Governing Capitalism, CEE’s Doctoral Study

Deadline : 9 October 2020

The PhD students of the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics will organize on December 16 their first doctoral study day, on the theme “Governing Capitalism” (PDF, 174 Ko). The study day will be a series of three round tables, each focused on a specific theme and moderated by a CEE senior researcher and a CEE PhD candidate.

Each round table, two hours long, will begin with three communications of 20 minutes each, followed by a discussion by the moderators, and will be concluded by a questions-answers session. The goal is then to show how PhD candidates in social sciences can contribute to academical debates, while being understood by the widest audience.

Only PhD students can propose a communication for one or more round tables*. The proposals must be 1000 words long and be sent before October 9, 2020, along with a presentation paragraph indicating the research themes and the attachment unit of the candidate. The communications of the study day will be selected before October 31.

The proposals can be either in French or in English. If the proposal is in English (respectively in French), the candidate must declare whether he or she would be able to do its presentation and the follow-up discussion in French (respectively in English). The language of each round table will be decided following the preferences of the candidates.

The candidates are prompted, as far as possible, to present comparative works on European democracies. However, there is no restriction of discipline, geographical area or approach as far as the proposals fits with the angle of the round tables.

The proposals are to be sent to doctorants.ceesp@gmail.com

Study day’s theme: Governing Capitalism

This doctoral study day fits in the axis “The transformations of capitalism” of the Center for European Studies, whose premise is that global capitalism has entered a new phase: tertiarization and internationalization of economies, weakening of the state’s regulatory role, deregulation and privatization, increased role of financial actors, corporate concentration, intensified competition, acceleration of technical progress, growing importance of information and knowledge as factors of production, upheavals associated with the development of the digital economy, increased separation between labor and capital ownership, between execution and design. Thus, this study day deals with the political implications of these global transformations, through the problematic of the modes of governance and regulation of contemporary political economy.

Round table n°1: “Changing political economy: governing ecological transitions”

The challenges imposed by climate change are lobbying to get a transition to another society model leading to the emergence of new economic structures, more respectful of the environment and compliant to the objectives of sustainable development. Which role the State and the international and supranational institutions will be able to play to support this new economic model? Which powers of constraint do they have? Are they doomed to incentive actions, and with which efficiency? Above all, are they really determined to govern ecological transitions?

Discussion moderated by Richard Balme, University Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs, member of the CEE, coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Workshop of Environmental Researches (AIRE), and Weiting Chao, PhD candidate at the CEE.

Round table n°2: “Regulations, sectors and politics of real economy”

Either it’s about digital, health or energy, there are numerous sectors where business is entangled with ethical, social and geopolitical questions. As many regulation issues for public action who is struggling to tackle the rapid transformations of capitalism. To which levels can economy be controlled and with which instruments? Can political actors pretend to govern sectors in which they sometimes themselves have interests? How to regulate economic actors who seem sometimes more powerful than States themselves?

Discussion moderated by Cyril Benoît, CNRS research fellow at the CEE and member of the ANR project “Health Risk Market (MaRiSa)”, and Zoé Evrard, PhD candidate at the CEE and the MaxPo

Round table n°3: “Challenges of financial system’s governance”

The 2008 financial crisis revealed the political and social issues raised by the financialization of the economy and the lack of regulation of financial markets. Is it still possible, for political authorities, to keep the control of a system of private interests to serve the largest interest? Which measures have been set to avoid a new collapse which would reverberate onto the other economical sectors and onto the citizens in general? How to make the insurance market responsible for the collective risks of the ecological and health crises which will affect all the countries?

Discussion moderated by Cornelia Woll, Full Professor at Sciences Po, codirector of the MaxPo, member of the CEE and of the LIEPP, and Mattia Lupi, PhD candidate at the CEE and the MaxPo

* No financial support can be provided by the organization of the study day. If the health situation allows it, the study day will take place at Sciences Po Paris, or if necessary, by Zoom.