From Financial Crisis to Social Change

293 Pages·2018·3.009 MB·English

by  Torsten Geelan, Marcos González Hernando, Peter William Walsh

FROM FINANCIAL CRISIS
TO SOCIAL CHANGE
Towards Alternative Horizons
Edited by
Torsten Geelan,
Marcos González Hernando,
and Peter William Walsh
From Financial Crisis to Social Change
Torsten Geelan
Marcos González Hernando
Peter William Walsh
Editors
From Financial Crisis
to Social Change
Towards Alternative Horizons
Editors
Torsten Geelan Marcos González Hernando
Department of Sociology Department of Sociology
University of Cambridge University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK Cambridge, UK
Peter William Walsh
Department of Sociology
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-70599-6 ISBN 978-3-319-70600-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70600-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018934989
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans-
mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Richard Mehtälä
#explainartist
www.explainartist.org
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface: The Labyrinths and the Layers
of Social Change
Over the longer run, social change may take the form of trend lines, and
sometimes even appear as human evolution. But in the short run of some
years or a decade, it is more often than not unexpected and surprising.
This might be said of the financial crisis of 2008 onwards, though it did
have some expected consequences. Chief among these was popular indig-
nation: against soaring economic inequality; against the recklessness of
the speculators who caused the crisis; and against the prophets of auster-
ity who said we must pay the price for the errors of greedy elites. However,
nowhere has there been any public measures aimed at reining in this gal-
loping inequality.
Rather, looking back from 2016, the main social change since 2008
has gone in a completely different direction, delivering a reinforcement
of nationalism and xenophobia. Eastern Europe is full of increasingly
shrill, chauvinistic and xenophobic governments, already ahead of
Donald Trump in banning Muslims from entry. Similarly, the new
regime in the Ukraine is resurrecting from its dark past the “heroes” of
ethnic hatred and unrestrained mass violence—Stepan Bandera, Symon
Petliura and their kind—while oligarchic corruption is doing its business
as usual. In western Europe, xenophobic parties form part of the govern-
ments of Denmark, Finland and Norway and are re-defining the politi-
cal agenda in Austria, Belgium (Flanders in particular), the Netherlands
and Switzerland. In France, the Front National has become the prime
v
vi Preface: The Labyrinths and the Layers of Social Change
working class party. In Sweden, only half of the working class now sym-
pathise with the labour parties, the Social Democrats and the Left party.
Most notable, though, has been the election of Donald Trump, a living
caricature of both the bragging US businessman and the bigoted, pro-
vincial White American. His rise is due to the appeal of his nationalist
phobias, in the same way that the campaign for Britain to leave the EU
became a major force thanks to anti-immigration opinion.
Mass jingoism and hatred of the unfamiliar do not just sprout from
evil minds—although the latter may safely be assumed to exist. They have
their social reasons. Obviously, there is the challenge of vast flows of refu-
gees to Europe. This is largely if not exclusively the result of destruction
across a vast area—from north-western Pakistan and Afghanistan to
Libya—by United States and allied invasions and bombardments. The
stream of refugees is not accepted into the United States; nor by its admir-
ers in Eastern Europe; and only a few are allowed into the United
Kingdom and France, its closest allies. The brunt has had to be borne by
less warring countries of the western sub-continent.
However, more interesting from the perspective of the authors of this
book is that racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia often function as
what late-nineteenth century Marxists, referring to popular anti-S emitism
in Tsarist Russia, called a “socialism of idiots”: an expression of anger at
exploitation and exclusion that is diverted—with the help of evil master-
minds—into fear and hatred of another exploited or vulnerable group.
There is no doubt that a great deal of the popular anger at the 2008
financial crisis and its consequences has been successfully re-directed
against immigrants. It is for this reason that many American working
class Whites support a ruthless, narcissistic billionaire.
Frustration that is diverted into scapegoating feeds on the abandon-
ment of the populace by Social Democratic and Liberal elites. When this
is not blatantly the case, however, bigotry meets its limits. Consider the
May 2016 mayoral election in London, where a Conservative barrage of
Islamophobic innuendos and anti-Semitism-smearing fell flat against the
Labour candidate Sadiq Khan.
The surge of chauvinism and xenophobia is only part of the story of
recent social and political developments, albeit a major part. In point of
fact, the political landscape of the North Atlantic area has shown a
Preface: The Labyrinths and the Layers of Social Chang e vii
remarkable overall stability, though with some shifts inside the establish-
ment. The only country where it has radically changed is Greece. Under
German orchestration, the whole Eurozone apparatus and, more reluc-
tantly for once, the IMF were mobilised to castrate it. By contrast, in
Iceland the governing cartel was ousted, but only temporarily, returning
to office in time to face the revelations of the Panama Papers. Similarly,
although the Spanish and the Italian establishments have been shaken up,
the Spanish protest movement-cum-party, Podemos, has so far been
