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.