Krisekonference

27th April 2013 Gothersgade 140, 1123 KBH K

11:00 – 17:30 Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultetsbibliotek

Free entrance; first come, first served.

E-mail your full name to: krise.css@gmail.com

Thanks for the economical support to:

Dansk Magisterforening

Magistrenes Arbejdsløshedskasse

Sociologisk Institut (KU)

Institut for Statskundskab (KU)

There is crisis in the crisis discussion 4

Keynote speakers 5

Workshops

Crisis in the core land of neoliberal capitalism 6

It is the women who pay for the crisis 7

Time for outrage? 8

Money in literature 9

New economic thinking? 10

A trade union perspective on the crisis 11

KRISE

There is crisis in the crisis discussion

In a normal classroom, on a normal Tuesday at the beginning of thisyear, we had a gathering. We, ten young people, met to discuss anormal topic. You could almost call it ordinary. Unoriginal. Abused bythe media and mass distributed. But still with unexplored content.Lots of it. That is why one meeting turned into many.

The subject was the financial crisis, and we are proud to announcethat the many meetings resulted in a big conference. I will happen onthe 27th of April and offer differently angled workshops, all describedin the following program.

We created the program based on the idea that social sciences alltogether have the possibility of contributing to a more varied debateabout the crisis. That is why the conference offers a variety ofparticipants, from activists and trade unionists belonging to Danishand international movements to Ph.D. students and researchers inliterature, economics, etc.

The conference is based on voluntary work from the organizers andparticipants. We are driven by the acknowledgement that we feel itnecessary for we all take part in the debate about the financial crisis ifwe wish for a brighter future. We hope to see you all on the 27th ofApril!

/The crisis group

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Keynote speakers

Erik Hoffmeyer

National Economist from Copenhagen University, 1951.Former Professor of Economics at CopenhagenUniversity and the University of Southern Denmark.Chairman of the National Bank of Denmark, 1965-1994.An historically founded analysis of the financial crisis in2008, with a focus on the subsequent public debt crisisin the Euro-Zone.

Suggested literature:

- Charles P. Kindleberger 2000. Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History ofFinancial Crises, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, Fourth Edition.

Pil Christensen

Sociologist from Copenhagen University, 2013. Publicintellectual, author and activist, blogger at modkraft.dk.On the crisis, privat debt, and potentials for politicalresistance in the neoliberal age.

Suggested literature:

- David Harvey 2011. The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism. OxfordUniversity Press, US, Second Edition.

- Mauricio Lazzarato 2012. The Making of Indebted Man: Essay on the NeoliberalCondition. MIT Press, Reprint Edition.

- Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri 2012. Declaration. Argo-Navis.

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Crisis in the core land of neoliberal capitalism

– On English politics in times of crisis

Since the late 1970s “neoliberal” politics have been the commonground of all political parties in England. Rising house prices andrents, stagnant wages, outsourcing and privatisations have become aday-to-day experience. The crisis accelerated all of these processes,and all large political parties agree that the best way to protectfinance and high-value industry is to reduce state spending.

In this workshop, three young influential English analysts will helpinterpreting the intertwining crises of capital, reproduction and socialunrest in the UK. What is the way forward when it seems that theonly way is down? What is the role of the first generation of youngswhose living standards will be lower than those of their parents?

Participants:

- Aaron Peters, Ph.D. student at Royal Holloway University in London, founderof UK-Uncut and Novara Media, social media wizard, and radio host.

- Benedict Seymour, lecturer at Goldsmith University in London, film-maker, andeditor of Mute Magazine..

- Danny Hayward, Ph.D. student at Birkbeck University in London. His worktouches upon critical theory, economy and literature.

Suggested literature:

- Misery and Debt, Endnotes no. 2, 2010.- Loren Goldner, Fictitious Capital for Beginners, Mute Magazine, vol. 2, no. 6.- Rocamadur & Blaumachen, The feral underclass hits the streets: On the Englishriots and other ordeals, SIC, no. 2, 2013.

6 Room no. 07.00.22

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It is the women who pay for the crisis– On reproductive work and the role of women in the crisis

In this workshop we will be exploring the worlds of care andreproductive labour from a viewpoint of feminist economics and

theory. We will be using diagrammatic as well as playful approachesfor mapping out the role of care in our lives and our economies, in

order to ask: what is care to this crisis? We all know that austerityimpacts mostly on women, whose burdens quadruple in the context of

crisis: here we will use the occasion to question habitual ways ofthinking about work, economics and organisation.

Participants:

- Kathe Knittler, economist, wrote an introduction to feminist economics andmore about precarity and social movements.

- Manuela Zechner, artist, has a PhD in Business and Management from QueenMary University in London where she wrote about social movements, reproductive

work and feminism in crisis.

Suggested literature:

Precarias – http://caringlabor.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/precarias-a-la-deriva-first-stutterings-of-precarias-a-la-deriva/

Gibson Graham –http://www.communityeconomies.org/site/assets/media/old%20website%20pdfs/Papers/on%20rethinking%20the%20economy/Feminising%20the%20economy.pdf

Room no. 07.00.18 7

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Time for outrage?– On social mobilization in Denmark, England and Spain

All around Europe, the crisis has had severe consequences for largeparts of the civil population. This has called for social mobilization ofdimensions yet unheard of in Denmark.

