Dr. Matthias Schmelzer

Since 2019
Research assistant at the Institute for Sociology of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Since 2018
Lecturer at the University of Zurich

2015-2019
Permanent fellow at the DFG-Research Group "Postgrowth Societies" at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Since 2015
Work at the Laboratory for New Economic Ideas (Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie) in Leipzig

2015-2016
Research assistant at the Research Centre for Social and Economic History at the University of Zurich

2013-2015
Research associate at the Paul Bairoch Institute for Economic History at the University of Geneva and lecturer at the Humboldt-University Berlin

2009-2013
PhD program at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)

2000-2008
Studies in history, political science, economics and philosophy at the Humboldt-University Berlin and the University of California, Berkeley

2019
University of Zurich: "Coal, climate, capitalism: Mentalities of escalation in the history of expanding modernity"

2018
University of Zurich: "Higher, faster, further? The idea of economic growth from the 17th century to the present day"

2016/17
University of Zurich: "Sputnik, business cycles, experts and transnational networks" (together with Dr. Anne Rohstock).

2015/16
Humboldt-University Berlin: "Global history of flight and expulsion in the 19th and 20th centuries" (together with Dr. Heike Wieters).

2014
Humboldt-University Berlin: "International organizations in the 19th and 20th centuries, between war and peace, above and below, East and West" (together with Dr. Heike Wieters).

2011
European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder): "Introduction to economic history" (together with Prof. Alexander Nützenadel).

More information also available hereExternal link.

BÜCHER

Degrowth/Postwachstum zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius-Verlag (with Andrea Vetter).

2016. The Hegemony of Growth. The OECD and the Making of the Economic Growth Paradigm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. More info hereExternal link

2011. Postwachstum, Krise, ökologische Grenzen, soziale Rechte. Hamburg: VSA-Verlag (with Alexis Passadakis).

2010. Freiheit für Wechselkurse und Kapital. Die Ursprünge neoliberaler Währungspolitik und die Mont Pèlerin Society. Marburg: Metropolis-Verlag.

EDITED BOOKS AND SPECIAL ISSUES

forthcoming Degrowth in Movement(s). Exploring pathways for transformation, ed. with Corinna Burkart and Nina Treu. London: Zero Books.

Entwachstum – Utopie, Konturen und Spannungen des Degrowth-Spektrums, special issue of the Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 31 (4), ed. with Dennis Eversberg and Gabriele Schmidt. More info hereExternal link and hereExternal link

History of the Future of Economic Growth. Historical roots of current debates on sustainable degrowth (Routledge Studies in Ecological Economics Series), ed. with Iris Borowy. London: Routledge. More info hereExternal link

The OECD and the Global Political Economy, 1948 to Present, ed. with Matthieu Leimgruber. London: Palgrave Macmillan. More info hereExternal link

Degrowth in Bewegung(en). 32 alternative Wege zur sozial-ökologischen Transformation, ed. with Nina Treu and Corinna Burkhart. München: oekom. More info hereExternal link

2011. Ökologische Gerechtigkeit. Soziale Rechte. Gutes Leben, ed. With Werner Rätz, Tanja von Egan-Krieger, Barbara Muraca, Alexis Passadakis and Andrea Vetter. Hamburg: VSA-Verlag.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

„Research on Degrowth”, Annual Review of Environment and Resources 43, 291-316 (with Giorgos Kallis, Vasilis Kostakis, Steffen Lange, Barbara Muraca, Susan Paulson).

„The Degrowth Spectrum: Convergence and Divergence within a Diverse and Conflictual Alliance”, Environmental Values 27, 245–267 (with Dennis Eversberg).

„Editorial: Entwachstum – Utopie, Konturen und Spannungen des Degrowth-Spektrums”, Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 31 (4), 3–8 (with Dennis Eversberg and Gabriele Schmidt).

„Revolution Predigen, Karottensaft Trinken? Zum Zusammenhang von Strömungen, Lebensstilen und Aktivismus im Degrowth-Spektrum”, Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 31 (4), 26–36 (with Dennis Eversberg)

„Degrowth & Postwachstum”, PERIPHERIE 150/151 (38), 336–339.

„Beyond Growth, Capitalism, and Industrialism? Consensus, Divisions and Currents within the Emerging Movement for Sustainable Degrowth”, Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements 9 (1), 327–356 (with Dennis Eversberg).

„Mehr als Weniger: Erste Überlegungen zur Frage nach dem Postwachstumssubjekt”, Psychosozial 40 (2), 83-100 (with Dennis Eversberg).

„’Born in the corridors of the OECD’: The forgotten origins of the Club of Rome and the unraveling of the postwar confidence in economic growth”, Journal of Global History 12 (1), 26-48.

„Über die Selbstproblematisierung zur Kapitalismuskritik. Vier Thesen zur entstehenden Degrowth-Bewegung”, Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 29 (1), 9-17 (with Dennis Eversberg).

2015. „’Expandiere oder stirb’. Das Wachstumsparadigma, die OECD, und wie die Erwartung exponentiellen Wirtschaftswachstums sich durchsetzte”, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 41 (3), 355-393.

