Elmar Altvater

Elmar Altvater (born 24 August, 1938) was Professor of Political Science at the Otto-Suhr-Institute of the Free University of Berlin, before retiring on 30 September 2004. He continues to work at the Institute, and to publish articles and books.

As a student, Altvater studied economics and sociology in Munich, and attained a doctorate with a dissertation on "Environmental Problems in the Soviet Union". At the Otto-Suhr-Institute, he was active in socialist research groups, working with among others Klaus Busch, Wolfgang Schoeller and Frank Seelow, and he gained fame as one of Germany's most important Marxist philosophers, who strongly influenced the political and economic theory of the 1968 generation of radicals.

In 1970, he co-founded the German journal "PROKLA - Journal for Critical Social Science" of which he remains an editor. In 1971 he became university professor in political economy at the Otto-Suhr-Institute. Apart from questions of development theory, the debt crisis, and the regulation of markets, he remains preoccupied with the effects of capitalist economies on the environment.

Altvater is a renowned critic of "political economy" and author of numerous writings on globalization and critiques of capitalism. A standard work is his book "The Limits of Globalization" (1996), written with his companion Birgit Mahnkopf.

Altvater supported the German Greens for some time, but after the military intervention in Kosovo (which as a member of the governing coalition the party had to support) increasingly maintained a critical distance. He was a member of the Bundestag Commission of Inquiry "The World Economy - Challenges and Answers (1999-2002)". Nowadays he is a supporter of ATTAC and the World Social Forum. He is a member of the editorial board of "Sin Permiso"

Main books by Altvater

* 1969: Die Weltwährungskrise.
* 1969: Gesellschaftliche Produktion und ökonomische Rationalität - Externe Effekte und zentrale Planung im Wirtschaftssystem des Sozialismus.
* 1979: Vom Wirtschaftswunder zur Wirtschaftskrise, Berlin (West).(with Jürgen Hoffmann und Willi Semmler)
* 1983: Alternative Wirtschaftspolitik jenseits des Keynesianismus - Wirtschaftspolitische Optionen der Gewerkschaften in Westeuropa. (with Kurt Hübner und Michael Stanger) ISBN 3-531-11620-7
* 1987: Sachzwang Weltmarkt. Verschuldungskrise, blockierte Industrialisierung, ökologische Gefährdung - der Fall Brasilien.
* 1991: Die Zukunft des Marktes. Ein Essay über die Regulation von Geld und Natur nach dem Scheitern des "real existierenden Sozialismus". (translated into English as "The Future of the Market: An Essay on the Regulation of Money and Nature after the Collapse of 'Actually Existing Socialism"' (Verso).
* 1992: Der Preis des Wohlstands oder Umweltplünderung und neue Welt(un)ordnung. Münster
* 1994: Tschernobyl und Sonnenbrand oder: Vom Sinn physikalischer Kategorien in den Sozialwissenschaften. Replik auf die Kritik von Wolfgang Hein, in: Peripherie, Nr. 54, S. 101-112
* 1996: (with Birgit Mahnkopf): Grenzen der Globalisierung. Ökonomie, Ökologie und Politik in der Weltgesellschaft. ISBN 3-929586-75-4
* 2002: (with Birgit Mahnkopf): Globalisierung der Unsicherheit – Arbeit im Schatten, schmutziges Geld und informelle Politik. ISBN 3-89691-513-4
* 2005: Das Ende des Kapitalismus, wie wir ihn kennen. Eine radikale Kapitalismuskritik. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.

External links

* Altvater homepage [http://www.polwiss.fu-berlin.de/osi/people/altvater/]
* Overview of his life and work (in German) [http://www.inwent.org/E+Z/1997-2002/ez201-6.htm]