Review of Evolutionary Political Economy - Call for Papers - Special Issue: "Pluralist Economics in an Era of Polycrisis: Young Scholars’ Voices"
Guest Editors
Jan Schulz (jan.schulz-gebhard@uni-bamberg.de)
Kerstin Hötte (khotte@turing.ac.uk)
Daniel M. Mayerhoffer (d.m.mayerhoffer@uva.nl)
The Alumn* Network of the German Network for Pluralist Economics, represented by Jan Schulz (University of Bamberg), Kerstin Hötte (The Alan Turing Institute and Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford), and Daniel Mayerhoffer (University of Amsterdam), calls for papers for a Special Issue (SI) in the Review of Evolutionary Political Economy (REPE), to be published in 2024.
Crises are a signature property of capitalist societies. After a period of anomalous calm leading up to the global financial crisis, simultaneous multiple crises have become the new normal again – a generation of young economists socialised within it. Yet, economics is still in search of adequate answers to the scientific challenges posed by the polycrisis. On the one hand, the various interdependencies between the economic, social, financial, political and ecological spheres have partially found their way even into orthodox economic thinking. On the other hand, heterodox perspectives are promising tools to help better understand the dynamic, crisis-prone and disequilibrium nature of socioeconomic systems, the role of institutions, networked interaction, heterogeneity, and norms for macroeconomic outcomes which are key characteristics of our economy today. Pluralism in methods and theory is thus the adequate lens to capture the multifaceted nature of our socioeconomic reality. Far from “anything goes”, in our understanding, pluralism is the rejection of any pre-commitment to a specific method, theoretical stance or set of assumptions for extra-scientific reasons and instead evaluates a paradigmatic approach with respect to its potential to illuminate its empirical target system.
Recently, there are signs of convergence and synergies between orthodox methods and the various heterodox perspectives. For example, state-of-the-art orthodox models now feature agent heterogeneity while agent-based models increasingly incorporate boundedly optimising behaviour and build on stronger empirical foundations that enable economic forecasting. Increased availability of large-scale data and computational capacities shift the technical feasibility frontiers in all subfields of economics and enable researchers to address a wider range of questions with novel methodological approaches. This may facilitate the scientific exchange between these fields and help overcome the juxtaposition between ortho- and heterodox approaches. But in light of increasing methodological similarity, ideological differences between some orthodox and heterodox approaches as well as within heterodoxy become more apparent. Hence whether, how, and to which extent synergies between ortho- and heterodox approaches paradigms are desirable and feasible remains an open question for discussion.
The SI offers a platform for the dialogue between different paradigms within economics. Thereby, we aim to make our socioeconomic and ecological systems resilient against the looming uncertainties of our generation. The SI specifically addresses the “crisis generation” of young researchers that renegotiate formerly held economic beliefs or truths. The paradigmatic issues that are currently renegotiated include for example globalisation & international trade, public service provision, the role of money in general and in public finance in particular, the conditions for a socio-ecological transition of our economies to decouple growth from carbon emissions, austerity policy, economic growth, well-being, decolonisation, gender and race issues, power asymmetries, migration, inequality - the list is long. Fresh economic thinking is needed to find new solutions for these pressing issues. This fresh thinking has to acknowledge the all too often ignored lived economic reality of people suffering through economic crises.
The SI welcomes a range of contributions, encompassing empirical studies, theoretical contributions, and policy-oriented work that study how crises exacerbate old inequalities and create new ones and how economic inequality translates into political power asymmetries. These include but are not limited to empirical studies on inequality and poverty, perceptions of inequality and theoretical contributions to the nexus of inequality, fragility and growth.
The SI thus particularly endorses contributions on the three following core topics:
(1) Renegotiation of economic beliefs and truths in the face of current crises, including globalization, public service provision, socio-ecological transitions, austerity policy, inequality and its perception, decolonisation, diversity issues, power asymmetries, and migration;
(2) The impact of crises on exacerbating old inequalities and creating new ones, and how economic inequality translates into political power asymmetries;
(3) The history of economic thought, forgotten alternative views, and normative issues and trade-offs related to crises and crisis response policies.
