[Table ronde] From austerity to sobriety?

Roundtable of Transformation of capitalism key theme

Sciences Po, 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007 Paris & Zoom*

Podcast Sciences Po CEE · Roundtable - From Austerity to Sobriety?

This roundtable aims to tackle the ambivalent interrelation between emergent "sobriety" policies in the wake of the 2021 energy crisis, and the swift return to austerity measures and debt reduction measures which were already the hallmark of policies born out of the 2008 financial crisis. We hope the discussion will enable a better understanding of the specificity of the emergence of the political discourse and policy tools around "sobriety" as a response to the energy crisis in a context where austerity is far from being out of the picture. These two notions, with clearly heterogeneous philosophical and political roots, are blended in a way that interrogates the governance choices in facing crises and tackling limits (planetary boundaries; budgetary limitations) and the possible contradictions or tensions within given choices. Consequently, this situation also brings up questions about how political perceptions and narrations of limitations/boundaries are built up, how they translate into policy, and which results are reached in effectively tackling the crises unfolding.

Panel

• Colin Hay, Sciences Po, CEE
• Ulrike Lepont, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS
• Clara Leonard, Institut Avant Garde, PhD at Université Paris-Sorbonne
• Benjamin Lemoine, CNRS, Centre Maurice Halbwachs

Chairs

• Meryem Bezzaz, Sciences Po, CEE
• Claire Lejeune, Sciences Po, CEE