Spring School  

                                                
                                              The Debt Complex                   
                     
                         19 -21 May 2016, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Room E5.11 

Debts are a central issue of the ethical dimension of economics. Thus it is not surprising that, first and foremost, financial debts as part of moral economy has gained much attention from media news to academic discussion in the last years. What are debts? What does it mean to be in debt? What kind of obligation do debts represent? What kind of responsibility do debts require? The Spring School "The Debt Complex" should be an occasion to discuss this questions and to explore particularly the philosophical and anthropological side of indebtedness and culpability by focusing on the genealogy of debts, e.g. as a discursive product of society. Furthermore the Spring School affords an opportunity to discuss questions like: In which ways do governmental mechanisms of debts produce the inner industry of the indebted self (M.Lazzarato)? How is the relationship between debts, reciprocity and trust constructed, shifted and reassembled in political theory (Liebsch)?

Faculties involved include Economics and Management, Education, Ethnology and Philosophy of the University of Innsbruck and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.   
Working languages: English (workshops and lectures), Italian, German 
 

Program
19 May 2016, Room E5.11 14-15h: Introduction 15.30-17h: Workshop Andrea Mubi Brighenti: Value – Inquiries into a Polymorphous Magic Substance (moderation Ivo de Gennaro) 18h: Public Lecture Burkhard Liebsch (moderation Silke Meyer)
20 May 2016, Room E5.11 10-12h: Workshop Burkhard Liebsch: Schuld − Schulden – Verdanken. Ein Beitrag zur Revision des Verhältnisses von Moral und Ökonomie vor aktuellem Hintergrund (moderation Ralf Lüfter) 12-14h: Lunch 14-15.30h: Workshop Elisabeth Tauber: Thinking debt through anthropological comparison (moderation Andrea Mubi Brighenti) 18h, Room C4.01: Movie “In the Red”, followed by a talk with the artist Ana Pecar (moderation Andreas Oberprantacher)
21 May 2016, Room E5.11  09.30-11h: Workshop Silke Meyer: Debt stories. The making of the indebted self (moderation Elisabeth Tauber) 11.30-12.30h: Concluding discussion 12.30h: Lunch

Secretariat
B. Thurner