THEME: Strength in unity:
Building alliances and networks for economic and social change
11th International Conference in Political Economy,
“The Pandemic and the Future of Capitalism:
On the Political Economy of our Societies and Economies”
September 12-19, 2021 / Online Conference
Organisers:
Asimina Christoforou, Panteion University, Greece. Luca Andriani, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
In mainstream economics we often use the Robinson Crusoe metaphor. It represents the idealised economic man, the independent, industrious and self-sufficient man, who absolutely knows his needs and his surroundings; who rationally assesses his possibilities and makes choices; who seeks for novel ways to expand his potential; who conquers nature and defies backward-looking social checks; and who ingeniously combines all the means virtually available to him in order to increase personal prosperity and gratification. However, economists seem to be telling half of the story. Robinson Crusoe actually relied on the camaraderie of his fellowman Friday to deal with the obstacles they faced together, and he was only able to survive and progress by joining forces and associating with others.
The self-serving aspects of economic man are far from reality and overlook the social and institutional dimensions of the economy. The current health crisis strongly demonstrates how much we rely on cooperation and unity, alliances and networks, in order to address the challenges of our times. In fact, economic man is a social construct itself, which places markets over and above social values. In this session we wish to explore the collectives and networks people create to promote material well-being and restore substantive values of social and environmental protection. Examples of collectives include, among others, trade unions; environmental associations; worker-recuperated firms; commons and commoning; local communities; research and policy networks; public-private synergies; and social movements. How do these collectives emerge? What is their purpose? How do they evolve? How are they affected by history and culture, especially by the economic and health crises? How can cooperation be achieved within and between collectives in view of conflicting interests and needs? These are questions we would like to address in the session.
We also encourage contributions that generally address the topic of social capital. We welcome works that derive from various social science disciplines and use different units of analysis (individual, regional, country or cross-country level), methodologies and techniques (theoretical, empirical, qualitative and quantitative). Participants can submit individual papers or organise sessions.
Please submit your proposal by May 15, 2021.
To submit a proposal, please use the Electronic Proposal Form (EPF), and carefully follow the instructions. You will need to select “Social Capital” from the list to submit a proposal to our sessions. The EPF will be opened on the IIPPE website (www.iippe.org) on April 15. As usual, submissions may be made as (a) proposals for individual papers (which IIPPE will group into panels), (b) proposals for panels, (c) proposals for streams of panels, or (d) proposals on activism. The EPF will be closed on May 15, and notification of acceptances will be sent out by May 31.
For queries and suggestions, you may contact Asimina Christoforou,Coordinator of the Social Capital Working Group: a.christoforou@panteion.gr.
