Tuesday, 4 September 2007

09.00 – 11.00

Roundtable - ‘The Transnational Capitalist Class and the Limits of Transnational Liberalism’

William Carroll, David Miller, Bastiaan van Apeldoorn and Magnus Ryner
Chair: Jan Drahokoupil

The formation and strategy of a transnational capitalist class has become an axis of much contemporary critical political economy literature. Theoretical and empirical work on the transnational capitalist class (TCC) has diverse origins (e.g., neo-Gramscian IPE, social network analysis and other sociological approaches) and has recent years gained a wider audience through the work of authors like William Carroll. The main thesis put forward in these works is that within the contemporary political economy class formation extends beyond national boundaries and even encompasses the whole globe as single social space. This is a space of transnational (neo-)liberalism where capital is the true sovereign.
This transnational liberalism, however, currently also seems to have reached its limits, and arguably is even going through a period of crisis, both within the global political economy as a whole and in the European political economy. Here we can think of developments such as the new US imperialism, the new global dialectics of counterforces effectively resisting neoliberal globalisation, and the legitimacy crisis of European neoliberal governance and the possible extension of the process of transnational class formation to include European labour. These developments arguably also call the concept of transnational class formation itself into question. To what extent is there actually a transnational capitalist class beyond a particular region? To what extent is there (still) class unity, not just structurally but also in terms of collective outlook and agency, across the Atlantic, let alone across the whole world? Does the crisis, if there is one, of transnational liberalism also imply a crisis of the transnational capitalist class?
The Roundtable participants will reflect upon these issues by discussing the conceptual, empirical, and political implications of these and related developments by drawing upon their own research.

14.00 – 15.30

Finance and Commerce in the Global & European Political Economy

Chair: Laura Horn

Johannes Jäger (University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna) & Karen Imhof (University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna)
‘The Transformation of Global Finance - a critical perspective’

Trond Loyning (University of Bergen)
‘Regulatory Networks in Transnational Financial Regulation’

James Perry (VU Amsterdam)
‘Make Room for the Salesman’

Discussant: Ian Bruff (Edge Hill University)

16.00 – 17.30

European Governance and the Wage Relation

Chair: James Perry

Laura Horn (VU Amsterdam)
‘Transnational Expert Groups in Corporate Governance and Financial Market Regulation in the EU’

Max Koch (Queen's University Belfast)
‘The State in European Employment Regulation’

Discussant: Magnus Ryner (Oxford Brookes)

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

09.00 – 11.00

Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe

Chair: Karim Knio (ISS, The Hague)
Discussant: Laura Horn

Martin Myant (Paisley)
‘Trade Unions and the Variety of Capitalism in the Czech Republic’

Jan Drahokoupil (CEU Budapest)
‘The Rise of the Competition State in the CEE: The Politics of State Transformation’

Anca Pusca (Birmingham)
‘Spatial Reflections of Illusions and Disillusions Surrounding the EU Accession Process’

Discussant:Laura Horn (VU Amsterdam)


14.00 – 15.30

Moral Economy and Third Sector Challenges to Neoliberal Economics

Chair: Anca Pusca

Bruno Frere (Liege)
‘Solidarity Economy and representations of praxis in the movement for a different globalisation’

Ivaylo Vassilev (Aberdeen)
‘Trustworthiness and Moral Worth: Normative Questions in Economic Relations’

Discussant: Bastiaan van Apeldoorn (VU Amsterdam)

Thursday, 6 September 2007

09.00 – 10.30 Class, Nation and State in Euro-Mediterranean Relations

Chair: Ian Bruff

Mehmet Gürsan Şenalp & Örsan Şenalp (Atilim) & Esra Şengör
‘Transnational Governance and Transnationalization of a ‘Seconday Contender’ State’

Sevgi Balkan (Trento)
‘Internalizing the Hegemonic Idea of Economic Liberalism: The Case of Turkey’

Karim Knio (ISS, the Hague) & Ryner (Oxford Brookes)
‘Neoliberalism and the Politics of Resistance: The Impact of EMP on Tunisia’

Discussant: Martin Myant (Paisley)

11.00 – 13.00 Elements of Resistance to Neoliberal Europeanization

Chair: TBA

Bastiaan Van Apeldoorn (VU Amsterdam)
‘A national case-study of Embedded Neoliberalism and its Limits: The Dutch Political Economy and the ‘No’ to the European Constitution’

Alexander Hamedinger (Vienna University of Technology) and Alexander Wolffhardt (Centre for Urban Dialogue and European Policy, Vienna)
‘Resisting Europeanization? Conflicts and Change in Urban Governance’

Ian Bruff (Edge Hill University)
‘Utilizing Gramsci When Analyzing European Models of Capitalism’

Discussant: Max Koch (Queen’s University, Belfast)