Disrupting the European Crisis: A Critical Political Economy of Contestation, Subversion and Escape

Abstract

Central to much of the critical political economy (CPE) literature is a declared focus on emancipation. Yet, rather than highlight sources and instances of activity that might result in emancipatory outcomes, much of the CPE literature focuses on relations of domination and the way in which these are sustained and (re)produced. In contrast, and drawing on autonomist Marxism, we argue that an emancipation-oriented approach needs to focus upon the ways in which processes of domination are contested, disrupted and as a result remain incomplete. In doing so, we present an analysis of the European political and economic crisis that contrasts starkly with prevailing accounts. Whilst many observers have considered the European crisis in terms that signal the death knell of labour's prolonged post-1970s defeat, the paper instead renders visible the ongoing disruptive effects of the European populace's obstinate, subversive and creative capacity to escape those attempts to achieve domination and subjugation which existing accounts tend to identify.

Keywords:

• critical political economy
• disruption
• European crisis
• autonomist Marxism

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper have been presented at the CPERN conference (Barcelona 2012), EISA conference (Warsaw 2013), and the SPERI/UPF Rights and the Crisis in Europe and Spain workshop (October 2014). We are grateful for comments made by the participants of those events, especially Luis Buendia, Magnus Ryner, and Owen Worth. We also thank Stephen Bates and the two anonymous reviewers.

Notes on contributors

Nikolai Huke is currently a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science, Philipps-University Marburg.

Mònica Clua-Losada is currently Tenure Track Lecturer in Political Science in the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona).

David J. Bailey is currently Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham.

Notes

1. For the sake of clarity of argument we have sought to distinguish between two ‘schools’ – domination and disruption-focused – although obviously in actual texts there is scope for overlap. This is perhaps most obvious in the case of what we refer to as the ‘class struggle’-focused Marxists, such as Greg Albo, David Harvey, David McNally and Leo Panitch – each of whom have tendencies to be both domination and disruption-focused in their analyses, as we see in some of the examples that follow.

2. Whilst it is more commonplace to refer to the ‘Eurozone crisis’, the present article instead refers to the European political and economic crisis, in part because the crisis has affected European countries who are both members and non-members of the Eurozone.

3. The research project is being conducted by the authors, and Stephen Bates, comparing patterns of resistance in the context of the global economic and Eurozone crises.

4. Whilst McNally does much to highlight instances of resistance, he nevertheless also tends to display some of the tendencies of ‘left melancholic’ analyses in downplaying the impact of new social movements.