XClose

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES)

Home
Menu

Is Socialism Feasible?

28 February 2020, 3:00 pm–4:30 pm

Is Socialism Feasible

Lecture by Geoffrey Hodgson: Is Socialism Feasible?

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Dr Filipa Figueira – SSEES

Location

Masaryk Room, Fourth floor
16
Taviton Street
London
WC1H 0BW
United Kingdom

After being proclaimed dead, there is now a major revival of socialist ideology in the West. But what does socialism mean? This book shows that it is irretrievably associated with common ownership. The twentieth-century experience of comprehensive national planning with state ownership has been disastrous, and in no case has democracy endured within large-scale socialism. This volume explains why. The alternative socialist option of worker-owned cooperatives must accept a major role for markets that many socialists reject.

Featuring theoretical arguments and practical investigations, Geoffrey M. Hodgson interrogates the failures of socialist states, scrutinizing the impact and outcomes of a centralized politico-economic system. This timely and convincing book offers insight into the twentieth-century experience of comprehensive national planning, deploying less-well-known criticisms from Albert Schäffle and Michael Polanyi. Hodgson’s nuanced approach brings together small-scale socialist praxis and principles of liberal solidarity, exploring an experimental approach to political and economic reform.

About the Speaker

Geoffrey Hodgson

Professor in Management at Loughborough University

Geoffrey Hodgson is Professor in Management for the Institute for International Management at Loughborough University London.

Geoffrey is a specialist in institutional and evolutionary economics, with a background in economics, philosophy and mathematics. His research has applications to the understanding of organisations, organisational change, innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development.

Hodgson is also the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Institutional Economics (ABS rank 3). He has published 18 academic books and over 150 academic articles, which he is the winner of the Schumpeter Prize 2014 for his book on "Conceptualizing Capitalism". 

Other events in this series