The Speculative Real-Estate Bubble and the Securitisation Scandal in Italy

In the explosion of the most serious economic crisis since 1929, international real-estate speculation has played a fundamental role. This holds true for Italy as well. I will emphasise three aspects, each of which require more...

A Critical Report on the Crisis in Romania

Introduction: crisis upon crises It would not be far from the truth to say that in Romania the crisis overlapped an already embedded multi-layered crisis. What is happening today to Romanians in the Romanian state and society...

Precarisation and Financialisation

I would like to develop two theses suggested by Rosa Reitsamer – precarisation and financialisation – in order to examine their consequences for the way we act, work and – last but not least – live. The first thesis is that...

The Portuguese State’s Promotion of Precarious Labour Relations in Public Services

The latest figures show that unemployment in Portugal exceeded 9% for the first time. Short-term labour contracts increased by over 50% in the last ten years. The state itself is exploiting precarious workers for permanent tasks....

“Seeing Things Their Way”: The Contemporary Immigrant Experience in Europe

Seeing things their way” is Quentin Skinner’s fundamental methodological exhortation. Skinner advances interpretations of specific political or moral beliefs by placing them in the context of other beliefs, the interpretation of...

A Journey to the Centre of the Transition

The event On April 23, 2009, a group of unemployed textile workers in Novi Pazar, southern Serbia, began a hunger strike. Their main demand – in the name of all 1,532 members of the Association of Textile Workers of Novi Pazar,...

The Precarisation of Life and Work and Alternatives from the Biblical Perspective

“The labourer’s Appetite Works for Him” (Proverbs 16, 26) A consideration of the biblical concepts of righteousness/justice and shalom/peace and of the climate of neoliberalism which sharply clashes with them prompted the...