September 22 & 23, 10am-4pm
Goldsmiths, University of London
Deptford Town Hall – Council Chamber

Justin Leroy  – UC Davis, author of  Freedom’s Limit: Racial Capitalism and the Afterlives of Slavery, forthcoming with Columbia University Press
Ann Pettifor – Director PrimeEconomics, author of The Production of Money: how to break the power of bankers
Anita Rupprecht – University of Brighton

Together with:

Max Haiven – Canada Research Chair in Culture (Lakehead University), author of Cultures of Financialisation

Johnna Montgomerie – PERC Deputy Director (Goldsmiths), author of journal articles on financialisation and crisis

Clea Bourne – Media & Communications (Goldsmiths), author of Trust, Power and Public Relations in Financial Markets

Paul Gilbert – Lecturer in International Development (University of Sussex)

 

This two-day workshop aims to bring together interested interdisciplinary scholars and thinkers who want to explore the historical and contemporary links between the financialization and colonialism. In particular, at the intersection of social and cultural criticism and political economy. We will curate an unconventional gathering of scholars, activists and artists to question the ideological nostalgic myth-making that has underscored the processes and discourses of financialization.

The full program is now available – download Here

 

Register to attend via Eventbrite – get tickets

 

This event is a collaboration between the Political Economy Research Centre (Goldsmiths, London) and the ReImagining Value Action Lab (Lakehead University, Canada).

In what ways does the alleged novelty of “financialization” occlude the histories and patterns of colonialism, settler-colonialism and imperialism that, in fact, financialization inherits and renovates?

In what ways do concepts of financialization depend on and reinforce nostalgic anachronisms that erases the histories of colonial exploitation and extraction?

How have these tendencies contributed to the erasure of questions of race and racism from discussions of finance capital and financialization?

In what ways do these questions manifest themselves in today’s popular rejections of financialization, both on the left (eg. Occupy) and the right (eg. anti-globalist ethnonationalism)?

Conversely, how could a different form of accounting for the interlacing of financialization and colonialism help us develop strategies for a more effective resistance?

What approaches have been taken to these and related questions and what work needs yet to be done?

We offer two streams or methods of participation:

  1. We encourage those who are working on akin projects who want to be more involved in the proceedings to fill in this form with their contact details and a short description of their research/activities. This information will be used to create interest clusters and break-out discussion groups over the two days of the conference, as well as to inform the development of further collaborations and opportunities on this topic. These may include future meetings, publishing opportunities and multimedia production. Deadline – Aug 20th

2. Those who wish to attend in a less active capacity are invited to register via Eventbright and come along on either day to participate in any way you wish. Opportunities for participation are limited, so please register early.

We invite all those interested in questions related to, but not limited to, the following themes:

  • Neocolonialism through finance capital, old and new
  • Indigenous resistance to extractive industries
  • The racial and colonial politics of post-war “Golden Age” capitalism
  • Anti-financial resistance (the good, the bad and the ugly)
  • Intersections of financialization, debt and colonial (and colonist) subjects
  • The unpaid and unpayable debts of empire, including reparations
  • Methods of popular counter-speculation and counter-measure
  • Intersections of finance, colonialism, race, gender and other systems of domination or exploitation

Organizers:
Clea Bourne, Department of Media & Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London (for inquires c.bourne@gold.ac.uk)
Paul Gilbert, University of Sussex (for inquires p.gilbert@sussex.ac.uk)
Max Haiven, Canada Research Chair in Culture, Media and Social Justice, Lakehead University
Johnna Montgomerie, Department of Politics, Political Economy Research Centre, Goldsmiths, University of London