die Menschheit die industrielle Zivilisation überleben kann, durch Karl Polanyis Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte des Kapitalismus hindurch, in der er das Verhältnis von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft und die Herausbidlung der “Marktgesellschaft” wie des “Maschinenzeitalters” thematisiert. Als scharfsichtiger Kritiker des Wirtschaftsliberalismus zeigt er, wie die ökologischen und sozialen Lebensgrundlagen zerstört werden, wenn Märkte der Gesellschaft den Takt vorgeben und Natur, Arbeit und Geld wie Waren gehandelt werden, und wie die Gesellschaft sich zu schützen sucht. Der Vortrag arbeitet heraus, wie seine Denkfiguren dazu beitragen können, die Transformation des Gegenwartskapitalismus zu verstehen, und seine demokratisch-ökosozialistische Vision einer freien und gerechten Gesellschaft die Suche nach Wegen in eine post-kapitalistische Zukunft anregen kann.

Walter Ötsch (Cusanus Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung)
Karl Polanyi und Friedrich Hayek: zwei Ökonomen im Wien der 1920er Jahre.
Karl Polanyi und Friedrich Hayek gelten als Ökonomen mit einander ausschließenden Theorien. Dennoch teilen sie einen Grundbegriff, nämlich von „dem Markt“ in der Einzahl – dieser Begriff kann als Schlüsselbegriff des Neoliberalismus angesehen werden. Polanyi und Hayek beschreiben den Markt als relativ homogene Einheit und verstehen ihn als Ergebnis einer langen kulturellen Evolution, die durch den Staat konstruiert und mitbeeinflusst wird. Entscheidend sind aber die Unterschiede: nämlich die Vorstellungen, wie der Markt sich gebildet hat, um welche Zeiträume es dabei geht, welche Waren er umfasst, in welcher Tiefe und Weite er gesetzt wird und welche Tendenzen sich aus ihm ergeben.

Corinna Dengler (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien)
Feminist Futures: Mit Karl Polanyi über Care in einer Postwachstumsgesellschaft nachdenken
Dieses Jahr ist feiert der Club of Rome-Bericht „Grenzen des Wachstums“ mit seiner Kernaussage, dass unendliches Wirtschaftswachstum auf einem endlichen Planeten unmöglich sei, sein fünfzigjähriges Jubiläum. Ein halbes Jahrhundert und etliche Debatten, die versuchten Wirtschaftswachstum und Nachhaltigkeit in Einklang zu bringen (z.B. nachhaltige Entwicklung, Grünes Wachstum), später, zeigt sich im letzten IPCC-Bericht deutlich, dass das „Gleiche in Grün“ schlicht nicht genug ist, um ökologische Krisen und allem voran die Klimakrise zu lösen. Vor diesem Hintergrund schließt der Postwachstumsdiskurs an die ökologische Wachstumskritik der 1970er Jahre an und sucht nachdem guten Leben für Alle innerhalb planetarer Grenzen. Wenn wir über die Konturen von Postwachstumsgesellschaften nachdenken, dürfen feministische Perspektiven nicht fehlen, denn einen Automatismus, der eine Postwachstumsgesellschaft auch gleichzeitig geschlechtergerecht macht, gibt es nicht. Dieser Beitrag stellt Debatten um Care-Arbeit (dt. Sorgearbeit, seltener: Reproduktionsarbeit) ins Zentrum und fragt: Was lässt sich von Karl Polanyi für die Transformation hin zu einer emanzipatorischen, feministischen Postwachstumsgesellschaft lernen?

