Call for Papers

The European integration project and the institutional foundation of the EU have been in a transition stage for some years now. One of the most severe economic crises in the history of capitalism has shaken the entire social, institutional and economic edifice of the European Union causing a series of changes (e.g., Brexit) and transformations, while creating a series of new challenges for institutional, social, economic and political actors. The academic community faces similar challenges in its attempt to capture and interpret these changes and their causes and, at the same time, to place them in their historical context.

This one-day conference aims: (a) to identify critical and alternative perspectives, approaches and practices on the process of European integration and of the institutional foundation of the EU; (b) to examine how the new phase European integration is currently going through influences and shapes a new context of socio-political, legal and economic relations within and between states, organizations, movements, with particular emphasis  on the Southern European and Mediterranean region but not limited to these.

Conference Topics (indicative)

• Inequality and social crisis
• Precarious work and labor rights
• The right to housing and the process of gentrification
• The rise of new social movements, new collectivities and the relation between old and new
• Political parties and social movements in a new context
• The EU and geopolitics
• Militarization and security issues in the EU
• The EMU, monetary policies and their impact on state/social policies
• The welfare state transformation and the abolishment of forms of social ownership (i.e. cooperatives)
• Technocracy as a form of ideology
• Migration/Refugee crisis in the EU and the Mediterranean region
• Alternative visions for social, political and ecological transformation
• Commons and the struggle for common space

Program

Organising Committee

Dr. Nikos Karfakis, Alexander College

Dr Yiannos Katsourides, Prometheas Research Institute (Director) and University of Cyprus

Dr Panayiota Arnou (Promitheas Research Institute Associate)

Costas Christodoulides Alexander Alexander Research Centre, Director