The Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH), The Finnish Karl Marx Society, and Resilient and Just Systems (RESET) are jointly organizing a seminar on fossil capitalism and degrowth perspectives. The seminar will feature two international guest speakers, HSSH Visiting Professor Kohei Saito and Professor Markus Wissen from the Berlin School of Economics and Law.
The event is open to everyone and will also be live-streamed. Registration is required.
Registration form: https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/134013/lomake.html
UniTube link: https://video.helsinki.fi/unitube/live-stream.html?room=l38
10:00 - 10:10 Michiru Nagatsu: Opening remarks
10:10 - 10:40 Markus Wissen: “The Imperial Mode of Living”
10:40 - 11:10 Sakari Säynäjoki: “Beyond Primary Energy Myopia”
11:10 - 12:00 Discussion
Break
13:00 - 13:30 Kohei Saito: “Ecological Freedom in Marx”
13:30- 14:00 Riina Bhatia: “Pluriverse and transitions – towards diverse locality?”
14:00 - 15:00 Discussion
Kohei Saito is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tokyo and HSSH Visiting Professor at the University of Helsinki. His work centres on ecology and political economy from a Marxist perspective. His recent best-selling book, Slow Down (Astra House, 2024, Japanese edition 2020), has been credited with sparking a resurgence of interest in Marxist thought throughout Japan and internationally. His other widely credited works include Marx in the Anthropocene (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and Karl Marx's Ecosocialism (Monthly Review Press, 2017).
Markus Wissen is Professor of Social Sciences specializing in socio-ecological transformation at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. He has held positions at several research institutes and universities, focusing on political ecology. His research interests include the socio-ecological transformation of modes of production and consumption, as well as crises and transformations in society-nature relations. His book The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism (2021), co-authored with Ulrich Brand, has attracted wide interest and sparked extensive debate in Germany and internationally. Professor Wissen is visiting the University of Helsinki as a guest of the Finnish Karl Marx Society.