With Dr. Peer Illner (Normative Orders, Goethe University) and Prof. Darrel Moellendorf (Normative Orders, Goethe University)

Welcome Address by: Prof. Rainer Forst (Normative Orders, Goethe University)

Organized by: Dr. Peer Illner (Author)

Many communities in the United States have been abandoned by the state. What happens when natural disasters add to their misery? This book looks at the broken relationship between the federal government and civil society in times of crises.

Mutual aid has gained renewed importance in providing relief when hurricanes, floods and pandemics hit, as cuts to state spending put significant strain on communities struggling to survive. Harking back to the self-organised welfare programmes of the Black Panther Party, radical social movements from Occupy to Black Lives Matter are building autonomous aid networks within and against the state. However, as the federal responsibility for relief is lifted, mutual aid faces a profound dilemma: do ordinary people become complicit in their own exploitation?

Reframing disaster relief through the lens of social reproduction, Peer Illner tracks the shifts in American emergency aid, from the economic crises of the 1970s to the COVID-19 pandemic, raising difficult questions about mutual aid’s double-edged role in cuts to social spending. As sea levels rise, climate change worsens and new pandemics sweep the globe, Illner’s analysis of the interrelations between the state, the market and grassroots initiatives will prove indispensable.

The Center’s work is guided by social philosophy and oriented towards the project of a critical theory of society. It also draws from the specific resources the humanities have to offer. “Democracy” is then not only understood as a form of government, nor is “capitalism” understood as a mere economic formation. Instead, both are treated in a broad sense as a complex ensemble of social institutions and practices or as socio-cultural life forms.

Based on the programme of the early Critical Theory, the task of the Center can be described as follows: By giving society a space for reflection and by fathoming possible courses of action, the analysis of crises is the “theoretical side of the practical process of emancipation.”

The Policy Lab Digital, Work & Society will combine projects and processes dealing with the digital transformation at the BMAS and use them to create a bigger picture of the labour market of the future. It will thus provide a central supporting function for academia, those people involved at a practical level and social partners. The Policy Lab will follow an approach where digitalisation is considered in a consistent and systematic manner based on its impact on people and their social and civic relationships. Especially against the background of a constantly changing digital economy, this approach will be based on the firm conviction that employment relationships can be oriented to the needs of employees and the requirements of good working practices.

ITIF hosted a debate in which Acemoglu and Atkinson laid out their views about the future of automation technology and the effects it may have on U.S. competitiveness and the economy.

Speakers 

Bernie Becker

Tax Reporter, POLITICO, Moderator

Robert D. Atkinson

President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Speaker

Daron Acemoglu

Institute Professor, MIT, Speaker

Paul Begala was a chief strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign. He served as counselor to the president in the Clinton White House, where he coordinated policy, politics, and communications. He was senior adviser to the pro-Obama Super PAC that played a critical role in reelecting Obama in 2012. He is the author of five books. Begala is a CNN political commentator and an affiliated professor of public policy at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy.

Fox News contributor and veteran political strategist Donna Brazile is the former interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee and became the first African American woman to serve as the manager of a major party presidential campaign, running the campaign of former Vice President Al Gore. She is the author of the 2004 best-selling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics and the 2017 New York Times Bestseller Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-Ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump In The White House. She is a co-author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics, which won the 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction.

David Shimer is pursuing a doctorate in international relations at the University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. His reporting and analysis have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Foreign Affairs.

Timothy Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. His most recent book is On Tyranny.

Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work for You looks at why diplomacy and etiquette matter—from the international stage to everyday life. When the notion of basic civility seems to be endangered, Protocol reminds us how critical these principles are while providing an accessible guide for anyone who wants to be empowered by the tools of diplomacy.

Marshall will be in conversation with former first lady, U.S. senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the co-author, most recently, of The Book of Gutsy Women, with her daughter Chelsea Clinton.

