Neoliberalism and Contemporary Capitalism Working Group
15th Annual Conference of the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE)
September 17-20, 2025, Middle Eastern Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye
Immigration: Crisis of the World Capitalist System, Crisis for the World Capitalist System
Call for Papers: Neoliberalism and Contemporary Capitalism Working Group
Submit a paper or panel proposal by 1 February 2025 at https://iippe.org/
Important: Please select the Neoliberalism Working Group when submitting your proposal
The IIPPE Neoliberalism and Contemporary Capitalism Working Group brings together researchers interested in the material basis of neoliberalism, its national varieties, and alternatives to it. As the contemporary form of global capitalism, neoliberalism is based on the systematic use of state power to impose a hegemonic project of recomposition of the rule of capital in each area of economic and social life, under the ideological veil of ‘non-intervention’. This is guided by the current imperatives of the international reproduction of capital, with the financial markets and the interests of the US capital to the fore. Politically, by insulating markets and transnational investors from popular demands, and through the imperative of labour control to secure international competitiveness, neoliberalism also severely curtails democratic possibilities. Neoliberalism has also created an income-concentrating dynamics of accumulation that has proven resistant to efforts by Keynesian and reformist interventions.
Capitalism has historically accelerated the spatial mobility of human beings. Immigration, whether internal or international, has accordingly become a significant component of capitalist development. Neoliberalism globalisation in particular has further, and significantly, exacerbated immigration as more and more territories have experienced the capitalist transformation of social relation, and been incorporated into the global capitalist economy. This calls attention to numerous different areas of research related to the link between contemporary capitalism (neoliberal globalisation) and patterns of immigration. Accordingly, the Neoliberalism and Contemporary Capitalism Working Group invites paper and panel proposals that fit in with the general theme of the IIPPE conference and the working group’s research agenda. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- What are the homogenising and/or variegating dynamics of neoliberalism on the patterns of immigration?
- What are the differences between the international movements of capital, of the rich, and labour migration?
- What are the structures that hinder and/or promote movements of individuals
- Which socio-economic and demographic groups are more likely to emigrate under global neoliberalism, why?
- What is the impact of immigration on power struggles, political tensions and trade unionism for the host and/or receiving countries?
- How does migration shape class structures in host and/or receiving countries?
- What is the impact of migration on neoliberal labour markets?
- In what ways do neoliberal policies contribute to the privatisation of immigration detention centres and border enforcement systems?
- What are the links between resource extraction, land dispossession and migration under neoliberal globalisation?
- To what extent does the contradiction between neoliberal free-market ideologies and restrictive immigration policies reveal crises within the capitalist system?
If you have any questions, please email one of the coordinators of the Neoliberalism and Contemporary Capitalism Working Group:
Alfredo Saad-Filho, Queen’s University Belfast (a.saadfilho@qub.ac.uk)
Celal Özkızan, Northeastern University London (celal.ozkizan@nulondon.ac.uk)
Devika Dutt, King’s College London (devika.dutt@kcl.ac.uk)
Edemilson Parana (edemilson.parana@lut.fi)
Lotta Takala-Greenish (lotta.takalagreenish@uwe.ac.uk)