The Conference will be held in Paris, France, 5-8 July 2012, and aims at bringing together scholars from all strands of political economy and heterodox economics in order to discuss their future and the recent developments in the global economy and in economic science following the global economic crisis. For this conference, Asimina Christoforou, coordinator of the IIPPE social capital working group, has proposed a panel with a general theme on the contribution of Pierre Bourdieu in economics. You are invited to submit papers and ideas for this panel. (Photo by Ecstaticist from Flickr).
In the global North, policies implemented in the aftermath of the crisis of financialised capitalism have neither ended the neoliberal agenda nor curbed the demands of a resurgent financial sector. Instead, after a diluted Keynesian moment centred on "quantitative easing", the governments of the richest countries have launched a new set of neoliberal reforms characterised by harsh austerity measures. From 2009 onwards, this new neoliberal wave has spread progressively from peripheral European countries to the UK, the Eurozone, and now the USA. Along with surging unemployment rates, this economic onslaught, on those who are in no way perceived as accountable for the crisis and slump, promises a period of major social disruption in welfare provision and institutions, pressures on wages and working conditions and, in response across a growing number of countries, multitudes of spontaneous and, occasionally, mass actions as macroeconomic prospects deteriorate.
In the global South, the forces putatively driving catch-up remain limited and highly uneven, with the issue of global imbalances often placed at the forefront in deference to the US's compromised if continuing hegemonic role. In contrast, not least in the face of the ongoing ecological disruption, the idea of a new frontier for social and economic development and thought is being promoted by a large spectrum of actors, ranging from proponents of no-growth or slow growth through to governments, international institutions and corporations who envisage a revival of capitalism thanks to and in pursuit of the green economy. These initiatives are indicative of an intellectual and material crisis but offer little by way of solution for which, as observed, a savage renewal of neoliberalism serves as the default option.
The scientific issues raised by the corresponding range of problems are formidable, but the blindness and reductionism of mainstream economics prevents them from being tackled within the discipline which has scarcely been disturbed by the acute exposure of its inadequacies by the crisis.
Taking pluralism as the means for bringing together the community of critical economists, this joint conference, called by two major international and one of the largest national networks of political economy and social scientists, will breathe fresh air into an otherwise moribund intellectual atmosphere. It is a major event that will bring together scholars from all strands of political economy and heterodox economics in order to discuss their future and the recent developments in the global economy and in economic science following the global economic crisis.
Submissions of individual abstract or panel proposals along the following non-exclusive themes are welcomed.