The Centre for Law, Regulation and Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE) at Warwick Law School and The IEL Collective present a seminar by Dr Serena Natile from Warwick Law School on Sustainability as Radical Redistribution: Disrupting the Logic of Sustainable Underdevelopment.

The event willl start with lunch at 12.30pm (GMT) and the seminar will begin at 1pm (GMT).

Abstract

Using insights from decolonial literature, critical international economic law and law and development, I will formulate this argument by analysing how the international development agenda advocates for social goals such as poverty reduction without at the same time targeting the issue of extreme wealth. This agenda promotes as major ‘success’ globalised mechanisms that provide people living in poverty with instruments to cope with ‘underdevelopment’ more effectively, while facilitating the accumulation of profits for the benefit of corporations, financial institutions and their philathrocapitalist foundations. I will use two examples to illustrate this racialised and gendered process: digital financial services that ‘include’ and ‘empower’ the ‘unbanked/financially excluded’ to allow them to manage their small and irregular earnings more efficiently; and global supply chains that ‘include’ and ‘empower’ the ‘unemployed/economically excluded’ to allow them to have a formal source of minimum income. I will conclude by highlighting that the only way to realise truly sustainable development is via a radical politics of redistribution that involves reparations (colonial and post-colonial), taxation of national and transnational wealth, maximum wage in addition to minimum wage and universal social provisioning.

Serena Natile is a feminist academic at Warwick Law School, and a member of GLOBE and the IEL Collective. A further description of her research interests is available using the following link Serena Natile (warwick.ac.uk).

Spaces for in-person attendance is limited. Please email globe@warwick.ac.uk if you wish to attend in person. Please note that participants are expected to wear face coverings and maintain social distancing if attending in person.

If you are attending via Teams, please use this link.