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Prof. Alex Callinicos commenting on neo-liberalism
Oct 23, 2015
Peking University, Oct. 22,2015: Professor Alex Callinicos delivered a series of academic lectures on the recent developments of neo-liberalism in western countries from Oct. 8 to 13 in Peking University.

Prof. Alex Callinicos, a British political philosopher and Marxism theorist, director of the Center of European Studies at King’s College London, is invited to deliver series of talks by Peking University Global Fellowship.

 
Prof. Alex Callinicos invited as a member of Peking University Global Fellowship

The debut lecture “Crisis of Global Capitalism Today and the Future of the Anti-Capitalist Movement” was hold in Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center on the afternoon of Oct. 8. Prof. Alex rebutted the popular idea that the 2007-2008 global economic crisis had already passed, remarking that the crisis went on until today. He also defined this crisis as the third financial depression following the first in the late nineteenth century and that in 1930s. which initiated anti-capitalist movements all over the world. Prof. Alex briefly reviewed several significant events in the global anti-capitalist campaign and pointed out that it was still gaining momentum as crises kept arising.

 
The first lecture delivered by Prof. Callinicos

On Oct.9, Prof. Callinicos gave the second lecture “The New Developments of the Western Critical Social Theory.” He emphasized the pivotal role that French Marxist philosopher Althusser played in social critical theory and suggested that the unsuccessful attempt of leftism in 1980s and 1990s could not be regarded as a failure of the social critical theory. Then he commented on four active critics--Hart, Negri, Badiou and Zizek, saying that their theories indicated a tendency to “go back to Marx.” This tendency is in consistent with the essence of modern social critical theory, which stressed the interaction of political practices and theory studies.

On Oct. 12, Prof. Alex Callinicos delivered the third speech “Universities in a Neoliberal World”. He focused on the transition of British universities in neoliberal era, pointed out the problems that higher education had been facing since 1980s and discussed the possible solutions in response to these problems.

Prof. Callinicos first reviewed the history of British universities, noting that British universities kept following the American model, which greatly differed from that of classical European universities. Highly market-oriented neoliberal era makes university a “captive” under commercial competitions, which grows simultaneously in the field of admission and research funding. This trend results in problems such as educational inequity, utilitarianism, and the loss of academic autonomy, etc.

However, as Prof. Callinicos pointed out, the major culprit is not educational system, but social structure. In this new era, besides revisiting the idea of democracy in higher education, there should be a combined effort against the trend of commercialization. He also emphasized that teaching and research should be the fundamental tasks of university.

On Oct. 13, Prof. Callinicos and other scholars took part in a symposium "reading Das Kapital." The discussion was centered on Marx's Das Kapital and Prof. Callinicos’ latest research--"Decoding Capital: Marx's Das Kapital and its destiny."
 
 
 “Reading Das Kapital

Background Info:

1. Prof. Alex Callinicos, a Zimbabwe-born British political philosopher and Marxism theorist, studied philosophy, political science and economics at the University of Oxford Baliol College. His Ph.D. thesis was on Marx’s Capital. He served as a professor of political science in University of York for a long time before working in the Center of European Studies at King's College London since September 2005, where he then became the director of the center in September 2006.

Prof. Callinicos has works and researches on Marxism (classical Marxism, western Marxism and Marxist today), social theory, political philosophy, history, philosophy, race and racism as well as education and many other areas. He is also experienced in international socialist movement practice.

2. “Peking University Global Fellowship” is one of the important programs within PKU’s project of building a world-class university. It intends to invite world-class scholars to give seminars and courses, and to carry out collaborative researches.



Written by : Fu Guirong, Wang Zehua
Edited by: Wu Zhangxinan
Sources: Office of International Relations
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