The Political Economy Centre (PEC) at the University of Manchester is delighted to host the launch of Barbora ?ernušáková’s new book, Surplus Lives under Racial Capitalism: Roma in Post-Socialist Czechia, published by Manchester University Press.
The launch will take place from 4-6pm on Thursday 24th of September at the Hanson Room, Humanities Bridgeford Street. This is a hybrid event, with participation possible both in person and online.
Surplus Lives under Racial Capitalism offers a powerful account of the relationship between political economy and anti-Roma racism in East Central Europe. Focusing on post-socialist Czechia, Barbora ?ernušáková shows how the introduction of capitalism in the 1990s coincided with the growing racialised disposability of Roma workers, and how processes of ‘surplusing’ have repeatedly intensified in moments of crisis. Through an investigation of the Czech labour regime, the book examines how race and class are produced together rather than operating as separate structures of inequality. In doing so, it also asks how the expansion of surplusing might create a shared terrain of struggle capable of cutting across racialised divisions among workers.
To mark the book’s publication, Barbora ?ernušáková will be joined by Ryan Davey, Aliki Koutlou, and Stuart Shields for a conversation about the book and the wider questions it raises. The discussion will explore racial capitalism and the production of surplus populations; the relationships between labour, household debt, crises and inequality; and what the post-socialist experience can tell us about transformations of race and class in contemporary capitalism. It will also consider the political possibilities and difficulties of building solidarities among workers across racialised divisions.
The discussion will be chaired by Dr Adrienne Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Manchester & Director of the PEC.
Speakers
Dr Barbora ?ernušáková, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Manchester, and author of Surplus Lives under Racial Capitalism: Roma in Post-Socialist Czechia (Manchester University Press).
Dr Ryan Davey, Lecturer, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, and author of The Personal Life of Debt: Coercion, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain (Bristol University Press).
Dr Stuart Shields, Reader in Politics, University of Manchester, and author of The International Political Economy of Transition: Neoliberal Hegemony and Eastern Central Europe's Transformation (Routledge RIPE Series in Global Political Economy).
Dr Aliki Koutlou, Simon Research Fellow, Department of Geography & Associate Director of the Political Economy Centre, University of Manchester.
Organised and sponsored by the Political Economy Centre, University of Manchester.
Speakers
Dr Barbora Černušáková
Role: Book Author & Lecturer in Sociology
Organisation: University of Manchester
Dr Ryan Davey
Role: Lecturer
Organisation: Cardiff School of Social Sciences
Biography: Dr Ryan Davey is the author of The Personal Life of Debt: Coercion, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain, published by Bristol University Press.
Dr Stuart Shields
Role: Reader in Politics
Organisation: University of Manchester
Biography: Dr Stuart Shields is the author of The International Political Economy of Transition: Neoliberal Hegemony and Eastern Central Europe's Transformation, published by the Routledge RIPE Series in Global Political Economy.
Dr Aliki Koutlou
Role: Simon Research Fellow in Geography & Associate Director of PEC
Organisation: University of Manchester
