International Karl Polanyi Society

This fall, we want to focus the debate around the provisioning of decent care for all within planetary boundaries. This will bring together the current work of our 5th Visiting Professor Julia Steinberger, who focuses on physical and social provisioning systems, with the work of our upcoming 7th Visiting Professor Attila Melegh, who is an expert on the transnational care migration industry.

The fall webinar series 2023 puts the inclusive, resilient and sustainable provisioning of care for all within planetary boundaries into focus. It takes stock of pioneering work and recent approaches at the intersection of feminist and ecological research and foregrounds the relevance of care in addressing the ecological crisis. Taking lessons from the pandemic, the continued care crisis, and the aggravating climate crisis, the basic provision of care has to be given priority over other economic activities, for example economic activities in the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) and, more generally, over ecologically detrimental sectors. An increasing awareness of human interdependence with the environment raises new questions about how care can be defined, who is included in a caring society, and how good care for all within planetary boundaries can actualise. 

Together with our esteemed guests we will debate how to shape provisioning systems for a social-ecological transformation of the care sector. We want to further broad debates of diverse stakeholders from science, policymaking and the general public, and to maximize the dissemination of the results, the activities are embedded within additional broader activities of the IKPS, especially the Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professorship, which is a joint project of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the Vienna University, the Central European University and IKPS. In 2024, the sociologist and historian Attilla Melegh will be our visiting professor during the summer term. His research centers around populism and migration, as well as their relation to care. In preparation for his visit to Vienna, several activities, including the RLS-project 2023 on “Shaping Provisioning Systems for Social-Ecological Transformation: Decent Care for all within Planetary Boundaries” are planned.