Theory In Sociology, seminar 2: Logics of capitalism and inequality. 12 March 2024
This seminar is the second one in the ‘Theory in Sociology’ series, hosted within CRITIQUE. Our first seminar explored ‘Theorising the Digital’ in October 2023. This seminar proposes to examine the link between inequality and capital accumulation, how we theorise it in our work, and with what potential political implications.
To reserve a spot: https://edin.ac/48mz0kn
As Murat Arsel has recently suggested, ‘while debates regarding socioeconomic inequality have reached the mainstream…, attempts at recognizing it structurally as part of the logic of capitalism seem to be lagging far behind’ (2023: 71). Notions of ‘environmental inequalities’, ‘health inequalities’, ‘financial inequalities’ denote concerns with exposure and access, perhaps participation too, thus leaving the question of the generation of these inequalities out of the picture. Our panel will seek to explore various ways of theorising inequalities in relation to climate/sustainability, health, finance and care, and how they both are powered by and in turn themselves power capital accumulation. Our aim is theoretical, but also ultimately political – we ask what the political implications are of such theorisations, in particular for class politics.
The panel will be followed by what we would like to be a more ‘workshoppy’ session, where all participants in the seminar break down in small groups, and around coffee/tea and sandwiches and pastries, discuss how we/they are grappling with these questions in our/their own work. This is totally informal and can be based either on work-in-progress or more developed research… If you are interested in taking part, could you let us know whether you would like to share thoughts on this from your work, and roughly through what kind of approach and in what domain/sector.
Schedule:
Tuesday 12th of March, 15:00-18:00, Violet Laidlaw Room, CMB.
15:00 – 16:30: panel talks, + 30’ wider discussion
16:30-16:45 break with coffee and substantial food – sandwiches/pastries. People take their plates and coffees with them into the next session
16:45 – 18:00 Workshoppy session – smaller groups with discussions around theorisation of capitalism/inequality in own research, questions etc. Perhaps 40’ of work in smaller groups and then sharing in wider group.
From 18:00: we continue at the pub!
Panel talks:
– Theo Bourgeron: Peak pharma: Conceptualising value extraction and discontents in global pharmaceutical markets
– Isabelle Darmon: Putting inequality at the core of unsustainability – the inequality/unsustainability nexus and the (brown and green) capitalist machines
– Manolis Kalaitzake: Political inequality in an era of financialisation
– Marion Lieutaud: The rich, the poor and the cleaners: commodification and fragmentation of care and domestic work