Invitation to the IPW Lecture Disasters as Political Tipping Points: Between Socioecologically Transformative Approaches to IPE and Militarizing Postliberalism
Lecturer: Johannes Waldmüller (IPW Visiting Professor)
Moderation: Valerie Lenikus (Research Network Latin America)
When: Wednesday, 11 May 2022, 17:00-18:30
Where: online
Abstract:
At the moment of writing, the war, the encompassing militarization, between Russia and the Ukraine/West has started, right at the peak of humankind’s worst pandemic so far. While representing a long-standing yet still marginal field of interest, disaster researchers (e.g. Pelling and Dill, 2010) have discussed tipping points, i.e. the protracted, non-linear effects of societal and political change, as possible consequences of disasters, both in terms of opportunity for strengthening, as well as threatening transparency, rule of law, and liberal democratic orders. In the wake of disaster impact, postliberal and outright authoritarian forms of social (and media) control are somewhat common, themselves being frequently part of the need for major economic upheavals and therefore threats to long-standing elites.
Drawing from selected recent cases of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic risks and disasters, and subsequent militarization in Latin America, as well as the ongoing pandemic in Europe, I explore some of the key tipping point theories from the vantage point of international political economy (IPE). In the era of accelerated climate change, the intensified scramble for resources and the shift from unipolar to a multipolar world order, I argue that global society is currently at an existential crossroads: further militarization of deepened social conflict, particularly between rural/urban spaces and classes, or massively scaling-up of subaltern approaches towards a socio-ecologically sustainable reorientation of our global trade, production and finance system.
Access link:
To join the lecture via Zoom, please click here (Meeting-ID: 688 6191 4930, Kenncode: 674085)
