Successful event on "The Political Economy of Crisis in South Europe"

The University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College, and its research centre, SEERC, drew a full house for the event on ‘The Political Economy of Crisis in South Europe: Greece, Spain and Turkey inside/outside the EU’ which took place at the City Hall of Thessaloniki, 10th September 2015.

Mr. Yannis Ververidis, Principal of CITY College, and Mr. Nikos Zaharis, Director of SEERC, welcomed all guests and noted the importance of research on the political economy of crisis to be taking place in the region and to be communicated to the public. Mr Spyros Pegkas, Deputy Mayor of Tourism and International Relations at the Municipality of Thessaloniki, also welcomed the event’s audience on behalf of the Municipality.

Prof. Anthony Payne, Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute – SPERI, delivered the keynote address entitled ‘Neoliberalism in the Age of Great Uncertainty’. Prof. Payne discussed the contemporary challenges that neoliberalism faces, noting that neoliberalism often lacks flexibility and that its supporters have to move to a softer form of neoliberalism and find a way to a more stable political order. In his closing remarks Prof. Payne questioned whether neoliberalism can be stabilized, whether the centre can hold or is being pushed to the left or right, whether those in opposition to neoliberalism can be bought off and whether neoliberalism will in the end need to bring democracy itself down. In an attempt to answer these questions Prof. Payne honestly said: “I don’t know. It all depends on how we think, how we talk, how we act, how we buy and so on. 2008-2020 is a time of transition and disorder and as politics is everywhere unstable answers cannot easily be provided to these questions”.

Prof. Payne said “I am very happy to participate in this event and to be given the opportunity to present this research to the students and people of Thessaloniki. I believe that our joint research with SEERC has gathered  together some exceptional academics that have  brought to light some really interesting findings about the political economy of crisis in the countries examined. I look forward to working with the International Faculty’s research centre, SEERC, again.”

The event presented the finding of a research/study that was completed by
a) The Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) of the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK b) CITY College, International Faculty of The University of Sheffield, Thessaloniki, Greece  c) Istanbul Sehir University, Istanbul, Turkey. Distinguished academics also participated in the event and the event’s panel discussions.

The event’s topic proved to be particularly interesting, especially with the upcoming Greek elections and concluded with fruitful discussion between the speakers and the audience.

The event took place under the auspices to the Municipality of Thessaloniki.