Crisis Culture

Beyond its economic dimension, today's crisis has cast in doubt many values that govern our society, obliging us to reconsider some of the mainstays of the capitalist system. The cult of money, unlimited consumption, individualism, the impact of women's emancipation, the blurring of boundaries between the public and private spheres and even the emotional baggage of capitalism are some of the themes that will be discussed in this debate that the CCCB has organised about the culture of the present economic crisis.

After the failure of the moral principle of "anything's possible", what cultural references might result from this crisis? If we look further than the circumstantial aspects of the present situation, how might we go about rethinking the social, economic and political system so that the hallmarks of modern culture, which is to say the dignity of the citizen and the primacy of the general interest, become valid once again?

27 April: Global Capitalism: Gender, Family and New Social Structures

"The Commercialisation of Private Life"
Arlie Russell Hochschild. Professor of Sociology at the University of California (Berkeley) and author of The Commercialization of Intimate Life: Notes from Home and Work (University of California Press, 2003).

"More Capitalism, More Equality? A Gender Perspective"
Marina Subirats. Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

4 May: The End of the Public/Private Distinction

"The Spread of Management to Private Life"
Michela Marzano. Philosopher, researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique of Paris and author of Extension du domaine de la manipulation. De l'entreprise à la vie privée (Grasset, 2008).

"The Loss of the Notion of Limit"
Josep Ramoneda. Philosopher, journalist and director of the CCCB.

11 May: The Cult of the Ego

"The Emotions of Capitalism"
Eva Illouz. Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism (Polity, 2007).

"Nothing Ever Happens: The Culture of Indifference"
Fermín Bouza. Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, and specialist in public opinion and political communication.

18 May: Towards a New Paradigm

"Ignorance, Trust and Ostrich Politics"
Antoni Serra Ramoneda. Emeritus Professor of Business Economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

"What's Gone Wrong? The Present Crisis and Some Thoughts on its Economic and Political Consequences"
José García Montalvo. Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics and Business at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona and author of De la quimera inmobiliaria al colapso financiero (From the Real Estate Chimera to Financial Collapse - Antoni Bosch Editor, 2008).