ÖFSE Development Lecture No. 28

Public Lecture by Isabella Weber, Vienna Karl Polanyi Visiting Professor 2026 

Welcome addresses by Michael Ludwig, Mayor of Vienna (tbc), Rupert Sausgruber, Rector at WU (tbc), Korinna Schumann, Minister of Social Affairs (tbc)
Facilitator: Nina Kaltenbrunner, University of Leeds
Commentator: Jayati Ghosh, University of Massachusetts Amherst

We are living in an age of overlapping emergencies: the global order is disintegrating, climate change is no longer a distant threat but a reality, while the threat of a renewed pandemic hangs over us still. For the global economy, this means that supply disruptions and economic coercion have become a new normal. The war in Iran shows the necessity to take a truly global perspective in economic analysis, one that takes uneven development and asymmetric power relations into account. It is a stark reminder that when shocks hit essentials for human livelihoods and production, they often unleash ‘sellers’ inflation’, a mechanism through which large corporations lift prices to boost profits, which brings about a redistribution from the bottom to the top. Those with the least capacity to absorb the shock, globally and within countries, carry the largest burden, while the wealthiest capitalize on crisis through capital market frenzies across food, energy, real estate and finance, capturing windfall profits. 

The lecture is the closing event of  “Progressive development economics in an era of geopolitics, affordability crisis and climate change. Celebrating the academic legacy of Cornelia Staritz”, 25.6.-26.6.2026

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> Programme (pdf)