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Social transformations of the 20th century: capitalism, socialism, democracy, and fossil fuels

Srdečne pozývame na Ústavný seminár Sociologického ústavu SAV, v.v.i. V utorok 15. 10. 2024 o 13.30 prednesie Peter Wagner (Research Professor of Social Sciences at the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and at the University of Barcelona) prednášku Social transformations of the 20th century: capitalism, socialism, democracy, and fossil fuels.

Seminár v anglickom jazyku sa uskutoční v miestnosti 94 na Klemensovej 19 v Bratislave a na platforme Zoom. Invite link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82488963544?pwd=0ib8Jhwb64QKN8HENDwUsKOWw9yDk5.1

We warmly invite to the Seminar of the Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences on Tuesday 15th October 2024 at 13.30. Peter Wagner (Research Professor of Social Sciences at the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and at the University of Barcelona) will present the lecture Social transformations of the 20th century: capitalism, socialism, democracy, and fossil fuels.

Abstract of the lecture is attached. The language of the lecture will be English. Seminar will take a place in the room 94 and on Zoom.

Invite Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82488963544?pwd=0ib8Jhwb64QKN8HENDwUsKOWw9yDk5.1
Passcode: 482089

Abstract: European societies, by and large, entered the twentieth century with expectations of economic, political and cultural progress - enhanced material well-being, greater collective self-determination, increase in personal freedom, among others. However, the first half of the century was marked by two world wars, totalitarianism, and diverging political projects, while the second half saw the division of Europe due to the entrenchment of two of those projects and their diverse visions of future progress. At the end of the century, one of these projects collapsed, but the view that the other one would prevail turned out to be short-lived, not least due to the double loss of a sense of boundaries: boundaries of political and economic practices, and planetary boundaries of sustainability.

Despite such sequence of radical transformative experiences, interpretations of the twentieth century in the social sciences largely remained wedded to some idea of general logics that impose themselves on human history, such as those of modernization or capitalist accumulation. In contrast, this presentation looks at social change in the light of the problems societies are facing in given situations and the ways they interpret and try to address these problems. Key elements of the analysis are: the social hierarchies that condition problem interpretation; the contingency of the problem solutions that are adopted; and the likelihood that such "solutions" merely displace problems and generate more intractable problems as a consequence.

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Peter Wagner is Research Professor of Social Sciences at the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and at the University of Barcelona as well as Research Lead in the Programme "Modernity in Central Asia: Identity, Society, Environment" at the University of Central Asia. His research, based in comparative historical and political sociology, social and political theory, and sociology of the social sciences, focuses on the historical trajectories and transformations of modern societies. Analyzing the persisting tensions between struggles for autonomy and forms of domination, it explores in the light of historical experiences in different world-regions the current possibilities of progress, not least in the face of human action reaching and exceeding planetary boundaries. His most recent book Carbon Societies. The Social Logic of Fossil Fuels was published by Polity Press in June 2024.