Albena Azmanova

Albena Azmanova is the author of Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change Without Crisis or Utopia (Columbia University Press, 2020). She is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna.

You want federal Europe? why not start with a European social stability mechanism?

European federalism is back, says European Commission president Barroso. His call for a "federation of nation states" shows how the tables have turned in the debate about the Union – with former anti-federalists now praising integration and vice versa. But buyer beware - creating an EU federation

By Albena Azmanova

/ 21 Sep 2012

On social destitution, misdirected protest and the missing crisis of capitalism

The current crisis was not imposed by technocratic elites, but by democratically elected centre-right and centre-left governments. It is to a great extent due to the weak response from society that neoliberal capitalism is consolidating further, as governments are imposing exactly the ruinous poli

By Albena Azmanova

/ 9 Jul 2012

Democracy against social reform: the Arab Spring faces its demons

The link between ‘karamah’ and ‘al hurriyah”, the call for dignified existence and the rejection of oppression has given birth to a further crucial concept – that of the social responsibility of public authority. This cannot be achieved by maintaining the economic polices of the old regimes.

By Albena Azmanova

/ 16 May 2012

Crisis - what crisis?

Why is widespread social anxiety fuelling xenophobia rather than criticism of neoliberal capitalism? What role has the state played? Have we arrived at the paradoxical situation where the best we can do is to call on the state to do its job?

By Albena Azmanova

/ 9 May 2011