University of Sydney, 6-7 February 2020
Frontiers of Political Economy
How can the frontiers of capitalism be understood in such a way so as to address the relations of social reproduction, the capitalisation of nature threatening the planet, the new forms of expropriation deriving from financial transactions, and the continuing appropriation of cheap labour? To what extent are these commodity frontiers and zones of encounter driven by endless accumulation? To what extent can they be addressed within or beyond the frontiers of capitalism? This workshop calls for papers that can addresses spaces of capital and thereby link to an analysis and/or critique of four central themes, namely 1) gender and patriarchy, 2) ecological crisis, 3) trade and financialisation, and 4) labour exploitation. Moreover, the workshop seeks contributions that can consider the frontiers of the commodity system of capitalism as a space in flux, riven through with geopolitical conflict and contestation whether in the form of demands to imagine a world of feminist social justice, to democratise the production of nature, to transcend the cash nexus, and to halt the depletion of workers’ bodies. Finally, the aim of the workshop is to address the frontiers of capitalism through the frontiers of political economy itself, to bring together perspectives from across the social sciences contending with transdisciplinary inquiry across geographical studies, sociology, anthropology, political economy and political science as well as provide a dedicated focus on issues and challenges related to pedagogy in the contemporary university, including a dedicated session on gender in the classrooms of political economy.
Organisers: Susan Park / John Mikler (Department of Government and International Relations) and Gareth Bryant and Adam David Morton (Department of Political Economy).
*The set image is of the statue “Il dito” outside the Italian stock exchange in Piazza Affari, Milan, by Maurizio Cattelan. It is an unambiguous message to the world of bankers and CEOs. Photo credit: John Mikler.
Comments