Professor Magnus Ryner

Biography

Magnus Ryner studied political science and economics at Trent University, Peterborough, Canada (1985-1988) before completing his MA (1990) and PhD (1996) at York University in Toronto. He was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam in 1996-97 and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence in 1997-98. Magnus returned for a year to the University of Amsterdam before moving to the UK in 2000. Since then, he has worked at Brunel University (2000-02), Birmingham University (2002-07) and Oxford Brookes University (2007-12) before joining King’s College London. He has also been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Swedish Centre for Working Life Research in Stockholm, the German Open University in Hagen, and at the Copenhagen Business School.

Research

• International Political Economy and Social Theory
• Political Economy of Work and Welfare and Inequality
• European Political Economy and the Political Economy of the EU
• Europe in the Emerging World Order

Magnus is committed to a holistic approach in the spirit of classical pre-disciplinary as well as post-disciplinary political economy. He is interested in exploring contemporary questions of human welfare by relating micro-processes of work and production to macro-developments of world order via changing configurations of the state, civil society and in international organisation. In his current research, he explores how these processes and developments are condensed in the European Monetary Union and the Eurozone crisis. This, in turn, has generated an increased interest in the relationship between inequality and economic growth. Magnus is also interested in philosophy of science and sociology of knowledge questions that relate to his empirical concerns. For instance, what do different disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches enable, as well as hinder, us to see? How do these relate to practices, power and entrenched interests? Currently, Magnus is exploring these questions with reference to theories of European integration, especially as these emerged in the disciplines of economics, sociology and political science after World War II. He has a long-standing interest in social democracy and trade unions as socio-political phenomena, which he has explored with special reference to the Swedish, Nordic and (to a lesser extent) German cases.

Magnus' supervisory experience covers all aspects of his research interests, but also goes beyond these to the fields of international relations, comparative politics and political sociology more generally. 

Teaching

Magnus' teaching has covered a wide range of subjects within the fields of comparative, European and international political economy as well as within international relations and comparative politics. He has also taught research methods and applied philosophy of science modules.

European Political Economy

The European Union and Global Capitalism

Internship Module

Expertise and public engagement

Beyond publishing in academic outlets, Magnus engages in debates in the public sphere. For instance, he has addressed aspects of the financial and Eurozone crisis in mass media, including: the BBC; Al Jazeera; the Finnish public broadcaster YLE; El Pais; Metro and the largest Swedish broadsheet newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Magnus has also contributed to projects and events of the International Labour Office (ILO); the Government of Paraná State, Brazil; The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation; The Friedrich Ebert Foundation; Fondation Gabriel Peri; The European Social Forum; Malmö Konsthall; The Swedish Transport Workers’ Union; The Swedish Confederation of Labour; The Swedish Social Democratic Youth Association (SSU); ATTAC; The Citizens’ Forum of the Finnish Parliament; Global Utmaning and the ARENA-Group. He contributed with an expert report to the Crisis Commission of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden in 2010, and (together with Ben Clift and Brigitte Young) he gave the keynote address to the 5^th Annual Review of International Political Economy – Warwick Debate in 2012. An article of his was reprinted in the catalogue of the conceptual art exhibition The Welfare Show by Ingar Dragset and Mikael Elmgreen that toured Bergen Konsthall (Norway), The BAWAG Foundation (Vienna), The Powerplant (Toronto) and The Serpentine Gallery (London) in 2005/06.