The University of Leeds hosts the 35th Annual EAEPE Conference 2023

The European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy Conference 2023 was hosted by the University of Leeds.

The University of Leeds was delighted to host the 35th Annual European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy Conference 2023. The conference, which took place on 13-15 September, had for its 2023 theme, ‘Power and Empowerment in times of multiple crisis’. 

These multiple crises include climate change and energy shortages as the consequences of fossil fuels, inflation in the economies of the global north, rising debt and interest rates threatening the economies of the global south, and the instability of global commodity chains and of the dollar as the global currency reserve in the face of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. While international institutions like the UN and IMF have proven no match for these mounting crises, various social movements have sought to effect change and answers in the form of unionised industrial action and organised public protests. 

The question shaping the 2023 conference was thus: ‘can social agency be empowered to reshape market controls in the current conjuncture, and what role, if any, can the academy play in such times of furnaces and monsters?’ (EAEPE)

Two keynote lectures were delivered at the conference. The first of these was delivered by Professor Paul Nightingale (Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex) on ‘AI and the politics of expertise’. The second was delivered by Professor Shirin Rai (SOAS) on ‘The Power of the Performative and Resistance of the Marginalised in times of multiple crises’. 

Professor Paul Nightingale delivering his keynote talk.

On 12th of September, also, the University hosted the 9th EAEPE Pre-Conference for Young Scholars. This pre-conference was comprised of a series of workshops by distinguished scholars, accompanied by social space to interact and network. 

The 2023 Pre-Conference for Young Scholars centred around power, questioning the ‘power of economics without power in economics’. The three workshop talks were delivered by Professor Franklin Obeng-Odoom (University of Helsinki) ‘On Power and Ecology’, by Dr Melissa Langworthy (Independent Researcher and Senior Gender Expert for EU-GCC Political Dialogue, Cooperation and Outreach Program), ‘On Power and Gender’, and finally, by Dr Charlie Dannreuther (POLIS, University of Leeds) ‘ On Power and the Future of Work’. 

Speaking about the conference, Dr Dannreuther has said that, 

300 scholars from all over the world participated in a hybrid conference and showed that a plurality of perspectives offers unique insights and responses to the challenges of the world today.

Our keynotes framed the challenges around AI and around how we need to change how we act, while the panel on infrastructure showed how the present past and future all inform our responses to investment challenges.

It was a very stimulating and exhausting four days - from the YNET sponsored young scholars conference on Tuesday to the 7 prizes we awarded on the Friday to books articles and young scholars. Thank you to everyone who came to make it such a great day for political economy at Leeds and to LUBS and POLIS for sponsoring the whole event.

Dr Charlie Dannreuther speaking at the EAEPE 2023 Pre-conference.

Prizes and Prize Winners

The conference proceedings also saw a number of prizes awarded to delegates. These are listed below:

Herbet Simons Prize 

The Herbert Simons Prize was awarded to three scholars for the category of Best Young Scholar Paper. The 2023 winners were: 

• Nitin Nair for ‘When Minsky and Godley Met Structuralism: A Stock-flow Consistent Approach to the Currency Hierarchy’, published in The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.
• Mads R. Hansen and Natalia I. Molina for ‘Democratizing Finance: The “Citizen Fund” as an Institutional Proposal to Structurally Consider Non-Pecuniary Returns in Investment Decisions’, published in the Journal of Economic Issues.

William Kapp Prize

The William Kapp Prize was awarded to three scholars for the category of Best Published Article. The 2023 winners were:

• Karsten Kohler for ‘Capital flows and geographically uneven economic dynamics: A monetary perspective’, published in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space.
• Roberta Terranova and Enrico M. Turco for ‘Concentration, stagnation and inequality: An agent-based approach’, published in the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization.

Joan Robinson Prize

The Joan Robinson Prize was awarded to three scholars for the category of Best Book. The 2023 winners were:

• Celia Rikap for Capitalism, Power and Innovation: Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism Uncovered, published by Routledge.
• Thomas Marois for Public Banks: Decarbonisation, Definancialisation and Democratisation, published by Cambridge University Press.
• Edith Kuiper for A Herstory of Economics, published by Polity.