Profile

Biography

Alexis holds a BA in Politics and International Studies and an MA in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick, where he also completed his PhD in 2019. His thesis explored the political economy of deindustrialisation in France and the role of the state in managing this process through an analysis of archival government records from the 1970s and 1980s. It asked in particular why French governments, and especially Mitterrand’s socialist government, pursued industrial policies that accentuated the decline of certain domestic industries.

Alexis has previously taught at the Universities of Warwick, Oxford Brookes and Birmingham, before joining the department of Politics at York as an Associate Lecturer in 2019. Alexis' research interests include industrial policy and deindustrialisation, the political economy of France in the European Union, and state-market relations in the global economy.

Research

Overview

Alexis’s research examines different areas of international political economy:

• Industrial policy and deindustrialisation

My research examines the structural transformation of advanced capitalist societies through the process of deindustrialisation. I am especially interested in the ways that governments seek to balance industrial competitiveness objectives and employment protection within a deindustrialised setting.

• The political economy of France in the European union

I research the transformation of French economic policy since the 1980s  and the impact of European-level regulations on the management of domestic economic affairs. Looking at archives from the Mitterrand era, I am interested in the reasons why his government’ social-democratic alternative to neoliberalism was aborted in favour of deeper European economic integration. In particular, my research focuses on the relationship between EU competition law and French industrial policy preferences.

• States and markets

On a more theoretical level, my research focuses on the ways that states and markets interact within the global economy. Drawing from Karl Marx’s Critique of Political Economy, my research seeks to situate the relationship between states and markets within the wider compelling dynamics spurred by capitalist competition on the world stage.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• State, Economy and Society POL00006I
• Introduction to Democratic Politics POL00002C

Publications

Selected publications

Peer-reviewed articles:

• Moraitis, A. B., & Copley, J. (2017). Productive and unproductive labour and social form: Putting class struggle in its place. Capital & Class, 41(1), 91-114.
• Moraitis, A. B. (2018). The politics of deindustrialisation: the experience of the textiles and clothing sector (1974–1984). French politics, 16(1), 38-63.
• Moraitis, A. B. (2019). Transnational Depoliticisation and Industrial Policy: The European Commission and French Steel (1980–1984). New Political Economy

Blogposts:

• Between Brussels and the Gilets Jaunes, Posted in Progress in Political Economy