4119 - Bringing Capitalism Back In: Exploring the Political Economy of Injustice

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

The recent decade, marked by the collapse of the housing bubble and the economic, social, and political upheavals that came in its wake, has seen a renewed public interest on questions of political economy and the material bases of injustice and inequality. While sociological thought has historically, and throughout the neoliberal period, always included voices that were critical of capitalism, the engagement of contemporary sociologists with the disruptions and mobilizations of the past decade have catalyzed a new wave of research on the political economic structures not just injustice, but the ways in which struggles against injustice are waged. The four panelists will explore the ways in which political economic analysis can be deployed in the study of contemporary society. Panelists will not only examine the relationship between capitalism and social justice, but offer strategies incorporating such analyses to the project of social justice broadly defined. The session invites scholars who work on various topics that range from gender inequality, migrant labor, racial inequality, mass mobilization, labor unrest, welfare and the neoliberal turn, as well as examining these questions from local, national, and global perspectives.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Session

Session Organizers

• Suzy K Lee, Binghamton University

• Nada Matta, Drexel University

Presider

• Suzy K Lee, Binghamton University

Individual Presentations

• The Political Economy of Mass Incarceration - John J Clegg, University of Chicago; Adaner Usmani, Harvard University

• Modes of Radical Financial Reform: A Comparison of Democratizing Finance for Social Justice - Michael A. McCarthy, Marquette University

• The Old Red Storm and the New Pink Tide: A Structural Comparison of Two Left Failures in Latin America - Rene Rojas, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

• Work Hard, Make History: Labor Processes and Movements in Online Retail - Nantina Vgontzas, New York University

Discussant

• Michael Schwartz, Stony Brook State University