20.01.2024

Departmental Seminar: "The Political Economy of Electricity: Between State Monopolies and the Global Infrastructure Scramble in Costa Rica and Tunisia"

Dr. Alke Jenss, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg. Wednesday, 24 January, 16:15-17:45, Room 124 at the Institute of Political Science (or online via Zoom)

How can we understand better the ambiguity between the state as an owner of essential infrastructures (such as energy) and corporations with increasing infrastructural power? What political tensions arise in the contemporary infrastructure scramble? Alke Jenss will focus on national electricity operators such as ICE in Costa Rica and STEG in Tunisia and their highly ambiguous role both locally and in power relations beyond the local, informed by political economy and coloniality in infrastructures approaches.

Alke Jenss is the Head of the Contested Governance Research Cluster at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI) in Freiburg. She is responsible for the “promises of democratic connection” project on political practices around energy infrastructures. Her work deals with the transformations of the global political economy in the transition from a neoliberal towards a post-neoliberal global order. Her latest book is “Selective Security” (Rowman & Littlefield 2023).

Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/93089750663 Meeting ID: 930 8975 0663, Passcode: 142311