Iselin Åsedotter Strønen defends her doctoral dissertation "The Revoluationary Petro-State. Change, Continuity and popular Power in Venezuela" on 17 October.

Through long-term ethnographical studies, Strønen has explored the relationship between the residents in the shanty towns of Caracas and the Venezuelan state during the reign of the late president Hugo Chávez. She argues that the Bolivarian Revolution has to be intrepreted as an attempt to build a new political and moral social order after the failure of the neoliberal social order in the 80's and onwards. Strønen analyses how the oil wealth has shaped Venezuela structurally and culturally, and in particular how the poor have experienced the petro-state.

She focuses on the grassroot controlled neighbourhoods (consejos communales) and their efforts to promote social development in the shanty towns.

Trial lecture:

"Venezuela compared. What a comparative analysis of the "Pink Tide" in Latin America can tell us about real alternatives to populism and neoliberal capitalism"

Time:16 October at 15:15
Venue: Auditorium, Bergen Sjøfartsmuseum, Haakon Sheteligs plass 15

Public defence:

Time: 17 October at 10:15
Venue: Auditorium, Bergen Sjøfartsmuseum, Haakon Sheteligs plass 15.