Franziska Paul on the German trajectory of (neoliberal) governance, the locus of ‘local state’ and community movements
I am so glad to have Franziska Paul as our guest in this episode. She is a Lecturer in Political Economy at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. Dr. Franziska Paul holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Glasgow, with her thesis on energy democracy and trade union movement building towards a new, radical labour environmentalism. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC-funded Global Remunicipalisation project, in which she contributed some publications on public ownership, de-privatisation and democratisation of key services and infrastructures, including some case study in the US and Germany. Franziska is also involved with the Public Futures database, a collaborative initiative that was initiated by Transnational Institute in 2007; this database is the first comprehensive collection of de-privatisation cases in the world. In this episode I speak with Franziska about the German particular trajectory of neoliberal state and its context from which some social movement initiatives emerged to influence public policy. Minute 5 our conversation starts with Franziska’s research trajectory and the Global Remunicipalisation Research Project Minute 10 the governing structure of German states and public service provision obligation Minute 14 the role of municipalities and ‘Daseinsvorsorge’ Minute 17 some rooms for privatization in the governance structures and the role of labour unions (for de-privatization) Minute 20 Prathiwi’s comment on a couple of crucial agenda for the People’s Water Forum, Bali 2024 Minute 20.5 The conditions of possibility for labour unions care about environment Minute 21 the global network of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) Minute 23 back to neoliberalism, the role of local state in it (a trajectory of Germany) Minute 30 the French model and the British model of privatization CO-Water Voice Theme Music: Solidas by Marjinal. The music was created during the solidarity action in Berlin, which was organized by the band on 18 February 2022. The solidarity evening was meant to support the struggles of communities in Indonesia against land grabbing and environmental degradation caused by the mining industry. Specific dedication in that evening was for the farming community in Wadas, whose village was destroyed by stone mining. Opening music: Biru Beriak by Lair from Jatiwangi, West Java. The music is dedicated to fisherfolk communities. Closing music and song: Selamat Pagi by Sanggar Ciliwung Merdeka. The song was recorded by Prathiwi in Jakarta during their rehearsal on 18 March 2017. The children were still actively singing after their riverside workshop had been demolished in 2016, during a forced eviction. In 2016 alone, there were 193 cases of forced evictions with direct victims of 5.726 households and 5.379 informal business units in the kampungs of Jakarta, or the so-called slums, in the name of the Ciliwung river normalization program.