Hendrik Theine (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, BEIGEWUM – Beirat für gesellschafts-, wirtschafts- und umweltpolitische Alternativen)
Die „Wiederentdeckung“ Karl Polanyis hat zu wichtigen Debatten und Erkenntnissen in den Sozialwissenschaften rund die sozial-ökologische Transformation und die Rolle von Doppel- und Gegenbewegungen geführt. Das Buch „Klimasoziale Politik“ (herausgegeben von Attac, der Armutskonferenz und dem BEIGEWUM) schließt an eine von Polanyis zentralen Thesen an, nämlich dass der reine Fokus auf Marktprozesse die existierende soziale Krise weiter anheizen wird und damit die Erreichung der Klimaziele nicht möglich wird. Demgegenüber schlägt Klimasoziale Politik ein neues Narrativ vor, nämlich dass sozialer Fortschritt bei gleichzeitiger Reduktion von CO2-Emissionen zu erreichen ist. Klimasoziale Politik hat damit den Anspruch, eine grundlegende Verbesserung unseres Lebens sowohl auf sozialer als auch klimapolitischer Ebene zu ermöglichen. Sie diskutiert konkrete Maßnahmen, um eine sozial gerechte und ökologisch nachhaltige Gesellschaft zu gestalten. Die Bereiche umfassen nicht nur menschliche Grundbedürfnisse wie Gesundheit, Wohnen oder Ernährung. Auch Geschlechtergerechtigkeit, Inklusion, Pflege, Überreichtum und ein zukunftsgerichtetes Staatsbudget sind zentrale Themen des Buches.

More ‘News’: 

Linz, 04th – 06th December 2023: Transformative Change in the Contested Fields of Care and Housing in Europe
You can now read the final Program & find the streaming link for the Public Lecture by Julia Steinberger here!
Now Open! Permanent Call for contributions by international scholars but also, students, doctoral students and Ph.D. holders.
POSTPONED! Join us for the public lecture by our fourth Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus on January 18th
We invite you to dive deeper with us into the topic of “provisioning” with the fields of care & housing
We are delighted to invite you to our New Webinar Series on “Shaping Provisioning Systems for Social-Ecological Transformation”
Einstieg in das Leben und Werk Karl Polanyi’s – die Vorträge als Videos
Einladung zu unserer Ausstellungs-Finissage
Join us for the public lecture by our third Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Ayşe Buğra on May 17th @7pm

Public Lecture by 3rd visiting professor Ayşe Buğra

Visiting Professorship - Ayşe Buğra

Universalism, cultural difference and the “revenge of politics”: Revisiting Karl Polanyi in the contemporary global political environment

May 17th, 2022

There is an apparent contradiction between the denial and affirmation of diversity in neoliberal global capitalism. On the one hand, it was assumed that “There is no alternative” to market-dominated, open economies, leaving little room for diversity in economic institutions and policies. On the other hand, the “cultural turn” predicted geopolitical conflicts due to a “clash of civilizations” or promoted “alternative modernities” in which social and political relations and institutions are shaped differently from those in Western democracies. 

The lecture problematizes this “culture talk” that impedes a proper diagnosis of the current threats to democracy and the rule of law in both Western and non-Western countries.

By drawing on Polanyi’s idea of the “countermovement” against the disruptions caused by a market-dominated economic order, illiberal political parties and movements that challenge liberal democracy are part of a reactionary countermovement. Claims to exclusive representation of the “real people” against “internal and external enemies” of the nation are sustained by idealizing the will to protect society’s historically given cultural identity. Contrary to such culturalization and in line with Polanyi’s reflections on “the reality of society” and “freedom in a complex society”, it has to be stressed that the ideals of equality and freedom are not limited to Western societies. Empowered by information and communication technologies, all over the world dissidents who embrace the ideals of equality and freedom will continue to exist in increasing numbers. Ignoring their voices by references to civilizational difference is neither compatible with global justice nor with peaceful international co-existence.

Ausstellung im Wirtschaftsmuseum

Events

Ausstellung im Wirtschaftsmuseum WIEN

14th April, 2022

Einladung zur Eröffnung
Im Rahmen einer kleinen aber feinen Eröffnungsveranstaltung laden wir unsere Mitglieder und Interessierte am Dienstag, den 3. Mai 2022 um 18:30 zur gemeinsamen Feier des Beginns der Ausstellung im Wirtschaftsmuseum Wien in der Vogelsanggasse 36, 1050 Wien.

