Lectures
October 2019
15
Oct
2019
Oct
2019
Die Wiederaneignung der Nation
Wir sind heute geneigt, ‘Nation’ mit ‘Nationalismus’ gleichzusetzen. Das ist naheliegend angesichts der verheerenden Exzesse von Gewalt, die der Nationalismus und vor allem der Nationalsozialismus im 20. Jahrhundert entfesselt haben. Das Erstarken rechter Parteien in Europa bestätigt heute die Sorge, dass von den Nationen wieder der Ausschluss von Minderheiten, Verfolgung und Gewalt ausgehen können. Aber …
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June 2019
12
Jun
2019
Jun
2019
Technology and Utopia
In contemporary discussions about the future of artificial intelligence we often lose our heads. While economists offer bleak predictions of mass job losses and a deepening of already widespread precarity, Silicon Valley utopians insist that new technologies are bringing us ever closer together and will one day deliver us from work, disease and poverty. But …
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05
Jun
2019
Jun
2019
The International State System after Neoliberalism
I begin by recalling a short essay by Karl Polanyi, written in 1945, in which he discusses the prospects of a new, peaceful global order, based on the lessons of the war and the interwar period. In it Polanyi advocates an international regime beyond both Communist and neoliberal universalism that allows for national political-economic self-determination. …
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May 2019
28
May
2019
May
2019
Migrants and City Making in Disempowered Cities
What do cities which have lost their economic, political, and cultural power and population reveal about the location of migrants in city-making and urban politics? What do they disclose about the fault lines of neoliberal urban redevelopment? Empirical findings from left-behind cities might provide new insights to think about migrants, urban politics, and current populist …
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28
May
2019
May
2019
Making Sense of the Results of the European Elections
“Democratic politics need drama,” the political analyst Ivan Krastev is convinced. Elections are a form of therapy session in which voters are confronted with their worst fears – a new war, demographic collapse, economic crisis, environmental horror – but become convinced they have the power to avert the devastation. If this assumption is correct, then …
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09
May
2019
May
2019
Judenplatz 1010
»The work of memory is in the present. In our century, a place such as the Judenplatz is not simply a square within a city, but a site that might be viewed from a distance, anywhere in the world, through technology. Jews were once taken from Vienna to be murdered, and that crime cannot …
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03
May
2019
May
2019
Karl Polanyi and Globalization’s Wrong Turn
Registration closed! Live stream on radiokulturhaus.orf.at Globalization took a wrong turn when it overlooked Polanyi’s central insight that markets need to be embedded in institutions, both for effectiveness and legitimacy. The brief period of Bretton Woods-style globalization in the decades following World War II was more Polanyiesque in so far it did not question …
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April 2019
03
Apr
2019
Apr
2019
Imaginaries of Democracy and Dissent
When Charles Taylor engaged in explorations of modern social imaginaries more than two decades ago, he could hardly have predicted how popular his inquiry would become among political and legal philosophers in recent years. Imaginaries precede theoretical knowledge and refer to the ways people imagine and share their social existence. As deeply entrenched modes of collective understanding, they evolve …
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March 2019
14
Mar
2019
Mar
2019
Between Predation and Protection
Why, despite long-term and general declines in all forms of lethal violence, are some states and regions caught in an “insecurity trap”? What are the processes and mechanisms that facilitated the emergence of pacific states in the 19th and 20th century, and where (and why) do these conditions not hold today? The talk will explore …
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11
Mar
2019
Mar
2019
Statelessness in South Asia
The lecture examines the entanglements of citizenship policies and practices with the spread of statelessness today. It discusses the genesis of the Rohingya question in Myanmar in the broader context of citizenship registration drives in some postcolonial countries, which render massive number of “illegal immigrants” stateless. Current citizenship policies in these countries reflect the desire …
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February 2019
12
Feb
2019
Feb
2019
Aid in Times of Crisis, the Crisis of Aid
Aid is still regarded as an important instrument for human development, nationally and internationally. Yet, the nature of aid, its structuring and implementation has changed considerably in recent years. It has been increasingly integrated into the financial and economic system, giving rise to a thriving new industry dealing in „social bonds“ and „social business“, thus …
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January 2019
29
Jan
2019
Jan
2019
International Lawyers’ Failing
Miloš Vec will analyze the intersection of the idea of pariah weapons with clashes between moral verdicts and legal bans in the 19th century. The industrial revolution and subsequent technological progress enabled the production and use of a new range of weapons and military equipment. How did international law and lawyers react to this development? …
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