The talk will focus on two critiques of “growth” as elaborated in the context of two different capitalist crises, that of the Keynesian model of industrial development in the 1970s, and the recent crisis of the neoliberal finance capitalist growth model. The premises of these critiques are discussed, especially with a focus on labour and overpopulation, as well as their understandings of the concept and dynamics of growth. Critique of growth is not ahistorical, but reflects the different, case-specific models of growth in each particular instance (1970s crisis and today’s crisis). How can “growth” and its social functions be understood in today’s framework of multiple crises, and what kind of growth critique reproduces or changes capitalist power relations?

Dr. Maria Markantonatou is Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the University of the Aegean, Greece

The event is organized by the working group Global Political Economy of Labour, FB05, University of Kassel. The lecture and discussion will be held in English.