Zachary D. Carter is a senior reporter at HuffPost, where he covers Congress, the White House, and economic policy. He is a frequent guest on cable news and news radio, and his written work has also appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, and The American Prospect, among other outlets. His story, “Swiped: Banks, Merchants and Why Washington Doesn’t Work for You” was included in the Columbia Journalism Review’s compilation Best Business Writing. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

After all, how can a political party maintain power in a democracy if it serves only the interests of a narrow and wealthy slice of society? Today’s Republicans have shown the way, doubling down on a truly radical, elite-benefiting economic agenda while at the same time making increasingly incendiary racial and cultural appeals to their almost entirely white base. Telling a forty-year story, Hacker and Pierson demonstrate that since the early 1980s, when inequality started spiking, extreme tax cutting, union busting, and deregulation have gone hand in hand with extreme race-baiting, outrage stoking, and disinformation. Instead of responding to the real challenges facing voters, the Republican Party offers division and distraction—most prominently, in the racist, nativist bile of the president’s Twitter feed.

Ehrenreich is joined by the New Yorker’s cultural critic Jia Tolentino, author of the bestselling essay collection Trick Mirror. Tolentino is a former contributing editor at The Hairpin and former deputy editor at Jezebel. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Grantland, Pitchfork, and Time, among others. This event will be streamed online as part of our P&P Live! Series.

Philipp Staab is Professor of “Sociology of the Future of Work” at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF). As a sociologist he deals with the topics of technology, work, political economy and social inequality. In his research in recent years, he has focused on the leading companies of the commercial Internet such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Alibaba and Tencent, as well as various start-ups.

The event will be held in English.

Today, the utopia they sought to create is looking more dystopian than ever: from digital surveillance and the loss of privacy to the spreading of misinformation and hate speech to predatory algorithms targeting the weak and vulnerable to products that have been engineered to manipulate our desires. by Rana Foroohar

Peter Söderbaum, (2019), Ecological Economics in relation to a digital world, World Economics Association (WEA) Conferences, No. 1 2019, Going Digital, 15th November to 20th December, 2019

In Reinventing Prosperity, Graeme Maxton and Jorgen Randers take a radically different approach and offer thirteen politically feasible proposals to improve our world. From shortening the work year and raising the retirement age to boosting welfare and redefining what we mean by work, the authors’ suggestions challenge many long-standing economic ideas and explain how it is possible to reduce unemployment, inequality, and the pace of climate change—and still have economic growth, if society wishes.

“Do you want a cogent and accessible explanation of why our paramount policy goal of GDP growth is increasing unemployment, inequality, and environmental destruction—while reducing welfare? Then read this informative book for both answers and better policies!” Herman Daly, Emeritus Professor, University of Maryland

“The problems society faces to achieve a sustainable and desirable future are well known, but solutions seem impossible. Maxton and Randers describe thirteen politically feasible proposals that can actually solve these problems.” Prof. Robert Costanza, VC’s Chair in Public Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

“This book has the power to induce policy changes that are imperative for the creation of an equitable, peaceful and sustainable future for human society.” Rajendra K. Pachauri, past-chair, International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC); executive vice chairman, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Panellists :

• Simone d’Alessandro, University of Pisa -
• Daniel Mügge, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Professor of Political Arithmetic
• Bjorn Döhring, European Commission, Head of Unit for Economic situation, forecasts, business and consumer surveys
• Arthur Turrell, Co-Author of “An Interdisciplinary Model for Macroeconomics” (Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Jan.2018)
• Nicole Dewandre, European Commission, Joint Research Centre

Panellists:

• Fran Boait, Positive Money, Executive Director
• Josh Ryan-Collins, UCL Institution for Innovation and Public Purpose, Head of Research
• Thorsten Guthke, Association of German Public Banks, VÖB

Panellists:

• Jean-Christophe Defraigne, Saint-Louis University
• Joaquim Nunes de Almeida, European Commission, DG GROW, Director, Single Market Policy
• Gabriele Bischoff, DGB, Special adviser on European policy issues, German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) ; European Economic and Social Committee, President of the Workers’ Group
• Daniel Seikel, Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation

Panellists:

• Esther Lynch, ETUC, Confederal Secretary
• Lars Vande Keybus, FGTB