The Bretton Woods Twins and Structural Adjustment Programs in the Era of Neoliberal Globalization – International Conference

Date: 26th to 28th September 2024 

Location: Corvinus University of Budapest, Gellért Campus, Aquarium room (1118 Budapest, Ménesi út 5.) 

Here you can find the exact schedule of the event. 

Thursday, 26 September 2024 

16.30 Welcome coffee  

16.45 Opening message by Szántó Zoltán Oszkár, Vice Rector for Research of Corvinus University  

17.00 – 17.30 

Welcome & Introduction 

Federico Pachetti (Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary) Jonas Kreienbaum (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) and Eva-Maria Muschik (Universität Wien, Austria) 

17.30 – 19.00 

Keynote Lecture – Structural Adjustment as Development: A Global History 

Nils Gilman (Berggruen Institute, USA) 

Friday, 27 September 2024 

9.30 – 11.00 Panel 1: The Agency of Structural Adjustment Programs I 

Moderation: Nils Gilman (Berggruen Institute, USA) 

• Structural Adjustment Policies, (De)Globalization, and Debtor-Creditors in the 1980s and 1990s 

Johanna Bockman (George Mason University, USA) 

• Neoliberals vs. Neoliberals. Ronald Reagan, the Foreign Debt Crisis, and the Republican Opposition to the International Monetary Fund, 1981-83 

Duccio Basosi (University of Venice, Italy) 

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break 

11.30 – 13.00 Panel 2: The Effects of Structural Adjustment on Debtor CountriesModeration: Tobias Rupprecht (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) 

• The Eastern Bloc at the Onset of Transition 

Mario Holzner (Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Austria) 

• Selling Kenya’s Parastatals? Debtor Agency and Halting Neoliberal Transformation 

Kara Moskowitz (University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA) 

13.00 – 14.30 Lunch Break 

14.30 – 16.00 Panel 3: Reactions to Structural Adjustment Programs in Debtor Countries 

Moderation: Ruth Craggs (King’s College London, UK) 

• SAP is a Vampire: Labour Union and Student Activism, Resistance, and Responses to the Structural Adjustment Programme in Nigeria 

Adedeji Ademola (Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria) 

• Challenging Structural Adjustment in Divided Berlin: The 1988 East German Protests  
  against the IMF and the World Bank 

Eva-Maria Muschik (Universität Wien, Austria) 

16.00 – 16.30 Coffee Break 

16.30 – 18.00 Panel 4: A Boomerang Effect? Change Within World Bank and IMF 

Moderation: Eva-Maria Muschik (Universität Wien, Austria) 

• Leveraging the Abyss: the Paris Club and the Globalization of Structural Adjustment 

Sven van Mourik (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) 

• To Reckon with the Riot: Bank and Fund Responses to Social Protest in the 1980s 

Christy Thornton (New York University, USA) 

Saturday, 28 September 2024 

9.00 – 10.30 Panel 5: Regional Examples I 

Moderation: Angela Romano (University of Bologna, Italy) 

• Communist Direct Democracy vs. Liberal Shock Therapy: IMF-style “Structural Adjustment” and Democracy in Poland 

Florian Peters (Universität Jena, Germany) 

• From Reforming to Transforming the State Socialist Economy, Intellectual Change of the Hungarian Reform Economists and the IMF, 1980-1987 

Benedek Pál (Central European University, Austria) 

10.30 – 11.00 Coffee Break 

11.00 – 12.30 Panel 6: Regional Examples II 

Moderation: Federico Pachetti (Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary) 

• Structural Adjustment, Riots, and the Break with the IMF. Zambia’s Reform Attempt of 1985-87   

Jonas Kreienbaum (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) 

• What’s New Under the Sun? The World Bank and the Launching of Structural Adjustment Lending to Argentina 

Claudia Kedar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) 

12.30 – 13.15 Lunch Break 

13.15 – 14.45 Panel 7: The Agency of Structural Adjustment Programs II 

Moderation: Jonas Kreienbaum (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) 

• Re-assessing the Nexus between the External Debt Crisis and Neoliberal Adjustment: Assets, Agency and Timeline in the Case of the Middle East and North Africa 

Massimiliano Trentin (University of Bologna, Italy) 

• The IMF and China at the Dawn of the Reform Period 

Federico Pachetti 

14.45 – 15.30 Final Discussion 

You are welcome to join in person or via MS Teams.