Pre-Conference Events > IIPPE Training Workshop

Dear participants,

As in previous years, there will be an IIPPE Training Workshop in Lille France that will take place, in parallel to the AFEP Doctoral Day, the day before our joint conference on the 2^nd of July, 2019.

This year the workshop will be presented by members of the Political Economy of China’s Development IIPPE Working Group on the “The Systemic Dynamics and Systematic Implications for Contemporary Capitalism”.

This workshop aims to discuss the political economy of China’s development and its relationship with world capitalism from a historical materialist perspective. The first session will offer a perspective on the interactions between the Market Reforms and neoliberalism; the second session will look into some recent cinematic presentations of the “Chinese worker”, and argue how this stereotyping may preclude a fuller understanding of the dynamic reality of the Chinese proletariat; the third session will explore how the questions Lenin raised in his article Our Revolutionmay be answered by a socialist political economy that critically assimilates and transcends the theory and practice of Smithian/neoliberal and Listian/Keynesian market economics.

See below for the programme and please register here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/iippe-pre-conference-training-workshop-2019-the-political-economy-of-chinas-development-the-registration-59014332457 to confirm your attendance.

9:00 – 10:00 Welcome and Greetings

Programme of the Training Workshop - The Systemic Dynamics and Systematic Implications for Contemporary Capitalism

10:00 – 10:15 Introduction Dic Lo

10:15 – 12:15 China’s economic development and Market Reforms in the context of neoliberal globalisation (Dic Lo and Sam-Kee Cheng)

The nature and dynamics of China’s Market Reforms has been a subject of great contention. This paper will argue that China is, by and large, an exception to the norms of world neoliberalism and how the Chinese state’s zigzags between submission and resistance to neoliberalism reflects the contending tendencies inherent in the Market Reforms. Language: English

12:15 – 13:30 Lunch Break – joining the participants of the AFEP-IIPPE Doctoral Day

13:30 – 15:00 The “Chinese worker”: Image and Reality (Wang Hong)

What is the “Chinese worker”? This forum will critically assess the iconic still lifes in films such as Piano in a Factory《钢的琴》(2010),24 City《二十四城记》(2008), Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks《铁西区》(2003) and The Verse of Us《我的诗篇》(2015), and argue how the diverse living realities of the Chinese proletariat could be better expressed with a grasp of the country’s political economy. Language: Chinese and English

15:00 – 15:15 Break

15:15 – 17:00 From Lenin’s questions in his last years to a socialist political economy for China today (Jie Meng)

This paper will argue that grasping the full relationship between necessity and contingency is crucial in refashioning historical materialism. Towards the end of his life, in response to the social-democratic orthodoxy that socialism can only be built on the basis of the most advanced capitalist economy and culture, Lenin argued that the Russian Revolution was not a freak of history and it was possible to economically catch up with advanced capitalism with a non-capitalist political system. China could provide an example of how Lenin’s challenge may be answered in practice. Language: English

17:00 – 17:15 Concluding Remarks

Reference readings: TBC

Organiser: IIPPE China Working Group

For further information or questions, contact: Sam-Kee Cheng at 214533@soas.ac.uk