Crisis and Transformation

Topic

Seit der Finanzkrise von 2007/2008 reißt die Kette der global wahrgenommenen Krisen nicht ab. Entsprechend ist allerorten und in den verschiedensten Registern von Krisen, Mehrfachkrisen und drohenden Katastrophen die Rede. Auch die wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit Krise als Begriff und Phänomen hat neuen Aufwind erfahren. Trotz dieses Revivals ist der Krisenbegriff bis heute analytisch unscharf. Deshalb diskutieren wir bei der Tagung nicht nur den Stand der ökologischen und ökonomischen Krisentheorien, sondern untersuchen auch ganz grundsätzlich das analytisch-kritische Erklärungspotential des Krisenkonzepts für aktuelle gesellschaftliche Transformationen: Welche konzeptionelle Rolle spielen Krisen für das Verständnis von gesellschaftlichen Veränderungsprozessen? Wie veralten sich Krisen zur Blockade von Veränderungen und Problemlösungen? Wie greifen Krisen ineinander und verdichten sich zu Gesellschaftskrisen? In welchem Verhältnis stehen Krisen und soziale Kämpfe?

Speakers

Debaditya Bhattacharya is a professor of literature at Kazi Nazrul University (Asansol, India). His main research interests centre on the socio-economic history of higher education, and specifically on practices of mobilisation, protest and censorship in the Indian context. more

Manuela Bojadžijev is a professor at the Institute of European Ethnology and the Berlin Institute for Migration Research (BIM) at Humboldt University Berlin. Her research focuses on migration studies from a global perspective and on globalised and digital cultures. more

Jay Bernstein is the University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He works primarily in the areas of ethics, critical theory, aesthetics and the philosophy of art, and German Idealism. more

Mario Candeias is senior advisor the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. His work focusses on socialist transformation research, left strategies and parties. more

Robin Celikates is Professor of Social Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin and deputy director of the Centre for Social Critique. His work centers on questions of theories of democracy, migration, citizenship, civil disobedience, moral theories of recognition and the methodology of political and social philosophy. more

Dipesh Chakrabarty is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History and South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, a founding member of the Subaltern Studies Collective, a founding editor of Postcolonial Studies and holds the Benjamin Chair 2026. more

Maeve Cooke is Professor of Philosophy at University College Dublin. She works on Critical Social Theory; Political Philosophy; Philosophy of Law and authored Re-Presenting the Good Society (2006). more

Rodrigo Cordero (PhD Sociology, University of Warwick) is a full professor of sociology at Universidad Diego Portales, Chile. His research is located at the intersection of critical theory, political sociology, and socio-legal studies. more

Alex Demirović is a Senior Fellow at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung and an associated member of the Centre for Social Critique. He was Professor for Industrial and Organizational Sociology at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. His research focuses on Marxist state theory, democracy and critical theory. more

Veronica Gago is is a professor of so­cial sciences at the Instituto de Altos Estudios at the Universidad Nacional de San Martìn (UNSAM) and a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Buenos Aires. Her research focuses on internatio­nal social movements, feminism, and the critique of neoliberal reason. more

Rahel Jaeggi is Professor for Practical and Social Philosophy and director of the Centre for Social Critique at Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin. Her main historical re­search is on Critical Theory, whilst her main systematic research is on social philosophy, social theory, social ontology, and social anthropology as well as political philoso­phy and ethics. more

Jan-Philipp Kruse is research associate at the University of Hamburg and member of the research group Ethics in Information Technology. His work focusses on modern societies and their transformations. more

Stephan Lessenich is director of the Institute for Social Research and professor for Social Theory and Social Reasearch at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a. M. He works on the political sociology of inequality, socialization, the theory and critique of capitalism and the social ecology of social transformation. more

Frank Nullmeier is deputy director of the „Deutsches Institut für Interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitikforschung“ and professor for political science at the University of Bremen. Most recently, as part of the series böll.paper by Heinrich Böll Stifung, he published Soziale Sicherheit in der Klimakrise Welche Antworten kann der Sozialstaat geben? (2026). more 

Isette Schuhmacher is an assistant professor (postdoc) at the Chair of Practical Philosophy and Social Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, Humboldt University of Berlin. In her dissertation (forthcoming) she develops a systematic account of the philosophical concept of crisis. more

Philipp Staab is Professor of Sociology of Work, Political Economy and Technological Change at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Co-Director of the Einstein Center Digital Future. His work draws from research on work, social structure analysis, sociology of technology and political economy. more

Joseph Tainter is an anthropologist and historian. He is Head of the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University. He is the author of The Collapse of Complex Societies (1997). more

Adam Tooze holds the Shelby Cullom Davis chair of History at Columbia University and serves as Director of the European Institute. He coined the term polycrisis, is co-editor of Surplus magazine, and comments on political and economic developments on his substack chartbook. more

Joseph Vogl is professor emeritus for Literature and Cultural Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His most recent research centered on the history of financial economics, the relation between literature and economy and ‘poetologies of knowledge’. more

Isabella Weber is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center, Harvard University, and a Fellow of the OSF Ideas Workshop. She works on policy responses to inflation and has advised policymakers in the US, Germany, Europe, and Latin America on price stabilization measures. more

Markus Wissen is Professor of Social Sciences at HWR Berlin. His work focusses on socio-ecological transformation. He is (co-) author of The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism (2021). more