This track will focus on the impact of marketization on development. In exploring this, both concepts, ‘marketization’ and ‘development’ require deeper articulation. The construction and institutionalization of the market, specifically as part of the modern project, its entrenchment across capitalist economies originally and its contemporary global diffusion, along with a culture of neoliberalism, provide multiple avenues for observation, exploration, and study. So does the nature and definition of development. If expanded beyond an economistic conceptualization of development many alternative futures and visions of organizations of life become possible to propose and present.

Presenters for this track are encouraged to investigate all the above mentioned avenues along with the potential contradictions and synergies between the different conceptualizations of ‘marketization’ and ‘development’ proposed.

Queries related to this track may be addressed to Professor Fuat Firat: fuat.firat@utrgv.edu