UNRISD Conference on Social and Political Dimensions of the Global Crisis: Implications for Developing Countries

24 November 2009 – The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) hosted an international conference in Geneva on 12- 13 November 2009 to better understand the social and political dimensions of the current crisis and subsequent policy and institutional reforms, and their implications for developing countries. This podcast is the fifth in a series of five podcasts focusing on some of the issues raised at the conference. It presents reflections on the future following the present global crisis by three experts whom have been asked the question: Where are we going to be in ten years time?

Please use the 'Media Files' link to the right of this page to access the podcast. (3mins 22secs, MP3 file, 0.593mb)

Transcript of the podcast:

Véronique Martinez: You’re listening to the UNRISD podcast and my name is Véronique Martinez. This episode presents reflections on the future following the present global crisis by three experts whom have been asked the question: Where are we going to be in ten years time? The answers were given at the last session of a conference organized by UNRISD on the 12 and 13 November 2009 on the “Social and Political Dimensions of the Global Crisis: Implications for Developing Countries.” Here is what Bob Jessop, Professor of Sociology at the University of Lancaster said.

Bob Jessop: What I think is happening is that we're restoring the terms of a finance led accumulation regime and a global economic order or world market organised under the dominance on neoliberalism. The policies wont in fact get rid of the contradictions and therefore we'll be in a worse crisis in five years time than we are now and if people get their act together, particularly in the global South, in the various forums not merely counter hegemonic in relation to the global, but also consolidating alternative narratives within regional or sub hegemonic fora we might be in a position in ten years time to be better off that we are in five years time which would be assuredly worse than where it is now where we seem to have normalised things.

Véronique Martinez: Andrew Fisher, Senior Lecturer in Population and Social Policy at the Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, followed.

Andrew Fisher: Like a lot of people say, this is the first crisis since 1930 that's originated from the centre. I say garbage because the 1982, that crisis originated from the centre. It just took ten or fifteen years to get there. And it's the same thing now. I think right now we've seen a crisis in the centre that has a certain self protection mechanism in it and then that's been pushed off into the peripheries and we'll see the effects of that in five or ten years.

Véronique Martinez: Finally, Jorge Nef, Professor of Government and International Affairs at Florida University, concluded with.

Jorge Nef: Ten years from now. I'm not so sure that we can be that optimistic. Well, at least I think in answer in the long run, you know, we're all going to be dead, so we don't have to worry about that. Ten to fifteen years is a long time. But I think if we continue in the present order of things, the crisis will deepen and we'll still be discussing the crisis and organizations like this and others are better at debating on the kind of thing we're doing, which is more academic, than having the teeth to implement things. If anything is going to be implemented it will have to be implemented on a country basis. It would have to be implemented step by step and it will be heavily contested by the powers that be.

Véronique Martinez: This podcast is part of a collection covering the UNRISD conference on “Social and Political Dimensions of the Global Crisis: Implications for Developing Countries” and if you liked what you heard here, the other podcasts in the collection may also interest you. For more information, go to our website, www.unrisd.org. If you have any suggestions for future podcasts, email us at press@unrisd.org.

Thank you for listening. For UNRISD news, this is Véronique Martinez, in Geneva.