Book Launch: Surplus Lives under Racial Capitalism: Roma in Post-Socialist Czechia by Barbora ?ernušáková

About

The Political Economy Centre (PEC) at the University of Manchester is delighted to host the launch of Barbora ?ernušáková’s new book, Surplus Lives under Racial Capitalism: Roma in Post-Socialist Czechia, published by Manchester University Press. The launch will take place from 4-6pm on Thursday 24th of September at the Hanson Room, Humanities Bridgeford Street. This is a hybrid event, with participation possible both in person and online. Surplus Lives under Racial Capitalism offers a powerful account of the relationship between political economy and anti-Roma racism in East Central Europe. Focusing on post-socialist Czechia, Barbora ?ernušáková shows how the introduction of capitalism in the 1990s coincided with the growing racialised disposability of Roma workers, and how processes of ‘surplusing’ have repeatedly intensified in moments of crisis. Through an investigation of the Czech labour regime, the book examines how race and class are produced together rather than operating as separate structures of inequality. In doing so, it also asks how the expansion of surplusing might create a shared terrain of struggle capable of cutting across racialised divisions among workers. To mark the book’s publication, Barbora ?ernušáková will be joined by Ryan Davey, Aliki Koutlou, and Stuart Shields for a conversation about the book and the wider questions it raises. The discussion will explore racial capitalism and the production of surplus populations; the relationships between labour, household debt, crises and inequality; and what the post-socialist experience can tell us about transformations of race and class in contemporary capitalism. It will also consider the political possibilities and difficulties of building solidarities among workers across racialised divisions. The discussion will be chaired by Dr Adrienne Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Manchester & Director of the PEC. Organised and sponsored by the Political Economy Centre, University of Manchester.