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Assembling Postcapitalist International Political Economy (POSTCAPE)

Retheorising Capitalism Funfair, Tampere University, 23–25 October

Retheorising Capitalism Funfair brings together students and scholars of international political economy to rethink capitalism and its aftermath(s). Utilising creative workshop methods, we seek to cultivate alternative academic cultures of knowing, learning, and theorizing, while cocreating alternative epistemologies for the futures of capitalism(s).

To work with(in) frictions of capitalism as well as practices of regeneration, reparation and hope, the event combines joint readings with lectures and discussions, zine-making as well as movement-based choreographic workshops.

After the event, the proceedings of the workshop will be collated into an edited volume that includes and reflects the creative methods of the workshop and the experiences of the participants.

The event is organized by the Academy of Finland funded project Assembling Postcapitalist International Political Economy (project no. 325976).

Students at Tampere University can join the event through a 5 ECTS intensive course, which involves taking part in the event and its exercises throughout the three days and completing the pre-assigned readings and related exercises before the Funfair. Students participating in the event as a credit-yielding study module, please, register for the course POL.KV.331 in Sisu. (Registration for  the course has ended.)

Other interested participants, unfortunately the registration for the event has closed. To your name on a waiting list, please contact Tiina Vaittinen (tiina.vaittinen at tuni.fi).

Programme

More information on the keynote speakers and contents of the speeches through this link.

Monday 23 October
Lyhty, Tampere University Main Building

10.15–10.30
Welcome
Anni Kangas, Tampere University

10.30–11.30
Exploring zine-making as a method to rethink capitalism
Inna Perheentupa, University of Turku & Saara Särmä, Tampere University

11.30–15.00
Reading group discussions, combined with Zine-making
Includes lunch break (self-funded)

15.00–16.00
Decoloniality as a precondition for healing, dreaming and unbecoming:
On why decoloniality has to be the foundation for any future action and inaction
Sabaheta Ramcilovik-Suominen, Natural Resource Institute (LUKE)

[break, or end of the day to those who do not wish to take part in the last session]

16.30–17.00
Singing bowl relaxation session [optional]
Eeva-Liisa Bonet, Mielentaikaa. NB: Participants to this session are recommended to bring woolly socks, a jumper or other warm cloths, possibly a scarf of a blanket, to ensure a warm and comfortable relaxation.

 

Tuesday 24 October
Paidia, Nokia Areena

10.30–10.45
Good morning and revisiting the day’s programme and practicalities

10.45–11.45
Alternative epistemologies in political economy: wealth and power in Islamic economic philosophy
Mariam Khawar, University of Helsinki

11.45–13.00 Lunch (self-funded)

13.00–13.15
Why translate the Kapital! board game into Finnish? Reflections
Olli Herranen, University of Helsinki

13.15–15.30
Playing board games about capitalism and time for zine-making

15.30–16.30
Roundtable: On the need to retheorize capitalism
Chair: Tiina Vaittinen

  • Mikko Poutanen: Academic capitalism: Reappropriation of the time and space necessary to think
  • Pia Ljungman: Beyond the naturalization and reproduction of finance capitalism
  • Commentaries from Jutta Bakonyi, Liisa-Rávná Finbog and Mariam Khawar
  • Q & A

 

Wednesday 25 October
Paidia, Nokia Arena

10.00–11.00
Spatio-technological infrastructures of capitalism [title TBC]
Jutta Bakonyi, Durham University

11.15–12.15
Capitalism’s colonial epistemicides
Liisa-Rávná Finbog, Sámi scholar, duojár, author and curator

12.15–13.30
Lunch (self-funded)

13.30–15.30
Movement-based workshop session: Retheorizing capitalism as reparation
Henna-Elise Ventovirta, Tampere University

15.30–16.30
Exploration of the materials produced in the workshops over coffee

16.30–17.00
Closing words and next steps


Suggested readings, to be further updated (see here for how the readings relate to the programme)

  • Bakonyi, Jutta. 2022. “Modular sovereignty and infrastructural power: The elusive materiality of international statebuilding.” Security Dialogue 53 (3): 256-278. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09670106211051943
  • Chua, Charmaine, Martin Danyluk, Deborah Cowen, and Laleh Khalili. 2018. “Introduction: Turbulent Circulation: Building a Critical Engagement with Logistics.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36 (4): 617-629.
  • Danyluk, Martin. 2017. “Capital’s logistical fix: Accumulation, globalization, and the survival of capitalism.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36 (4): 630-647. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0263775817703663
  • Demari et al. 2013. Environmental Values, 22:191-215(25). What is Degrowth? From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement https://doi.org/10.3197/096327113X13581561725194
  • Esack, F. (2018) Progressive Islam – A Rose by Any Name? American Soft Power in the War for the Hearts and Minds of Muslims. ReOrient. [Online] 4 (1), . [online]. Available from: https://scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/reorient.4.1.0078
  • Gibson-Graham, J. (2008). Diverse economies: performative practices for `other worlds’. Progress in Human Geography, 32, 613–632
  • Khawar, M. (2023) Economic agency of women in Islamic economic philosophy: going beyond Economic Man and Islamic Man. International Journal of Social Economics. [Online] ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print),. [online]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0366
  • Mehta L, Harcourt W (2021) Beyond limits and scarcity: feminist and decolonial contributions to degrowth. Polit Geogr. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102411
  • Merriman, Peter, and Rhys Jones. 2017. “Nations, materialities and affects.” Progress in Human Geography 41 (5): 600-617.
  • Nirmal P, Rocheleau D (2019) Decolonizing degrowth in the postdevelopment convergence: questions, experiences, and proposals from two Indigenous territories. Environ Plann E Nat Space 2(3):465–492. https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848618819478
  • Penttinen, E. (2013). Joy and International Relations. A New Methodology. Routledge.
  • Rutazibwa, O.U., 2018. On babies and bathwater. Decolonizing International Development Studies. In: De Jong, S., Icaza, R., Rutazibwa, O.U. (Eds.), Decolonization and Feminisms in Global Teaching and Learning. Routledge.
  • Tsing, A. L. (2015). Mushroom at the end of the World. Princeton University Press
  • Tuck E, Yang KW (2012) Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolon Indig Educ Soc 1(1):1–40