Of course, our generation is far from the first coming of (intellectual) age in times of crisis. Therefore, we also encourage submissions on the history of economic thought, especially on forgotten, alternative views and paths not taken. We also welcome submissions on the various normative issues and trade-offs that crises and crisis response policies bring about. The contributions span a wide range from mathematical modelling, methodological essays, and useful pedagogical concepts to adapting the economics curricula to new theories and perspectives in your own teaching up to specific policy implications to counteract current problems.
Submissions from FINTA+ (Female, Inter, Trans, A-Gender people), people with disabilities, and first-generation academics are especially encouraged.
Important dates
- Deadline for abstract submission: 31st of May 2023
- Deadline for full paper submission (max. 10000-12000 words): 15th of October 2023
- Planned publication of special issue: April 2024
REPE supports ‘online first publishing’. Papers will be published online upon acceptance, which may be earlier than the publication date of the full issue.
All selected contributions will go through a full peer review process according to the usual standards of REPE.
References
Cedrini, Mario, and Magda Fontana. "Just another niche in the wall? How specialization is changing the face of mainstream economics." Cambridge Journal of Economics 42.2 (2018): 427-451.
Chiapello, Eve. "Financialisation of valuation." Human Studies 38.1 (2015): 13-35.
Davis, Leila, and Shane McCormack. "Industrial stagnation and the financialization of nonfinancial corporations." Review of Evolutionary Political Economy 2.3 (2021): 459-491.
Elsner, Wolfram. "Complexity Economics as Heterodoxy: Theory and Policy." Journal of Economic Issues 51.4 (2017): 939-978.
Elsner, Wolfram. Ökonomische Institutionenanalyse — Paradigmatische Entwicklung der ökonomischen Theorie und der Sinn eines Rückgriffs auf die ökonomische Klassik am Beispiel der Institutionenanalyse (“Property Rights”). Berlin, Germany: Dunker & Humblot, 1986.
Féliz, Mariano, and María Emilia Millón. "Crisis and class inequality in Argentina: a new analysis using household survey data." Review of Evolutionary Political Economy 3.2 (2022): 405-433.
Foley, Duncan K. "Socialist alternatives to capitalism I: Marx to Hayek." Review of Evolutionary Political Economy 1.3 (2020): 297-311.
Foley, Duncan K. "Socialist alternatives to capitalism II: Vienna to Santa Fe." Review of Evolutionary Political Economy 1.3 (2020): 313-328.
Gräbner, Claudius, and Birte Strunk. "Pluralism in economics: its critiques and their lessons." Journal of Economic Methodology 27.4 (2020): 311-329.
Hötte, Kerstin. "Skill transferability and the stability of transition pathways - A learning-based explanation for patterns of diffusion." Journal of Evolutionary Economics 31.3 (2021): 959-993.
Jo, Tae-Hee. "Veblen’s evolutionary methodology and its implications for heterodox economics in the calculable future." Review of Evolutionary Political Economy 2.2 (2021): 277-295.
Palan, Ronen Peter. "An evolutionary approach to international political economy: the case of corporate tax avoidance." Review of Evolutionary Political Economy 1 (2020): 161-182.
Papaioannou, Theo. "Reflections on the entrepreneurial state, innovation and social justice." Review of Evolutionary Political Economy 1.2 (2020): 199-220.
Schulz, Jan, Daniel M. Mayerhoffer, and Anna Gebhard. "A network-based explanation of inequality perceptions." Social Networks 70 (2022): 306-324.
Stockhammer, Engelbert, and Karsten Kohler. "Learning from distant cousins? Post-Keynesian economics, comparative political economy, and the growth models approach." Review of Keynesian Economics 10.2 (2022): 184-203.
Questions related to the Special Issue may be sent to: d.m.mayerhoffer@uva.nl (this opens in a new tab)
Download this Call for Papers here (this opens in a new tab).