(Neo)dependency, revisited

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies

Join Cornel Ban and Jasper Paul Simons as they present their research on the dependency theory and the Central and Eastern Europe political economy.

Of the 35 economies the International Monetary Fund counts as 'advanced', only 18 nations have joined the club since the end of the Second World War and of these the last entries are all East European. It is not since 1997 and Korea’s advanced status that debates around dependency versus alternatives have had such an opportunity to sharpen their insights. What does this major event in the history of development tell us about the conventional wisdom shaped by dependency theory?

Decades of dependency inspired work produced great insights into the structural development constraints and domestic political dynamics of Europe’s strongly transnationalised semi-periphery as well as the conventional comparative capitalist typologies of the region’s political economies. However, the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) political economy needs to both better specify its value added to the broader dependency literature and itself integrate neglected aspects of the recent transformations in the global political economy.

In this seminar, speakers will argue that the CEE scholarship needs to modernise and explicate its broader significance for dependency to survive as a relevant theoretical current and research program in CEE political economy of the 21st century.

This event is online. Please register to receive the Zoom link.