The Eurozone Crisis: Transformative Impact on the European Project and Model(s) of Capitalism

- Presentation speakers
  - Davide Bradanini, IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy
Abstract:
Europe in these days appears to move from one ‘crisis’ to the next. The deep and apparently perennial crisis of the Eurozone has been on the headlines for a couple of years now, and shows signs of a further exacerbation. The crisis raises several issues of interest for students of political science, political economy and international relations. What appears clear is that the problems of the Eurozone are signals of a weakening (if not an outright failure) of European integration as it was envisaged starting from the early 1990s. The political and cultural dimensions of the crisis of the Eurozone should thus not be overlooked, as well as its wider significance for the whole European project. The consequences of a falling apart of the Eurozone are unpredictable and may usher in a period of heightened political turbulence. In the wake of the Eurozone crisis, some commentators and scholars openly take into consideration the possibility that the European Union itself may be in danger. Moreover, the deeply transformative effects on the European model(s) of capitalism generated by the crisis are under everyone’s eyes. This paper grapples with these issues adopting a wide critical outlook of current developments.