Seminar: Escape from Capitalism: Economics is Political and other liberating truths" by Clara Mattei
Detalls de l'event
- Inici: 20 octubre 2026 16:30
- Sala Montseny (Z/022 & Z/023) ICTA-UAB and Online
The REAL-Postgrowth project (Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal) is excited to announce the online seminar "Escape from Capitalism: Economics is Political and other liberating truths" with Clara Mattei.
Title: "Escape from Capitalism: Economics is Political and other liberating truths"
Speaker: Clara Mattei, University of Tulsa
- Date: Tuesday, 20th October, 2026
- Time: 16.30-18.00
- Venue: Sala Montseny (Z/022 & Z/023) ICTA-UAB and online https://zoom.us/j/94150909189?pwd=gsoZbeFK36iyqEX0XSF3dvxgsWxWYp.1
Economics is sold as pure and apolitical: scientific, neutral, exact. In this lecture I expose its role: to convince us there’s no alternative to capitalism. We live in a world dominated by the dogma that austerity is necessary, unemployment natural, endless wars inevitable and central banks all-powerful. It doesn’t have to be this way. I unpack key concepts like growth, inflation, unemployment and balanced budgets to show how they’re weaponized to enforce market dependence, not freedom, stripping us of the power to shape the democratic decisions that govern our daily lives. Enduring problems such as poverty and inequality are not accidents or bugs in the economy, but core features – justified with pseudoscientific models to support a system that unfairly rewards people with the most resources. Why should we accept this? Capitalism isn’t inevitable, scientific, or natural – it's a relatively young system that can be replaced.
Clara E. Mattei is Professor of Economics at The University of Tulsa and the Founding President of FREE: Forum for Real Economic Emancipation. Learn more @ freefreeforum.org, where she hosts a weekly FREE podcast. Clara was previously associate professor at The New School for Social Research Economics Department and has been a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton. Her research contributes to the analysis and history of capitalism, exploring the critical relation between economic ideas and technocratic policy making.