Globalization, neo-liberalism, capitalism - the public debate about competition and competitiveness has always been a hot button topic. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about competition? How did the rules of business come about? Since May, a new Austrian Science Fund project led by Johannes Kepler University Linz has been exploring the concept and mechanisms of competition.

The transdisciplinary, 2.5 million euro research project SPACE explores how the logic of business competition emerged historically as part of academic discourse and found its way into political and public debates, laws, and ultimately into our everyday lives. The study uses an innovative mix of business, sociology, and ethnology methods and pays strong attention to the everyday impacts competition has. The study involves JKU researchers (Research Institute for Strategic Analysis of the Economy, Dept. Head: Prof. Jakob Kapeller) and researchers from the University of Vienna.

The Fight for Living Space
By looking at housing, for example, at the EU and national state level, interviews with experts and other methods will be used to explore just how laws are influenced by business competition and what the consequences are – especially pertaining to people’s everyday lives when looking for housing.

JKU researcher and project coordinator Dr. Stephan Pühringer explains, "In the end, we want to take a comprehensive look at the term ‘competition’. We want to find out how, and under what circumstances, competition has become a central principle in the social and economic order and also at how it can perhaps be changed." Whether or not Margaret Thatcher's capitalistic quote "There is no alternative" holds water will be part of the project’s findings in four years' time.