Europe has been the scenario of communist, socialist and social democratic experiences throughout the XX and XI centuries, and these political concrete experiences have built a set of intellectual and activist political perspectives over time, which have not been experienced elsewhere. Different historical experiences and memories shape and frame but do not determine perceptions of what possible postcapitalist futures are seen as attractive and possible, and what alternatives can and should be cultivated. In some places, ‘communism’, ‘social democracy’ and ‘anarchism’ have meanings as historical legacies with continued mass support such that they are seen as viable contemporary political programmes. In the Nordics, social democracy, while somewhat neoliberalised, is a contemporary reality. In the former USSR, the communist experience is seen as a valid historical national experience, while in the former DDR ‘Ostalgie’ – nostalgia for a communist past’ - still resonates. France, Spain and Italy had active mass Communist Parties which, post 1989, have been rethinking their association with communism. In Argentina anarchism has manifested itself in contemporary horizontalism and autonomism. Elsewhere in Latin America, Mariategui’s Andean Communism or Zapatismo are influential, whilst the continued survival of the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes in the face of US sanctions still provides inspiration to many world-wide. The Indian state of Kerala, Naxalism and the regime in Nepal give very different examples of contemporary communism, with many positive associations. In other places, communism is described as having a lingering ‘stench’. Given the experiences of ‘People’s Poland’, to be called a ‘lefty’ is an insult, so the left actively distances itself from the communist past looks for inspiration to the Nordics. In the UK a vision of a revitalised social democracy was a feature of ‘Corbinism’ that was attacked by right wing opponents as ‘communist’ or ‘Trotskyist’. Peru’s Shining Path was a particularly pathological phenomenon. China and Vietnam beg many questions about market-based single-party states. North Korea has a surprisingly large but unacknowledged market sector. This session brings diverse economies scholars and others together to identify these diverse experiences, memories attractions and utopias and bring them into conversation with diverse economies thinking.

The event will be in English but we will be providing translation of people's comments in Spanish, Czech and Polish where necessary.