A Talk with Fred Block

On March 18th, Fred Block will present a talk titled: "When the Old is Dying and the New Cannot be Born: Understanding the Blocked Transition to a Habitation Society," with commentary from Craig Calhoun.

Talk Details:

Imprisoned in a fascist Pr*son in 1930, Antonio Gramsci insisted that a blocked transition from one kind of society to another produces all kinds of morbid symptoms. Block argues that the current crisis of democracy in the U.S. and elsewhere is a result of the blocked transition from an industrial society to a habitation society. We already have a habitation economy because most paid employment is in creating and maintaining the soft and hard infrastructure of the communities in which we live. However, we mistakenly try to run that economy through the policies and practices that we inherited from the industrial era. Block describes four distinct pathways through which those policies and practices produce the ongoing degradation of our habitation, and he suggests what reforms would allow people to create vibrant, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities.

About Fred Block:

Fred Block is Research Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Davis. His books include: Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse, The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polanyi’s Critique (with Margaret Somers), Capitalism: The Future of an Illusion, and Democratizing Finance (with Robert Hockett). He is also the founder and president of the Center for Engaged Scholarship.

Event Time(s):

The talk with Fred Block will be conducted in two separate events on March 18, 2025.

Virtual Event (10:30AM - 11:30AM): There will be a will be a Zoom webinar hosted online.

The link to register for the webinar will come soon.

In-Person Event (4:30PM-6PM): An in-person event will be hosted at Arizona State University, Tempe campus in the room West Hall 135.

Host or Publisher The Center for Work and Democracy at ASU