Poliko

David Karas
  • 5.0 (2)
  • SOCIAL SCIENCES
Poliko

Poliko is a platform for the dissemination of exciting new theoretical and empirical research in political economy. It focuses on the interactions between political and economic institutions, ideas and behaviors but isn't limited to any particular discipline, methodology or theoretical tradition. This is a space to open up and share those longer academic discussions which usually take place around a dinner table.

Episodes

  1. 06/05/2022

    The African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics with Nicolas Pons-Vignon (Part 1): Neoliberal Restructuring in South Africa

    Today’s episode is the first part of a conversation with Nicolas Pons-Vignon who played an instrumental role in setting up Aporde, the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics, a unique training programme teaching heterodox development economics in South Africa. In this episode, we explore Nicolas’ personal research background and his outlook on South Africa’s post-apartheid developmental trajectory. We talk about some of the root causes of South African deindustrialization, the ...

    46 min

  2. 18/01/2022

    The Crisis of the Liberal International Order with Ayşe Zarakol

    In today’s episode, I’m talking with Ayşe Zarakol from Cambridge University about the crisis of the Liberal International Order (LIO). Ayşe's work explores the contradictions of the LIO as a hierarchical order premised on the notions of freedom, rationality and equal participation: she examines how anti-liberal discontents in the western Core blame it for undermining their status in the global World System, while conversely critics on the Semi-Periphery see it as reproducing power...

    37 min

  3. 30/11/2021

    The World Development Report 2020 Or How To Shore Up Fracturing Neoliberalism with Jennifer Bair and Benjamin Selwyn

    In this episode, I invited Jennifer Bair and Benjamin Selwyn to share their insights on the World Bank’s 2020 World Development Report. The WDR is the World Bank’s flagship publication, which aims at defining a hegemonic framework for thinking about development. In 2020, the WDR was entitled “Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains”. Jennifer and Benjamin both recently published critical papers on the WDR 2020: We talk about the methodological and theoretical con...

    53 min

  4. 29/06/2021

    Displacements, Surplus Workers and Surplus Capital: Discussing Urban Displacements by Susanne Soederberg (Book Preview)

    In today’s episode, we examine the interdependence between urban displacements, surplus populations and surplus capital in Susanne Soederberg’s recent book “Urban Displacements. Governing Surplus and Survival in Global Capitalism” published in late 2020 with Routledge. We explore the links between surplus money and surplus workers, social and rental housing, precarious work and urban poverty under capitalism, but also the political role of state actors in the reproduction of surpl...

    57 min

  5. 02/06/2021

    Public Banks: Decarbonisation, Definancialisation and Democratisation by Thomas Marois (Book Preview)

    Today I am joined with Thomas Marois from the School of Oriental and African Studies to discuss the backdrop to his latest book "Public Banks. Decarbonisation, Definancialisation and Democratisation" which is coming out with Cambridge University Press in May 2021. Critical social scientists have abundantly analyzed the ideas, institutions and power relations sustaining financialization - as well as the social and environmental dislocations it produces. Concrete, normative propositions a...

    43 min

  6. 20/05/2021

    Episode 06. Rwanda’s “Growth Miracle” in Context: Industrial Policy and State-Business Relations in Sub-Saharan Africa with Pritish Behuria

    Pritish Behuria from the University of Manchester has a long expertise in studying industrial policy and comparative developmental trajectories in Sub-Saharan Africa. In today’s episode, we first talk about the broader context of a supposedly post-neoliberal developmental framework where industrial policy is again on the agenda - even though problems such as fiscal space, structural change, access to technology and dependency on foreign capital have changed little if at all. Pritish also shar...

    47 min

  7. 05/05/2021

    Episode 05. Socialize Data! Beyond the Anti-Politics of Digital Rentier Capitalism with Jathan Sadowski

    Today I’m talking with Jathan Sadowski from Monash University about the economic and political dimensions of digital capitalism. An emerging consensus sees digital data, its extraction and the concentration of Big Tech as signalling a dramatic shift towards a new age of “digital feudalism”: The story goes that digital services with minimal marginal costs enabled unprecedented market concentration in the hands of giant corporations, which thrive on capturing rents in the form of data the...

    50 min

  8. 24/04/2021

    Episode 04. The Transperiphery Movement Exhibition: Towards a Global History of Peripheral Connections with Zoltán Ginelli

    I am talking today with Zoltán Ginelli, a Hungarian critical geographer whose research repositions the semi-peripheral experience of Hungarian modernization in a global context, by studying the many points of connections linking peoples, ideas, expertise, institutions and political utopias in Hungary to other peripheries in the postcolonial Global South. Zoltán has co-curated a fantastic exhibition in Budapest entitled Transperiphery Movement, where he examines these trans-peripheral co...

    1 hr

  9. 08/04/2021

    Episode 03. The Geopolitical Economy of China's BRI in Central Asia with Niva Yau Tsz Yan

    Today I am talking about China’s engagement in Central Asia with Niva Yau Tsz Yan from the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. A region often overlooked by Western media and academic research, Central Asia plays a central role in China's Belt and Road Initiative. Niva clarifies the relationship between China’s BRI projects in Central Asia and the militarisation of the South China Sea, and how Central Asia functions as a testing ground for initiatives that China seeks to export even fur...

    49 min

  10. 25/03/2021

    Episode 02. Marxist State Theory for De-Orientalizing State Capitalism with Ilias Alami

    State capitalism is today a label often applied to China, Russia or the Arab Gulf as a model threatening to displace Western liberal conceptions of insulated markets driven by fair competition and minimal state interventions. In this episode, I'm asking Ilias Alami from Maastricht University to unpack the concept: Rejecting a Western liberal Orientalizing discourse, which locates state capitalism beyond the West, Ilias argues on the contrary that the concept can be useful for unde...

    44 min

  11. 11/03/2021

    Episode 01. The Making of Illiberal Hegemony in Hungary with Gábor Scheiring and Kristóf Szombati

    In this episode, I am joined by two Hungarian scholars, Gábor Scheiring from Bocconi University and Kristóf Szombati from the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Gábor and Kristóf have worked extensively together in opposition politics but also in academia, co-authoring multiple papers on the political economy of Hungary. We discuss together the ideology and class-coalitions sustaining Hungary’s current authoritarian regime. We talk about racism, labor exploitation, democratic suppr...

    57 min
  • 11 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Poliko is a platform for the dissemination of exciting new theoretical and empirical research in political economy. It focuses on the interactions between political and economic institutions, ideas and behaviors but isn't limited to any particular discipline, methodology or theoretical tradition. This is a space to open up and share those longer academic discussions which usually take place around a dinner table.

Information

  • Creator
    David Karas
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2022
  • Episodes
    11
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Poliko
  • Show Website
    Poliko

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