May 6, 2019, 18 Uhr

Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Room D4.0.019

Marguerite Mendell, The Social and Solidarity Economy. A citizen based countermovement?

Comments by Ruth Simsa, WU Vienna (tbc) and Roland Atzmüller, JKU Linz (tbc)

Karl Polanyi did not live long enough to witness the return of unbridled market liberalism and the discrediting of the post-war compromise, the role of the state and organized labour in many parts of the world. Over the last decades, neoliberal globalization has spread commodification and marketization to diverse spheres of social life and social ecology. Is the social and solidarity economy a forceful countermovement or is it only accommodating the dominant paradigm? The lectures describes recent developments in the sector and reflects on strategies of strengthening agency, institutions and structures that foster social justice, equity and living in harmony with nature, best achieved through working collectively.

Marguerite Mendell is the Director of the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy Montreal which hosts the Karl Polanyi archive. She is a key protagonist of research and discussions referring to Karl Polanyi’s work and a renown scholar in the field of the social and solidarity economy. Many awards show the extraordinary relevance of her work: Member, Order of Canada; Officer, Order of Québec; laureate Prix Québec, Marie-Andrée Bertrand and Prix ACFAS, Pierre Dansereaux. His latest/most important contributions include “Commoning and the Commons - Alternatives to a Market Society” in Michael Brie and Thomas Clausberger, (eds.), Karl Polanyi's Vision of Socialist Transformation. Montreal, Black Rose Books, 2018; "Democratizing Capital: Social and Solidarity Finance in Quebec" in Ngai Pun, Ben Hok-bun Ku, Hairong Yan, Anita Koo (eds.), Social Economy in China and the World. London, Routledge, 2015;