This workshop will concern strategies for social mobilization,combined with a discussion with activists from social movementsbased in Denmark, England and Spain, of how civil society can play anactive and political role in relation to the crisis, on a national, as wellas, global level.

Participants:

- Aaron Peters, UK Uncut, an English grassroots movement protesting againstgovernment spending-cuts, through direct action.

- Vıtor Peiteado Fernandez og Ivan S. Pasarın, from Crisis Mirror, an activistnetwork based in Copenhagen, with the purpose of mobilizing and informing aboutthe crisis.

- Raimundo Viejo, from a protest movement known as the 15M, that emerged asa result of the wave of protests in Spain in 2011.

- Yannick Harrison og Christian Damholt, from Change Bank Day, a Danishinitiative urging people to change their bank and transform the banking sector.

Suggested literature:

- Stephane Hessel, Indignez-Vous! (Time for outrage!), 2010- Noam Chomsky, Occupy (Pamphlet), 2012- Den Usynlige Komie, Den Kommende Opstand, 2007

8 Room no. 07.00.22

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Money in literature– On literature’s role in the subjective perception of money

From the world economics derives an inevitable condition for humanexistence. That’s how Jonathan Franzen describes the world in his

novel Freedom. Some would understand it just as a good story, buthow does literature affect our perception of money on a higher level?

With a starting point in American literature, this workshop willdescribe changes in the subjective perception of money, from Nixon’s

suspension of the convertibility of the dollar into gold in 1971 totoday’s electronic money circulation. This workshop is to increase

awareness about the meaning, which stories about, definitions of andmetaphors about money has in our daily life, while at the same timeraising the question about whether these stories could be different?

Participants:

- Henrik Torjusen, Ph.D. student at University of Oslo, Institute of literature,regional studies and European languages.

Suggested literature:

Skønlitteratur:- Jonathan Franzen, Frihed

- Lars Skinnebach, I morgen findes systemerne igen- Signe Schlichtkrull, Krak

Faglitteratur:- Viviana Zelizer, The Social Meaning of Money

- Georg Lakoff & Mark Johnson, Hverdagens metaforer- Henrik Torjusen, Penge og litteratur, Standart, no. 1, 2012

Room no. 07.00.40 9

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New economic thinking?– On economic thinking after the crisis

The economic crisis started in the financial sector, but has spread tooall sectors of society. Despite of this, very little have change in ourthinking about the economy. None of the traditional economic modelswere able to predict or comprehend the largest economic crash sincethe 1930s. Yet nonetheless the same economic models form the basisof the response to the crisis.

This workshop invites the participant to get analysis on what is wrongwith the current mainstream economic thinking and participate in adiscussion on what should be changed. The panel will include Prof.Katrine Juselius from the University of Copenhagen

Participants:

- Professor Katrine Juselius from University of Copenhagen.

Suggested litterature:

- Steve Keen, Debunking Economics- Colin Crouch, The strange non-death of Neoliberalism- Josep Stiglitz, Freefall- Gerard Dumenil & Dominique Levy, The crisis of neoliberalism

10 Room no. 07.00.40

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A trade union perspective on the crisis– On the relationship between unions and universities in crisis times

We have invited two resourceful veterans from the Danish labourmovement to kickstart the discussion on the crisis, youth

unemployment, the recent reforms of Danish transfer payments andthe need for new alliances between workers and academics.

This workshop will deal with the following questions: Does ‘the Danishmodel’ have a future at all, or are we heading straight towards German

wage conditions? In what ways are the university and its studentscurrently letting down the labour movement’s struggle for better living

conditions for wage earners? And how do we prevail in the struggleagainst cutbacks of unemployment benefits –in the longer term?

Afterwards, the floor will open for discussion. Join us and contributeto revitalize the fighting spirit in the Danish labour movement!

Participants:

- Frederik Dehlholm, Chairman of the Danish Association for Masters and PhDs.

- Bent Moos [to be confirmed], Union Secretary, United Federation of DanishWorkers, Privat Service, Hotels & Hospitality Branch.

Suggested literature:

- Studenterfrontens Arbejdsmedicingruppe, Arhus Universitet, Malerrapporten enforeløbig rapport om sundhedsfarerne i Malerfaget, Forlaget Modtryk, 1972

- Mattias Tesfaye, Vi er ikke dyr, men vi er tyskere, Forlaget Sohn, 2010- International Labour Organization, Trade Unions and the Global Crisis. Labour’s

Visions, Strategies, and Responses, 2011,(http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS 163855/lang–en/index.htm)

Room no. 07.00.28 11

Schedule11:00 - 12:30 Welcome plenum – Keynotes

12:30 - 12:45 Pause

Room no. 07.00.18 07.00.22 07.00.28 07.00.40

12:45 - 14:15

It is thewomen whopay for thecrisis (1)

Crisis andsocial

reproduction

A tradeunion

perspectiveon the crisis

Money inliterature

14:15 - 15:15 Frokost

15:15 - 16:45

It is thewomen whopay for thecrisis (2)

Time foroutrage?

Neweconomicthinking?

16:45 - 17:00 Pause

17:00 - 17:30 Closing plenum

17:30 - ?? Beer and wine