Regeneration Institute Public Seminar: Matthew Watson, 12th December

*Regeneration Institute Public Seminar*

'Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble': The Political Economy of Brown's Britain

Dr Matthew Watson, University of Warwick
Wednesday 12th December, 5.00pm

Committee Rooms 1 and 2, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff University, Cardiff

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The title 'bubble, bubble, toil and trouble' provides a surprisingly telling characterisation of the political economy of New Labour. According to Matthew Watson, this has four primary features: (i) bubble one - continual attempts to inflate the housing market bubble still further; (ii) bubble two - ongoing attempts to manage the effects of the bursting of the tech-stock bubble; (iii) toil - the intensification of the work process as a means of prefiguring the move towards a system of asset-based welfare; and (iv) trouble - storing up potential sources of economic contradiction for the future. These features rely on the reconstitution of the economic agent as financialised subject, but at the same time the pro-cyclical activities of financialised agents introduce a pathology of weakness into the structures of the British economy.

Matthew Watson is Reader in Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. His two most recent books are both with Palgrave Macmillan, one entitled 'Foundations of International Political Economy' (2005), and the other entitled 'The Political Economy of International Capital Mobility'
(2007).
Drinks reception 5.00pm - Seminar Starts 5.30pm

****If you wish to attend or have any further queries, please contact Nicola Milsom on milsomn@cardiff.ac.uk or Becca Edwards on edwardsrs1@cardiff.ac.uk. Alternatively, please call the Regeneration Institute on 029 208 76014****