Strange worlds of power: How democracy lost the economy
Open lecture by the Professor of Linguistic Anthropology and Director of Babylon Center, at Tilburg University, Jan Blommaert...
One feature of the post-2008 public discourse on the financial and economic crisis is, precisely, its representation as financial and economic, rather than as a general crisis of power, institutions and legitimacy. The economy has been discursively removed from the realm of democracy, and is currently presented as a separate universe responding to its own laws, not to those of democracy. To the extent that the economy (now an independent entity) and democracy are related, they are so in a hierarchical fashion, in which the economy dominates democracy. This discourse pattern has become entirely hegemonic since late 2008. Yet, it has important precursors. Very similar discourse patterns appeared in the public and academic debates surrounding Roosevelt's New Deal, as well as those of surrounding the depression of the 1970s. We can thus identify a discourse tradition, a discursive duree, which is driven by one major theme - the autonomy of 'economy' - but can be extended to several other topics connected to the structures of power in contemporary society.
Information
| Artist | Jan Blommaert |
| Organizer | Hellenic American Union, Hellenic American Education Center, Research Institute of Hellenic American University |
| Venue | Hellenic American Union Theater |
| Start Date | 27/02/2013 |
| End Date | 27/02/2013 |
| Starting Time | 19:00 |
| Type | Talk - Presentation |
| Languages: | EN |
| Interpretation Provided: | No |
| Registration Required: | No |
| Reservation Required: | No |
| Admission Fee | Admission is free |
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