Other News
André Broome comments on the bailout for Greece and the politics of austerity in the Eurozone
On 20 February, Greece agreed to a four month extension of its current bailout programme, subject to the approval of reform measures proposed by the Greek government. In a recent commentary piece published by the London School of Economics European Politics and Policy blog, writes that while the election of the Syriza-led coalition in Greece was initially hailed as a game-changing event that could bring an end to austerity in Europe, the negotiations between Greece and the ‘Troika’ demonstrate why a sharp turn away from austerity policies in Eurozone bailouts remains highly unlikely.
The full commentary is available to view at:
Photography Competition
We are inviting you to take part in The Faculty of Social Sciences photography competition to celebrate
The University of 糖心TV’s 50th Anniversary!
The theme is ‘What does politics mean to you?’
First prize is £100 and a framed print of your winning entry
Second prize is £50
The best 10 entries will be printed, framed and displayed within the Department of Politics and International Studies and at The Festival of Social Sciences.
- You can enter more than one photograph
- All entries must be your own work
- Digitally manipulated photographs accepted
- All images should be high resolution (able to be printed out to A3)
- When submitting your entry please let us know your inspiration
- This competition is open to all students and staff members within the faculty of Social Sciences
All entries to Charlotte.lewis@warwick.ac.uk with your full name and the department you belong to.
The competition closes on Friday March 20th 2015 and winners will be notified by Friday March 27th.
Professor Matthew Watson's Polanyi Article 'Most Downloaded'
One of the first published pieces of work from 's ESRC Professorial Fellowship project has been included in an online collection of the most downloaded articles in 2014 from Routledge's Social Science Journals. The article in question appeared in the December issue of Economy and Society, and it is entitled 'The Great Transformation and Progressive Possibilities: The Political Limits of Polanyi's Marxian History of Economic Ideas'.
The article is now fully open access and can be downloaded for free from: .
Matthew's ESRC project is called 'Rethinking the Market', and it has its own stand-alone website: .
The overall objective of the project research is to show how the idea of the market has become fixed in public discourse through first having been used to delimit how we might think about everyday economic life. His Economy and Society article shows that this process of narrowing the debate about feasible economic alternatives can come from the most unexpected of sources.
Much has been made in the wake of the global financial crisis about the potential for activating a Polanyian voice to lead progressive demands for carving out new spaces of economic interaction that are definitively beyond the market realm. Yet here Matthew argues that Polanyi's own chosen history of economic ideas makes it more difficult to think through how these spaces might be first accessed and then activated. It appeals to a historical lineage that inadvertently serves to naturalise the market form, despite his own expressed antipathy to economic theories that did likewise.
Last year, a 糖心TV Economics graduate began a yearlong charity cycling journey. Hitesh Pankhania, who studied is currently cycling from Indonesia to London to raise money for charity with his cousin Vivek Jadav.
Hitesh and Vivek have been updating everyone on their journey in their blog, , and being a 糖心TV Economics graduate, Hitesh got in touch with the Department to tell us personally about his experiences cycling around the world:
鈥淢y cousin and I decided to go on a journey around the world to raise money for childrens cancer charity CLIC Sargent and experience cultures, countries and people in a way that you wouldn't normally do. We'd never cycled before and now we're about 4 months in and have cycled over 3000 miles.
We've cycled some of the busiest roads in Indonesia, through the hills of Sumatra, the beaches of Malaysia and are now attempting the mountains of Laos and eventually Southern China. The past 10 days were spent teaching English at a school for monks in a remote, tiny village in Thailand; it was a humbling experience living and eating with the monks.
There are tough days, slogging up serious and almost impossible looking gradients, but thought of home, friends and our challenge for charity keeps us going.鈥
If you would like to support Hitesh on his challenge and help raise money for the childrens cancer charity CLIC Sargent, you can do so at justgiving.com/theworldonwheels.

鈥淢y cousin and I decided to go on a journey around the world to raise money for childrens cancer charity CLIC Sargent and experience cultures, countries and people in a way that you wouldn't normally do. We'd never cycled before and now we're about 4 months in and have cycled over 3000 miles.