Concepts in Crisis: Contemporary Tensions between Democracy and Capitalism
Concepts in Crisis: Contemporary Tensions between Democracy and Capitalism
Wednesday, 9 July 2025: 11:00-12:45
Location: FSE018 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
RC35 Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (host committee) Language: English
Throughout modern configurations, "capitalism" (as the predominant mode of production) and "democracy" (as the primary form of the political regime) have been articulated. Far from being simple and linear, this articulation has shown diverse and complex historical modalities, both in "central" or "Global North" societies and in "peripheral" or "Global South" societies. There have been periods in which "capitalism" and "democracy" seemed to fit together, reinforcing and stimulating each other, as well as other scenarios in which their nexus proved problematic -for example, European fascisms or Latin American dictatorships-. Since the last part of the 20th century and in a pronounced manner in the current 21st century, a new decoupling between the two seems to have been set in motion. Both in the North and the South, democracy is being strongly challenged, even sieged. Faced with this epochal rupture, certain key categories of sociology have also entered into crisis. Thus, this historical scenario is prone to a critical review of concepts, such as those of "masses", "people", "society", "state", "progress", "development," among others. This also calls to for the proposal of new terminologies that are better able to capture the changes underway. This session is offered as a framework for debate, for papers interested in problematizing sociological concepts in crisis, based on the contemporary tensions between democracy and capitalism, in the multiple, asymmetrical and simultaneous modulations that they assume, both in the "South" and in the "North".
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Oral Presentations