Tuesday
23 May, 16 - 18 (Main Building, room U3032) Szilvia Horváth (ELTE, Budapest, Hungary) holds a presentation which discusses how the rise of the Orbán regime is connected to the attempts to build a counter-hegemony in Hungarian academia, and how the regime tried to create a counter-elite by parallel institution-building and occupying universities. Besides the regime-building by hegemonizing academia, we discuss how this process affects traditional academic life and freedom.
Recording of Szilvia's presentation now available on Unitube
Wednesday
24 May 10 -12 (Main Building, U3039) We also have lecture by Kyle Bailey (York University, Canada) about linkages between corporate power and capitalist state from critical political economy perspective. In an era of capitalist crisis where the ideology of ‘free markets’ and shareholder value-maximisation have been delegitimised, initiatives to reduce the environmental and social harms wrought by corporations have emerged as central political issues on the policy agendas of national governments and international organisations. Yet, given the material realities of overwhelming corporate power in the world economy and pro-market policy regimes pursued by capitalist states, these initiatives are being systematically co-opted into a hegemonic project of making society and nature safe for capital accumulation.
Drawing on a study of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan, which claims to integrate social responsibility and environmental sustainability into all company operations as part of wider efforts to drive transformational change, this presentation examines the contours and contradictions of the emergent ideological consensus on ‘stakeholder capitalism’ within the US and European ruling classes. As the case of Unilever shows, stakeholder capitalism is less a genuine alternative to shareholder-value maximisation than an alternative strategy for promoting capital accumulation within a framework geared towards relegitimising financialised global capitalism.
Recording of Kyle's lecture now available on Unitube
We also have some previous recordings available from this lecture series on Unitube
On 8 May we had a presentation by Saman Choudary (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain) about COVID19-pandemic and health organisations’ social media communication
Recording is available on Unitube
On May 9 we had presentation by Bill Lancaster (Northeastern University, US) about Film, Television and the Rise of Nationalism.
Recording is available on Unitube
On May 16 we had presentation by Jonathan Floyd (University of Bristol, UK) about Public Political Philosophy. This recording also includes comments by Minna-Kerttu Kekki (Oulu). Available on Unitube