This workshop aims at understanding the relations between space, regulatory systems and capital accumulation in Europe. Although globalization has moved space to the center of social science research, its integration into political economy has been only partial, overlooking the results of other disciplines, especially but not exclusively geography. Yet, in-depth analysis of the relationship between spatial transformation and capital accumulation is crucial, as today space returns with all its destabilizing force at the forefront of international relations. Tackling this issue inherently requires interdisciplinary exchange. Therefore, economists, sociologists, political scientists, historians, and geographers will take part in it at different levels. The goal of the workshop is to theoretically and empirically discuss the European spaces of regulation and capital accumulation today, in times of global disturbances.

Argument

In a period when the global economy is characterized by an unprecedented level of commodities and capital flows, regional and supranational integration tendencies but also by a persistent uneven development and geopolitical tensions, scholars from various fields of social sciences have increasingly turned their attention to the questions relative to space and institutions. Today the linkages between the institutionalization of social space and socio-economic dynamics return to the international front stage with all their destabilizing power – beyond the current epidemic crisis and the Recovery plan for Europe, suffice it to think of Brexit, the Juncker Plan, trade wars between great powers and the revival of military tensions. The goal of this workshop is precisely to problematize the manifold links, tensions and contradictions that appear between the general logic of accumulation of capital, its uneven socio-economic, institutional and cultural unfolding, and spatial transformations. Hence it pursues a resolutely multidisciplinary agenda and is directed towards all researchers seeking to better understand contemporary international political economy.

The workshop particularly welcomes proposals studying the theoretical and methodological tools allowing to understand the linkages between different scales and regulations, and capital accumulation within a common but differentiated frame. If it was not already the case before, the interruption of the global 2007/08 crisis brought many researchers to stop conceiving national economies as “closed containers” and viewing them instead as differentiated but interdependent spaces of regulation and accumulation. Yet, contemporary national economies are not only in interaction, they are increasingly characterized by a multi-territorial and multi-scale organization of institutions and regulations. This specific type of organization is built into a hierarchized international space and marked by uneven geopolitical and economic power relations. Fundamentally, the return of space in social sciences entailed questioning the very analytical strength of the notion of “national”, as well as the form and role of the state and political agents in social transformations. Thus, it is necessary to advance analytical approaches that articulate social agency at a given scale with global historical trends and structures, and question the analytical primacy of the national-state level.

Far from leading to a planetary unification of socio-economic processes, globalization has indeed reinforced clustering and dividing regional dynamics. Therefore, special attention will be paid to the understanding of transformations on regional level. The European region is a particularly relevant case for addressing conflictual social dynamics resulting from transformations of space and accumulation. It is characterized by a profound economic integration, concerning not only important commodity, industrial and financial capital flows, but also cross-regional migration movements – and this, even beyond the formal borders of the Economic and Monetary Union and the European Union. However, the multiple divides and axes of the current European “disintegrative integration” are often underestimated in debates on European integration.

Main topics

Scientists from all fields of social sciences wishing to attend the workshop should submit proposals falling within the scope of this general orientation. Possible topics might include:

• The multi-scalar and uneven dynamics of the epidemic and “lockdown emergency politics”
• State sovereignty, international organizations, multilateralism after 2007/08
• Industrial policies between green deals and mercantilism
• The geographical dimension in social and economic prosperity
• European integration, crisis policy-making and core-periphery divides
• Markets, regulation and accumulation in light of the rise of the far-right
• International trade and geopolitical tensions
• Theorizing the relation between interdependence and inequality
• Theorizing regional integration and disintegration

Confirmed speakers

• Angela Wigger (Radboud University),
• Joachim Becker (University of Vienna),
• Hans-Jürgen Bieling (University of Tübingen),
• Thomas Lamarche (University Paris 7)

Submission guidelines

This call for papers invites researchers coming from all disciplines, especially historians, geographers, sociologists, political scientists and economists, to present their work compatible with the questions outlined above.

Deadline for abstract submission (max 400 words): 15 July 2021.

Submit to:  ana.podvrsic@uni-graz.at

Organizing committee

• Benjamin Bürbaumer (Sorbonne Paris Nord University),
• Ana Podvšič (University of Graz)