Call for Papers: 17th WAPE Forum, Athens 2-4 August 2024

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Stavros Mavroudeas
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17th Forum of the World Association for Political Economy

‘Political Economy vs Economics in a turbulent multipolar world

2-4 August 2024, Panteion University, Athens, Greece

The 17^th WAPE Forum will be held 2-4 August 2024 at Panteion University, Athens, Greece. It is co-organised by WAPE (World Association of Political Economy – http://www.wapeweb.org/) and GAPE (Greek Association of Political Economy – https://politicaleconomy.gr/main/en ) and hosted by the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (https://www.panteion.gr/en/).

The broad theme of the conference focuses on the long-standing controversy between the two main alternative traditions in economic analysis: Political Economy and Economics. Economics (with their individualistic, non-social view of the economy) have historically failed to grasp how economies work and forecast and why, how and when economic crises occur. On the other hand, Political Economy and especially its Marxist variant (proposing a social and historical understanding of the economy, linking economic analysis to social and political factors and to class struggle) has been far more successful in comprehending the actual workings of the economy and in analyzing economic crises. Economics’ shortcomings have become even more pronounced as the 21^st century ushered a period of global political and economic turbulence (economic crises erupt with an increasing frequency, geopolitical conflicts multiply and take increasingly violent forms) which they continue to fail to understand. Nevertheless, their dominance of academia and policy-making centers, especially in the West, continues uninterrupted because of their classless approach and their unbashful support for the capitalist system. The small cosmetic changes from Neoliberalism to neoconservative New Keynesianism do not amount to a serious change of perspective and continue to misapprehend the real modus operandi of contemporary societies and their economies. Nevertheless, there is growing unrest within both the academia and the society with this failed dominance. Political Economy is the main approach towards which all those dissatisfied with Economics turn.

This conference aims to juxtapose Political Economy and Economics and contrast their positions on the various fields and areas of economic analysis. In particular, it aims to attract towards Political Economy the dissatisfaction with Economics of a growing mass of scientists and students. In this vein and within its broad theme, WAPE 2024 invites all contributions that enrich the perspective of Political Economy.

Indicatively but not exclusively, proposed papers can touch upon the following issues:

1. Contemporary controversies in Macroeconomics between Neoclassicism, Keynesianism and Marxism:
2. Neoliberalism, New Keynesianism and the New Macroeconomic Consensus
3. Marxism and macro-economic modelling
4. Curriculum reform in Economics: How Political Economy can challenge Economics’ dominance of university curricula.
5. History of Political Economy
6. Economic History
7. Theory of stages and periodization of capitalism
8. Theories and analyses of economic crisis
9. Profitability, crises and economic cycles
10. Race, class and gender
11. Methodology of economic analysis
12. Trends and challenges in contemporary economic policy:
13. Neoconservative economic policies
14. Economic planning, fiscal and monetary policies reconsidered
15. A return of industrial policy?
16. Noönomy and contemporary Russian contribution to the economic policy debate
17. Modernization theory and the Chinese contribution
18. Marxism and the Political Economy of money and finance:
19. Contemporary capitalism and transformations of the financial system
20. Fictitious capital and the contemporary changes in the production-circulation nexus
21. Central banking in contemporary capitalism
22. US hegemony and de-dollarisation
23. The political economy of crypto-currencie
24. Labour process, markets and the Political Economy of Work
25. Labour movement and Trade Unions
26. Exploitation, flexibility of labor and unemployment
27. The current state of Labour Process Theory
28. Automation, AI and their impact on unemployment, income distribution and the economic cycles
29. Platforms, casualization of labour and the contemporary workplace
30. The Political Economy of Social Policy
31. Austerity and the welfare system
32. Poverty and inequality
33. The pensions system and its neoconservative reforms
34. The Political Economy of education:
35. Commodification of education
36. Class barriers and education
37. Student debt
38. The entrepreneurial university
39. The Political Economy of Health Policies:
40. Inequalities and class barriers in health provision
41. The new emerging epidemics and the experience of the COVID-19
42. Public vs private healthcare sectors
43. Environmental Political Economy:
44. Climate change and class struggle
45. Capitalism’s metabolic rift
46. Imperialist and geopolitical conflicts and the climate
47. Urban and regional Political Economy:
48. The city-countryside contradiction in contemporary capitalism
49. Labour geographies
50. Law and Political Economy
51. Geopolitical Economy: globalization or imperialism? Development or war?’
52. International conflicts and imperialism
53. The retreat of US hegemony and the emergence of a multi-polar world system
54. The Political Economy of capital flows
55. BRICS, the newly emerging economies and the world economy
56. Global value chains and transnational corporations
57. Political Economy of foreign direct investment (FDI)
58. International Political Economy
59. Political Economy of European integration:
60. Is the Eurozone crisis over?
61. European Union: from aspiring to become the new economic superpower falling behind?
62. Divisions and conflicts within the European integration – euro-centre versus euro-periphery in the 21^st century
63. Development studies at an impasse
64. The developmental state after the Post-Washington Consensus
65. Role and policies of international organizations (IMF, WB, WHO, UNHCR, UN etc.)
66. Development and underdevelopment in the 21^st century
67. Country case studies

On these, but also on other subjects, WAPE encourages the formation of work groups that continue to co-operate beyond the period of the conference. WAPE will support these workgroups by hosting them on its webpages and promoting their work.

WAPE also encourages the proposal of a series of panels on subjects within the broad scope of the conference. Colleagues or groups that are interested in organizing such panels should contact the Organisation Committee directly (via [email protected] ).

Additionally, the 17^th WAPE Forum will include a Young Scholars’ Section. Ongoing PhD students can apply to present mature parts of their work within this section. The rate for students (50 euros) applies in the case of the Young Scholars’ Section.

Official Language: The official language of the Forum is English.