Coping with Instability in Market Societies

10th Anniversary and Closing Conference of the Max Planck Sciences Po Center - MaxPo (2012-2022).

Over the last forty years, the social organization of Western societies has become increasingly dependent on markets, cross-border financial flows and private actors providing services that were previously considered prerogatives of nation-states. Through greater volatility in the economic, social and political environment, this shift profoundly affects the lives of many.

Ten years ago, the MaxPo set out to study how individuals, organizations and political systems attempt to cope with the high degree of strategic uncertainty in market societies. How does social life, the economy and politics reorganize to provide stability in a context where relationships, institutions and policies are torn between their original missions and economic imperatives?

The findings produced in six research groups focus on new classification systems, the concentration of economic power and changing business-government relations, the transformation of social inequality in response to financialization and the way in which market societies envision the future. The themes correspond to the research groups led by the successive co-directors of the Max Planck Sciences Po Center, Marion Fourcade, Cornelia Woll, Olivier Godechot, and Jenny Andersson.

The conference brings together the insights gathered on each of these topics over the last ten years.

It marks both the anniversary and the conclusion of the joint research endeavour that brought together the Max Planck Society and its Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne with Sciences Po in Paris. In addition, the Max Planck Sciences Po Center has benefited from the generous support of the AXA Research Fund. It showcases findings by the different members of the research groups and engages discussions with scholars who work internationally on related questions and have benefitted from the research environment in Paris through short-term visit.

See detailed program