Etienne Balibar: The Rise and Fall of the European Union: Temporalities and Teleologies

Historians and philosophers have been discussing the extent to which specific ideologies regarding the understanding of time and space are involved in the writing of history, as a consequence of the “central” place that Europe had attributed itself in Modern history. The idea of “Europe” itself, whether perceived from inside or outside, is by definition ideological or it is a teleological “discourse”, which performs epistemological and political functions at the same time. Whether we consider ourselves More

Laura Horn, Angela Wigger: Uneven Development and Political Resistance against EU Austerity Politics

In response to the current crisis, European Union (EU) institutions and Eurozone governments have adopted a range of regulatory and treaty-based measures to ensure fiscal discipline through limiting the capacity of Eurozone governments running budget deficits and accumulating sovereign debt. In addition, almost all Eurozone governments have taken measures to deregulate labour laws, such as easing employee dismissals, reducing minimum wages, More

Workshop Organizers: On the Dominant Role of Germany in the EU

This is the third of the three announced posts; it is on the dominant role of Germany in the European Union. The reason for this is easy: In the discussion on austerity policy and the “anti-crisis-policy” within the EU the extraordinarily destructive role played by Germany is, in fact, referred to and focused upon. This is certainly very understandable, but it is not sufficient. More

Eric Toussaint: The Euro Crisis and Contradictions between Countries in the Periphery and Centre of the European Union

The crisis that started in the United States in 2007-2008, hit the European Union head on in 2008, and has been causing major problems in the eurozone since 2010. Banks from the strongest European countries are responsible for spreading this plague from the United States to Europe, because they had invested massively in structured financial products. It is important to explain why this crisis has struck the European Union and the eurozone harder than the United States. More