Programm:
Eröffnung & Moderation: Andreas Novy (WU/IKPS)
Keynotes:

Claus Thomasberger (IKPS)
Karl Polanyi und das Rote Wien

Karl Polanyi und das Rote Wien – eine vielschichtige Beziehung: 1886 in Wien geboren, kam Polanyi im Jahr 1919 – schwerkrank und durch eine Kriegsverletzung geschwächt – in die Stadt zurück. Hier traf er seine spätere Frau. Hier wurde seine Tochter geboren. In Wien arbeitete er bis 1933, als er sich aus politischen Gründen zur Emigration gezwungen sah, als Redakteur des „Österreichischen Volkswirts“, der damals wichtigsten mitteleuropäischen Wirtschafts- und Finanzwochenzeitung. Gleichzeitig beteiligte er sich an der Debatte über die sozialistische Rechnungslegung, die von Ludwig von Mises, dem in den 1920er Jahren führenden Vertreter der Schule der Österreichischen Schule der Volkswirtschaftslehre, initiiert worden war, wie auch an den Strategiediskussionen, die am Rande des Austromarxismus geführt wurden. In Wien verbrachte Polanyi die prägenden Jahre seines Lebens. Der Vortrag zeichnet in wenigen Strichen nach, wie sich Polanyis Erfahrungen im Roten Wien in seinen späteren Werken, die ihn zu einem der bedeutendsten Sozialwissenschaftler des 20. Jahrhunderts werden ließen, niederschlugen.

Maria Markantonatou (University of the Agean, IKPS)
Die Covid-Pandemie verstehen: Inspirationen von Karl Polanyi – per Video
To cope with the effects of the lockdowns and to try to return to “normality”, governments around the world, and even self-portrayed neoliberal ones, resorted to massive spending and the breaking of pre-pandemic fiscal orthodoxies. Thus, a current understanding of the pandemic management is that “The state is back. Long live globalization”, that states have “a choice between authoritarian nationalism and an open global order” and that “the return of government” ends an era “in which power and responsibility migrated from states to markets”. Is this the case? Does the rise of authoritarian nationalism conflict with the neoliberal globalization of the past decades? Karl Polanyi stressed that the self-regulating market system was not established spontaneously, and the state intervened to assist the maintenance of the market and correct the effects of crises borne by capitalist dynamics. What does this tell us about today’s state interventions implemented to correct the pandemic crisis effects? Do they restore or challenge the pre-pandemic economic governance?

Brigitte Aulenbacher (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, IKPS)
Von der entfesselten Wirtschaft zur solidarischen Gesellschaft: Das Ausstellungskonzept

Wie ein roter Faden zieht sich die hochaktuelle Frage, wie die Menschheit die industrielle Zivilisation überleben kann, durch Karl Polanyis Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte des Kapitalismus hindurch, in der er das Verhältnis von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft und die Herausbidlung der “Marktgesellschaft” wie des “Maschinenzeitalters” thematisiert. Als scharfsichtiger Kritiker des Wirtschaftsliberalismus zeigt er, wie die ökologischen und sozialen Lebensgrundlagen zerstört werden, wenn Märkte der Gesellschaft den Takt vorgeben und Natur, Arbeit und Geld wie Waren gehandelt werden, und wie die Gesellschaft sich zu schützen sucht. Der Vortrag arbeitet heraus, wie seine Denkfiguren dazu beitragen können, die Transformation des Gegenwartskapitalismus zu verstehen, und seine demokratisch-ökosozialistische Vision einer freien und gerechten Gesellschaft die Suche nach Wegen in eine post-kapitalistische Zukunft anregen kann.

More ‘News’: 

Linz, 04th – 06th December 2023: Transformative Change in the Contested Fields of Care and Housing in Europe
You can now read the final Program & find the streaming link for the Public Lecture by Julia Steinberger here!
Now Open! Permanent Call for contributions by international scholars but also, students, doctoral students and Ph.D. holders.
POSTPONED! Join us for the public lecture by our fourth Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus on January 18th
We invite you to dive deeper with us into the topic of “provisioning” with the fields of care & housing
We are delighted to invite you to our New Webinar Series on “Shaping Provisioning Systems for Social-Ecological Transformation”
Einstieg in das Leben und Werk Karl Polanyi’s – die Vorträge als Videos
Einladung zu unserer Ausstellungs-Finissage
Join us for the public lecture by our third Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor Ayşe Buğra on May 17th @7pm