Has capitalism seen its day?
Thu 23 Jan 2014, 18:00 - 19:15
- Venue
- The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH
Five years after the Lehman Brothers collapse, the crisis of advanced capitalist economies is far from over. Growth is sluggish, debt continues to rise, and social inequality is exploding. As the capitalist global economy is kept alive by unprecedented infusions of central bank money, old questions of the compatibility of capitalism and democracy are returning. The marketization of Polanyi’s three fictitious commodities - labour, nature and money - seems to have hit a limit, and the same may be true for technological innovation. Moreover, persistent public deficits seem to indicate a rising tension between private appropriation and a growing need for collective provision. Professor Streeck asks, are we facing a systemic crisis of the capitalist social order?
Speaker:
Professor Wolfgang Streeck
Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany
About the speaker:
Wolfgang Streeck is Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany, and Theodor Heuss Professor 2013/14 at the New School for Social Research, New York. His most recent book is Gekaufte Zeit. Die vertagte Krise des demokratischen Kapitalismus (Suhrkamp, 2013).
Chaired by Professor Colin Crouch FBA, University of Warwick.