Ecology, Capitalism, Democracy

About

There are typically two ways to explain how and why democracies die. The first kind of explanation, which was dominant for much of the twentieth century and has returned with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, turns to external threats. The second kind of explanation, which secured its dominance after the fall of the Soviet Union and the apparent triumph of a global liberal democratic order, turns to internal tensions—from religious violence to government corruption to tyrannical majorities to authoritarian take-over. This course explores an increasingly urgent third kind of explanation. In addition to external threats and internal tensions, democracies now face challenges that are neither strictly internal nor external but global, systemic, and infrastructural. We understand these challenges under two broad categories: the unfolding ecological crises and the catastrophes wrought by capitalism’s intensification.

Can democracy, a mode of governance bound by national borders, respond to these boundless global, systemic, and infrastructural challenges? What is the relationship between ecological and capitalist crises? How do ecological and capitalist crises animate democracy’s internal and external antagonists?

Course leader

Dilip Gaonkar (Rhetoric and Public Culture, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA) & Shalini Randeria (President and Rector of Central European University, Vienna, Austria) & Liam Mayes (Politics, Law and Social Thought, Rice University, Houston, USA)

Target group

The course invites applications from advanced humanities and social science PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and junior faculty who have received their PhDs within the last five years.

Course aim

The aim of the course is to re-examine the relationship between democracy, ecology, and capitalism by attending to the complex and diverse challenges democratic societies are navigating today. The course will employ an interdisciplinary perspective and global scope, comparing democratic contexts across time and space. To this end, the course will foster a robust dialogue among students, activists, and scholars assembled from all over the world. Students will leave the course with a deeper understanding of democracy’s modern challenges as well as new questions and ideas about how they may be productively addressed.

Fee info