2015. „Entwickelter Norden, unterentwickelter Süden? Wissenseliten, Entwicklungshilfe und die Konstruktion des Westens in der OEEC und OECD”, Comparativ – Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung 25 (5), 18-35.

2015. „Marketing marketization: The power of neoliberal expert, consulting, and lobby networks”, Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 12 (3), 488-499 (with Dieter Plehwe).

2012. „The Crisis before the Crisis: The ‘Problems of Modern Society’ and the OECD, 1968-1974”, European Review of History 19 (6), 999-1020.

2010. „Marketing morals, moralizing markets. Assessing the effectiveness of Fair Trade as a form of boycott”, Management & Organizational History 5 (2), 221-250.

CHAPTERS IN EDITED VOLUMES

i.E. „What Comes After Bretton Woods? Neoliberals Debate and Fight for a Future Monetary Order”, in: Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, hrgs. von Philip Mirowski, Dieter Plehwe and Quinn Slobodian. London: Verso.

i.E. „Degrowth und Männlichkeiten – Zur Geschlechtlichkeit des relationalen Postwachstumssubjekts”, in: Caring Masculinities? Auf der Suche nach Transformationswegen in eine demokratische Postwachstumsgesellschaft, ed. by Andreas Heilmann and Sylka Scholz, München: oekom (with Dennis Eversberg).

2019. „Zur Genese des Wachstumsparadigmas”, in: Transformationsgesellschaften: Zum Wandel gesellschaftlicher Naturverhältnisse, ed. by Michaela Christ, Bernd Sommer, and Klara Stumpf. Weimar: Metropolis.

2018. „The growth paradigm: History, hegemony, and the contested making of economic growthmanship”, in Routledge Handbook of the History of Sustainability, von Jeremy Caradonna. London and New York: Routledge.

2017. „Public Sociology in der Bewegungsforschung. Zum Verhältnis von Soziologie, Gesellschaftskritik und sozialen Bewegungen”, in Öffentliche Soziologie: Wissenschaft im Dialog mit der Gesellschaft, ed. by Brigitte Aulenbacher, Michael Burawoy, Klaus Dörre, and Johanna Sittel, 176-188. Frankfurt a.M.: Campus Verlag, 2017 (with Dennis Eversberg, Steffen Liebig and Nina Treu).

2017. „Introduction: The End of Economic Growth in Long-Term Perspective”, in History of the Future of Economic Growth. Historical roots of current debates on sustainable degrowth (Routledge Studies in Ecological Economics Series), ed. by Iris Borowy and Matthias Schmelzer, 1-26. London: Routledge (with Iris Borowy).

2017. „Sustainable Degrowth: Historical Roots of the Search for Alternatives to Growth in Three Regions”, in History of the Future of Economic Growth. Historical roots of current debates on sustainable degrowth (Routledge Studies in Ecological Economics Series), ed. by Iris Borowy and Matthias Schmelzer, 174-197. London: Routledge (with Barbara Muraca).

2017. „Ohne Bewegungen keine Transformation: Das Mosaik der Alternativen als Kompass für Postwachstumspolitiken”, in Postwachstumspolitiken Wege zur wachstumsunabhängigen Gesellschaft, by Frank Adler and Ulrich Schachtschneider, 77-88. München: oekom (with Corinna Burkhart and Nina Treu).

2016. „Selbstveränderung, Kapitalismuskritik, Organisierung: Transformationspotentiale der Degrowth-Bewegung”, in Wachstum - Krise und Kritik: Die Grenzen der kapitalistisch-industriellen Lebensweise, by AK Postwachstum, 179–200. Frankfurt a.M: Campus Verlag.

2016. „’Die Vermessung ,der Wirtschaft‘: Konstruktionen und Kontroversen in der internationalen Standardisierung der volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnung, 1940er- und 50er-Jahre”, in Die Innenwelt der Ökonomie. Wissen, Macht und Performativität in der Wirtschaftswissenschaft, ed. by Jens Maeße, Hanno Pahl, and Jan Sparsam, 287-310. Berlin: VS-Springer.

2015. „Gutes Leben statt Wachstum: Degrowth, Klimagerechtigkeit, Subsistenz – eine Einführung in die Begriffe und Ansätze der Postwachstumsbewegung”, in Atlas der Globalisierung: Weniger wird mehr, by Le Monde diplomatique and DFG-Kolleg Postwachstumsgesellschaften, 116-121. Berlin: Le Monde diplomatique.

2014. „A club of the rich to help the poor? The OECD, ‘development’, and the hegemony of donor countries”, in International Organizations and Development, 1945 to 1990, ed. by Marc Frey, Soenke Kunkel, and Corinna Unger, 171-195. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

2013. „The Crisis before the Crisis: The ‘Problems of Modern Society’ and the OECD, 1968-1974”, in Economic Crises and Global Politics in the 20th Century, ed. by Alexander Nützenadel and Cornelius Torp, 151–172. London: Routledge.