Markets and Discourses: Prosperity and Politics after the Libertarian Revolution

12:30-13:00: Sandwich lunch

13:00-14:00: Presentation and Discussion

About the Discussion

In this lecture, Markets and Discourses: Prosperity and Politics after the Libertarian Revolution, Patrik Schumacher challenges the prevailing libertarian reduction of social interaction to market exchanges and instrumental action. Drawing on Jürgen Habermas, Schumacher argues that markets—while indispensable for coordinating dispersed knowledge—must be complemented by communicative discourse. Schumacher thus identifies a blind spot in classical liberal theory: its neglect of non-instrumental, communicative action as foundational to societal self-understanding, the production of knowledge, and the reproduction of law and legitimacy. This talk calls for a recalibration of libertarianism that integrates the discursive infrastructure required for societal progress and freedom beyond the state. Rather than expecting to retire from politics and to exclusively focus of our private market activities, libertarian activists should anticipate that after the libertarian revolution political discourse will continue and even flourish more than ever. Schumacher also challenges the ahistorical nature of much libertarian theory, insisting that political philosophy must be historically situated. In the current era of global, post-Fordist network society, libertarianism can be—and must be—more radical: it can plausibly posit a stateless world society beyond the nation-state and centralised governance structures.

About the Speaker

Patrik Schumacher is principal of Zaha Hadid Architects. He studied philosophy, mathematics and architecture in Bonn, Stuttgart and London and received his PhD at the Institute for Cultural Science in Klagenfurt. In 1996 he founded the Design Research Laboratory at the AA in London where he continues to teach. Since 2007 he is promoting Parametricism as epochal style for the 21st Century. In 2010/12 he published “The Autopoiesis of Architecture” in two Volumes and recently guest-edited AD - Parametricism 2.0, emphasizing the societal relevance of Parametricism. His latest book, ‘Tectonism – Architecture for the 21st Century’, was released in 2023. His current research and design interest is focused on the metaverse and the integration of real and virtual communication spaces.

Patrik Schumacher is a self-described libertarian. He promotes free-market urbanism within architecture as well as at venues like LibertyCon and the Mont Pelerin Society. He advocates deregulation, and privatisation not only with respect to the urban development process, but with respect to all economic life. He envisions a stateless world society based on the twin bottom-up ordering processes of markets and discourses.

About the Series

This will be the next instalment in our monthly Food for Thought series, hosted in partnership with the Vinson Centre at the University of Buckingham. The purpose of this series is to foster high-level academic discussion on themes within the classical liberal tradition, touching on economics, philosophy, history, law, and related disciplines. In turn, we hope to form a community of academics, policymakers, professionals, and students united by the exchange of ideas and life-long learning.