As Brexit and the popularity of anti-establishment movements demonstrate, trust in the EU and its institutions – and in neoliberal globalization more generally – has declined. Increasing inequalities between social classes and regions, and underlying political economy processes such as deindustrialization, have generated a rise of anti-elite populism across Europe and the world. The wider context includes slowdown of growth and related economic crises, both having deep roots in the financialization process. [This blog was first posted at Brave New Europe on 22 November 2020.]
Continue readingLet’s dress citizens’ clothes on the emperor. Critical notes on expert practices in the corona crisis
A lot is at stake in the often-heated debates over the best way to handle the pandemic. The world economy is in crisis and the lockdown is excessively expensive. How serious is the pandemic? What are the available options? Countries that have not succeeded in suppressing the virus have started to lift constraints. Governments listen to all kinds of experts. However, the opinions of experts even within a single discipline or field – such as epidemology – are deeply divided.
Continue readingConjuring the Spirits of the Present
This is my response to Valentine Moghadam’s inspiring “Planetize the Movement!” (April 2020 GTI Forum). I raise the question whether we need to assume borrowed language involving terms such as “internationalism” in the 2020s and make, once again, an argument for a world party. I hope and believe this idea will become practical reality before long. Great responses from Chris Chase-Dunn, Donatella Della Porta, Richard Falk, Bonn Juego, Ashish Kothari, Francine Mestrum, William I. Robinson, Guy Standing, and Noha Tarck.
Continue readingThe COVID-19 crisis – a turning point for the European project
Statement of the EuroMemo Group, 2 April 2020
In the face of immense human suffering all across Europe, the COVID-19 crisis is without doubt a critical test of solidarity for the European Union, and also for the world. After the inadequate economic policy response to the 2008 global financial and economic crisis, another failure to reach effective and cooperative responses might exacerbate social and political tensions between Member States. In that case, a further stagnation if not collapse of the project of European integration would be unavoidable. [Originally published at http://www.euromemo.eu/]
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