Format:
Hybrid

Coordinators:
Iqra Anugrah, Leiden University, officialiqraanugrah@gmail.com
Rachma Lutfiny Putri, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, r.l.putri@vu.nl
Bariş Eser, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, bariseser98@protonmail.com

Abstract:
Recent developments in global capitalism have been marked by major crisis-ridden economic and political conjunctures. Post-pandemic economic “recovery” continues to benefit the few at the expense of the working people. Simultaneously, authoritarian and right-wing populist turns have been eroding democratic rights and spaces. More recently, Israel’s war on Gaza shows the not-so-hidden face of Western imperialism. Understanding these processes, therefore, becomes an analytical and political imperative.

Of relevance is the workings of contemporary capitalist development and imperialist dynamics in three areas: 1) infrastructure, which has attracted considerable investment from Western countries, China, and emerging/sub-imperial powers, 2) social movements, which continue to resist state power and capital expansion, and 3) waste, which is not merely discarded materials but rather a major commodity with a massive market. These three lenses offer a meso-perspective to understand the political economy of development and its manifestation in everyday life, allowing us to link macro-processes with more micro-level case studies especially from the Global South, where contradictions of development feature most prominently.

This working group, organized as a panel inviting paper submissions and showcasing academic and activist works, invites contribution on these themes from a wide interdisciplinary, critical perspective. Topics currently covered in this panel include the evolution of anti-authoritarian and anti-neoliberal discourses in East/Southeast Asian social movements, waste capitalism/imperialism in Indonesian cities, and post-disaster infrastructural politics in Turkey. We are open to organize a hybrid panel and keen to host two panel sessions, depending on the number of panel participants. We welcome submissions on the mobility and transnational flows of different forms of materialities: capital, commodities, connections across Global North/South divides, programmatic ideas, networks, people, and waste, from a critical political economy perspective. We accept a range of paper formats such as analytical ruminations, case studies, preliminary findings, and activist/field reflections. Participation from comrades from the Global South and marginalized class, gender, and cultural backgrounds (broadly defined) is especially encouraged.

Keywords: Infrastructures, movements, waste, illiberal capitalism, imperialism, Global
South.

Please submit your paper abstracts, or any inquiries, to the following emails: bariseser98@protonmail.com, and r.l.putri@vu.nl

Word count for abstract submission: 300