Conference on Family Capitalism

The MPIfG hosted a two-day conference on Family Capital(ism) in the Twenty-First Century on May 16 and 17. The event was organized by Isabell Stamm and Franziska Wiest and attended by seventeen scholars from Germany and abroad. The aim of the interdisciplinary conference was to reflect on and assess the structures and cultures families use to achieve an influential position in contemporary capitalist societies. What are the historic formations of family capitalism? How and why are owner families still dominant within the business population today? What strategies do families apply to transfer and protect their ownership and wealth? And why are families as institutions successful at all in late capitalism? These were among the central questions discussed by the attendees in the eight sessions and talks over the two days of the conference.