INTERNATIONAL ONLINE CONFERENCE – 3rd Edition
Capitalist Transformations in Eastern and Central Europe
Deadline for abstract submission: 31 December 2024
Conference Dates: 19 – 23 May, 2025 (Online)
This is the third edition of the ‘Capitalist Transformations’ conference, an academic event that aims to create a space for discussion, debate and research of the social, political and economic changes taking place in the region. The conference celebrates the work of Karl Polanyi (1886 – 1964) and György Lukács (1885-1971), two intellectuals and political activists who played a key role in establishing a regional critical tradition analyzing global capitalism. Both of them received their PhD degrees at the University of Cluj / Kolozsvár at the turn of the century, when capitalism was expanding into Eastern and Central Europe and profoundly reshaping social geographies, class-structures and markets.
Conjuring up their names may be timely. One century later, their analyses are still relevant. The region has become a testing ground for radical neo-liberal reforms in the wake of the post-socialist advancement of capitalism, with that shift generating unprecedented recessions in peacetime, uneven development, social divisions and growing inequalities. The rise of right-wing populism, illiberalism, xenophobia and exploitation of racialized surplus populations are direct consequences of policies that maximized the corporate agenda while neglecting dramatic distributive dynamics and inclusive social policies.
Polanyi’s double movement and his critical insights into the dynamics of marketization and social protection or Lukács’ analysis of class-formation and the contradictions of capitalist societies are today part of a tradition that continues to inform the region’s political activism and critical thinking. The conference builds on Polanyian and Lukacsian legacies and invites scholars from the region or working on the region to contribute to sharper critical understandings of capitalism in Eastern and Central Europe.
This event is organized across five different streams. The first two streams focus on understanding regional capitalist transformations both in terms of the impact this had on our societies, labor relations and ways of life(1) and in terms of emerging macro political economies and the dynamics of regional macro-financial structures (2). The third stream is dedicated to the growing diversity of the region’s anti-capitalist critiques and to mapping out the variety of social movements and political activisms that emerged in the region in the last three decades (3). Within this context we invite scholars to look back at the actual-existing socialisms in ECE and analyze both the failures and emancipatory policies of that period. This is important for understanding the uneven economic and social foundations on which capitalism was built in the different countries in ECE, beginning with 1990, but also for a retrospective comparative perspective of how political economies actually work and what they achieve in terms of general social welfare (4). In our engagement with contemporary capitalist transformations we tend to forget that during the XIXth and early XXth century the region was to a great extent incorporated into global capitalism, albeit with wide national disparities and translations grafting it on feudal social formations. Capitalism is not something new to this region. The fifth stream focuses on early forms of capitalism in ECE and looks at modes of incorporation into European and global capitalism, capital-labor dynamics, economic and social crisis and the political movements growing in this context. With this stream we aim to better understand the region’s capitalism in a long-duree framework, but also to ask what critical theories and forms of political activism emerged during that period that enable us to better understand capitalism today (5).
Venue: The conference will take place entirely online. The previous two editions of the CT-ECE Conference (2021 and 2023) were successful in terms of attracting a wide audience that could not otherwise have afforded to travel. The main goal of the conference is to enable a wide dissemination in Eastern and Central Europe of research that is critically interrogating the capitalist transformations taking place in the region and to create networks of scholars, researchers and activists that are focusing their work on this topic.
Registration fee for conference: free for participants and for audience
Publications: One of the main aims of this conference is to enable a series of five edited volumes in order to disseminate critical scholarship focusing on capitalist transformations in ECE.
Retreat and industrial heritage (optional): One week after the conference (29 – 31 May 2025) we will organize a retreat in Reșița / Resicabánya / Reschitz (Romania). Reșița has been one of the most important Romanian industrial centers. Industrial development emerged here already in the 18th Century within the Habsburg Empire. Some of the earliest unions and worker’s movements were formed here during the 19th Century that were well connected to the regional progressive political networks. During the post-socialist period the steel and complex-machinery industries collapsed which resulted in vast brownfields. Reșița is now an important side of capitalist urban regeneration and trans-national real-estate enterprises. The city is in the proximity of Timisoara (European Capital of Culture 2023), Anina-Oravița-Baziaș (the first railroad network from Transylvania constructed in 1854) and the beautiful Danube Iron Gate gorge.
Retreat fee: The participation to the optional retreat costs 150 euro. This event is not mandatory and is taking place in the aftermath of the conference. It seeks to create a space for socialization and future collaborative projects. The fee will be used for organizational costs, visits to industrial heritage sites, internal transportation and one collective dinner. The participants are responsible for paying for their trip to Reșița, accommodation and meals. The organizing committee will assist participants with support in finding affordable accommodation and travel directions.
Keynote Speakers: TBA
Who can apply? The conference is open to all scholars working on capitalist transformation in Eastern and Central Europe, regardless if they reside or not in the region. Nevertheless, the main idea is to encourage local-knowledge production and include in the venue as many scholars as possible working and activating in the region. Our goal is to strengthen and disseminate their valuable dissenting research and encourage others in the region to engage in critical theories of regional capitalism.
Scientific committee: Oana Mateescu (Babeș-Bolyai University), Don Kalb (University of Bergen), Doro Bohle (University of Vienna), Cornel Ban (Copenhagen Business School), Dana Domsodi (Babeș-Bolyai University), Enikő Vincze (Babeș-Bolyai University), Ovidiu Țichindeleanu (IDEA), Vladimir Simović (Centre for the Politics of Emancipation), Adela Hîncu (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana), Attila Melegh (Corvinus University of Budapest), Adrian Grama (independent researcher), Alexandra Ghiț (RECET Vienna University), Olena Lyubchenko (York University, Toronto), Gareth Dale (Brunel University of London)
Executive committee: Sorin Gog (Babeș-Bolyai University), Macrina Moldovan (Babeș-Bolyai University), Dana Domsodi (Babeș-Bolyai University), Oana Mateescu (Babeș-Bolyai University)
Conveners: The conference is organized by the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work from Babeș-Bolyai University.
Abstracts: Please submit to capitalist.transformations@gmail.com an abstract of maximum 300 words and your institutional affiliation. Please specify for which of the following 5 streams you are applying and if you would like to join us in the retreat taking place in Reșița. Submissions will be evaluated by the scientific committee of the conference. Accepted proposals will be clustered together in panels. The submission of full papers and their dissemination to conference participants is optional for the authors.
Please click here for a detailed conference call, or visit the following link: https://capitalist-transformations.com/