Workshop on Democratizing Investment

8 March 2025 by Sushovan Dhar , Lavinia Steinfort , Christoph Sorg , Melanie Brusseler , J W Mason , Mike McCarthy , Eric Meier

INDEP online Workshop on Democratizing Investment
February 21, 2025

First session: Socializing investment (3.30-4.45pm CET)

Christoph Sorg (Humboldt University/INDEP): Introduction: Finance as a form of planning and the legacy of struggles over investment
J W Mason (CUNY – City University of New York): Socializing Finance
Sushovan Dhar (CADTM – Committe for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt): How to socialize the banking sector and abolish debt

Moderator: Eric Meier (INDEP)

Second session: Cases of democratic investment (5-6.15pm CET)

Mike McCarthy (UC Santa Cruz): Democratic Finance and the case of Californian Public Banks
Melanie Brusseler (Common Wealth): Democratic De-risking
Lavinia Steinfort (TNI – Transnational Institute): A Global Public Banking Ecosystem

Moderator: Christoph Sorg (Humboldt University/INDEP)

Source : INDEP

Author

Sushovan Dhar

Sushovan Dhar is a political activist, writer, and trade unionist based in Kolkata. He is affiliated with CADTM India and is a member of the editorial board for Alternative Viewpoint. His writings address issues such as labour, debt, neoliberal restructuring, authoritarianism, social movements, and international politics, with a particular focus on South Asia and the Global South. His articles have been featured in various publications and networks, including Jacobin, International Viewpoint, and Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (ESSF) among others.

Author

Lavinia Steinfort

Author

Christoph Sorg

is a social scientist at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In his PhD, he researched resistance to debt, combining political economy and social movement research. Since then, he has focused less on the action repertoires of social movements and more on their utopias. In particular, he researches theories of capitalism and post-capitalism and the new debate on economic planning in times of digitalization and the climate crisis. In a DFG project on this topic, he is theorizing the possibilities of economic planning in market economies.
https://christophsorg.wordpress.com/about/