largely neutralised by national issues in increasingly multi-national Spain;
while the real social meaning of the Italian Five Stars movement-cum-
party remains to be revealed.
As a direct effect of the crisis, some hot new blood has been pumped
into the establishment. Jeremy Corbyn’s election to the Labour leader-
ship and the large rallies of Bernie Sanders’s campaign in the Democratic
primaries were very impressive mobilisations, against all (smug Liberal)
odds. At the same time, the Portuguese elite has had to accommodate a
leftward move, with its Socialist government forming a pact of support
with the Communist party.
Nevertheless, the 2008 financial crisis did not have the effects that
great optimists like Manuel Castells and Paul Mason imagined. However,
beneath the layers of institutions with their inherent inertia, and beyond
electoral mobilisations and their ephemerality, there exists another layer
of social change: that of generational experience.
Generational experience deserves its own recognition and respect; and
this book is de facto about this layer. Moreover, it is my duty, as an old
scholar, to place this particular layer in its broad context. Firstly, as an old
’68-er, I learned the hard way. Our political movements were all defeated,
some deservedly so. Yet, in retrospect, “1968” appears to be a cultural
watershed in western Europe-North America, with major, enduring
effects on gender and generational relations and on social hierarchies in
general.
Whether 2008 will have a similar impact remains to be seen. But what
is important is that the critical perspectives on society and the protest
movements reported in this book constitute defining generational experi-
ences of young people, born in the late twentieth century and growing up
with the crisis. Allegiances and identities can change over time, but
viii Preface: The Labyrinths and the Layers of Social Change
youthful experiences tend to set their life-marks. Even without victories
in the short run, the 2008 crisis has produced a new generation of critical
thinkers and practitioners, who refuse to take the existing world for
granted. That is a significant contribution to future social change.
Social and political commitment should be seen and reflected upon as
a learning experience. Thinking about post-2008, what lessons are there?
Very tentatively, I would suggest a few.
First of all, social change is best viewed as layers of non-synchronised
processes. How many layers we should distinguish depends on the pur-
pose of our analysis and is not fixable a priori. But important ones do
include governmental, politico-social and cultural change. Because of
this complexity and the ever-present contingency of social events, social
change—in the midst of struggles—is rarely straightforward. Rather, it is
usually labyrinthine.
Second, trans-border migration is unquestionably a major phenome-
non of our time; and through xenophobia it is adding a new dimension
to politics. However, such intolerance cannot be defeated simply by level-
ling charges of “racism” or “fascism”. The associated fears and frustrations
of ordinary people must be recognised and addressed, by developing and
showing means to tackle them, other than bashing foreigners, and by
demonstrating the hypocrisy and hollowness of the programmes of the
xenophobic ideologues.
Third, while a protest movement might sometimes manage to stop a
specific, tangible measure, such as the construction of a motorway, move-
ments aiming at social change must develop a political form. Post-2008
has seen several successful examples of this: Syriza in Greece, Cinque Stelle
(Five Stars) in Italy and Podemos in Spain. Crucial to their success seems
to have been two factors, both of which operate on a fertile ground of
official corruption, as well as anti-popular and ineffective crisis manage-
ment. In tension with each other, they have been, first, a charismatic,
telegenic leader and, second, direct participatory democracy. The former
does not fit very well with an anarchistic movementalist ideology and
self-perception. Yet, for the crystallisation of heterogeneous mass protests
into a forceful politico-social movement, the respective roles of Alexis
Tsipras, Beppe Grillo and Pablo Iglesias seem to have been decisive. The
second component of success is that the political formation preserved its
Preface: The Labyrinths and the Layers of Social Chang e ix
movement’s participative character—primarily by online voting—and
did not try to revive the well-structured hierarchy of the classical labour
parties. This can be compared to the flop of a more traditional attempt at
a new left alternative, the French Parti de Gauche.
A fourth lesson is that when you achieve some substantial political
weight, you have to study your hostile context very carefully, always
thinking “if we do this, what will others do, and how can we respond to
that?” Hence, although the defeat of the Syriza government in Greece
might have been unavoidable, its last referendum-cum-surrender should
nevertheless serve as a textbook example of the disastrous effects of
neglecting strategic thinking.
What lessons on social change, then, will our authors offer, informed
by their experiences as young people growing up during the crisis of
2008? As our new generation of critical thinkers and practitioners, what
will be their contribution to future social change?
Cambridge, UK Göran Therborn
Contents
I ntroduction 1
Torsten Geelan, Marcos González Hernando, and Peter William
Walsh
Consecrating the Elite: Culturally Embedding the Financial
Market in the City of London 13
Alex Simpson
Section I Reclaiming Universities 31
The Never-Ending Crisis in British Higher Education 33
Mike Finn
The Coming Crisis of Academic Authority 53
Eric R. Lybeck
Consuming Education 67
Alice Pearson
xi