idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
09/10/2026 - 09/11/2026 | Berlin
The oligarchs are back. Following the most recent U.S. election and the growing political involvement of tech entrepreneurs, the concept of oligarchy has once again become a topic of public debate. For a long time, the term was primarily associated with the post-socialist transformations of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Today, however, oligarchic power increasingly appears as a distinctly Western, technology-driven phenomenon operating at the centre of political and economic life, not merely behind the scenes.
Despite the term’s renewed prominence, the conceptual and historical dimensions of oligarchy remain surprisingly underexplored. As the first event in a series dedicated to this subject, our workshop will adopt an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to examine the historical trajectories and conceptual foundations of oligarchic rule and power. How does oligarchy relate to democracy and state-building, imperialism and decolonisation, late capitalism, accelerationism or extractivism? What kinds of social structures and institutions are produced by oligarchic forms of power? Can societies or social norms themselves be described as oligarchic?
The workshop will be accompanied by a public evening event. Andreas Kalyvas from the New School for Social Research in New York will be in conversation with Andrea Binder about how the “oligarchic imaginary” is shaped by liberal market logics.
Information on participating / attending:
Admission is free, and no registration is required.
Date:
09/10/2026 - 09/11/2026
Event venue:
Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Ilse-Zimmermann-Saal, Pariser Straße 1
10719 Berlin
Berlin
Germany
Target group:
Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Email address:
Relevance:
transregional, national
Subject areas:
Cultural sciences, Economics / business administration, Language / literature, Philosophy / ethics, Social studies
Types of events:
Seminar / workshop / discussion
Entry:
08/21/2026
Sender/author:
Georgia Lummert
Department:
Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung Berlin (ZfL)
Event is free:
yes
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event82029
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
