Debt, North-South and Europe at a Crossroads – A Conversation with Ulrike Guérot and Thomas Fazi

University of Helsinki 13 June 2018, 16–18, Main building, Fabianinkatu 33, lecture room 12 (3rd floor)

The global and the European debt crises at the beginning of the twenty-first century raises difficult questions about economic asymmetries between North and South in the European integration project, about the limits of neo-functionalist theories of integration and the globalisation narrative about the market as the European unifier. The handling of the debt crisis has further reduced the prospects of strengthening solidarity between citizens in Europe under the current regime, as Europe’s North is played off against Europe’s South and a familiar arsenal of national, religious and cultural stereotypes is mobilized for upholding the binary relationship between South and North. How does the European divide relate to the global North-South framework? Can we beyond the current economic and divisive understanding of the debt relationship identify other meanings of debt, embedded in a broader framework of social relations, as a means to enhance greater recognition of interdependency and mutual indebtedness between collective subjects?

Ulrike Guérot is professor of European Policy and the Study of Democracy at Danube University Krems, founder of the European Democracy Lab in Berlin and author of Warum Europa eine Republik werden muss! Eine politische Utopie (2016).

Thomas Fazi is a writer, journalist, translator, and researcher based in Rome. He is the co-author (with William Mitchell) of Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World (2017).

The discussion is moderated by Stefan Nygård (University of Helsinki).

Attendance is free. The event is organized by the project The Debt: Historicizing Europe’s relations with the ‘South’ (Humanities in the European Research Area) and the Centre for
Nordic Studies at the University of Helsinki.