Call for Papers – Panel organised by the IIPPE Social Capital Working Group
THEME: Envisioning the future. alternative economies, collectives and communities
Asimina Christoforou, Athens University of Economics and Business
Luca Andriani, Birkbeck, University of London
A social capital panel on Envisioning the Future. Alternative Economies, Collectives and Communities will be held within the 2019 IIPPE annual conference in Lille, 3-5 July 2019. The deadline for abstracts submissions is January 29 2019.
Collective and community economies represent alternative ways of dealing with important issues such as deprivations, inequalities and conflicts. These alternative economic approaches rely on the strength of social norms and networks of cooperation and solidarity challenging conventional universals of homo economicus. They can be found in a variety of collective efforts and initiatives, which include, but are not restricted to, cooperative production in worker-recuperated enterprises; social kitchens and second-hand stores for the satisfaction of basic needs; community and environmental movements against reckless urban and industrial expansion; alternative currencies and microfinance institutions for local exchange and credit.
In light of these developments, we invite proposals for papers to be presented in the Social Capital Working Group’s panels at IIPPE’s Annual Conference. Proposals could examine the development of alternative collective and community economies in different parts of the world and investigate their potential to combat the individualisation and marketisation of human action and to create transformational relations toward a cooperative and solidaristic economy and society. Many studies have pointed to the critical role of social capital as norms and networks of trust, reciprocity and collaboration in creating values and institutions of cooperation, democracy and welfare. Yet some point to the possibility of degeneration as a result of inherent tensions between economic and social objectives and the pressures of a global environment where the pursuit of economic profit and cost-competitiveness prevail. These are hypotheses that need to be further theorised and empirically tested in order to uncover the role of social norms and networks in developing alternative perceptions and practices of working and living on the basis of cooperative values and institutions.
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).
SUBMISSION INFO:
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Please submit your proposal by January 15, 2019.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:
To submit a proposal, please go to the IIPPE home page http://iippe.org/ and check “Submit proposal”. You will be transferred to the Electronic Proposal Form (EPF) located at https://afep-iippe2019.sciencesconf.org/. There you first need to register on the platform and create an account. (For English, select the small English flag near the upper left corner of the page.)
To register, click on the down arrow next to the “Login” button in the upper right corner of the page, and then select “Create account”. Fill in the simple information and submit, and you will get a response for confirmation sent to the email address given. Once you have done that, you can submit a proposal.
To submit, select “Submission” from the left column. “Step 1: Instructions” gives you all the instructions that are necessary beyond the obvious ones provided during the submission process by the site. “Step 2: Submit” takes you to the submission process itself.
When you submit, be sure to select “IIPPE Paper” under the category “Type”. Only after that will a category “Topic” with the list of Working Groups appear. Please choose “Social Capital Working Group” to submit to our panel.
GENERAL INFO:
For queries and suggestions, you may contact Asimina Christoforou, Coordinator of the Social Capital Working Group: asimina.christoforou@gmail.com.
For general information about IIPPE, Working Groups, and the Conference: http://iippe.org/wp/.
A half-day conference on “Why Political Economy and Institutional Studies?” will be taking place on Thursday 15 June at Birkbeck University of London to mark the launch of the Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies. With contributions from leading scholars from universities across the UK, the event will be a unique opportunity for reflection on the significance of political economy and institutions. Further details of the event are available 
