YSI Pre-conference Workshop @ 11th Young Economists Conference, Vienna

The Chamber of Labor Vienna, the Chamber of Labor Upper Austria, the Austrian Society for Pluralist Economics together with INET’s Young Scholars Initiative host the 11th Young Economists Conference on October 7th and 8th 2022, Vienna.

YSI is preparing an exciting pre-conference program which will take place on October 6th, with workshops dedicated to scientific publishing, research methods and life after PhD and the job market.

YSI is generously supporting young researchers from the Global South with travel stipends.

The title of this year's conference is: ‘Political Economy of Power’, and among many other topics, it will address the urgent need for socio-ecological transformation.

Keynotes:

Anwar Shaikh: „Real Economic Analysis as a theoretical and empirical alternative to neoclassical and post Keynesian economics.”

Anwar Shaikh is one of the world’s leading heterodox economists, Professor of economics at the New School for Social Research in New York, and the author of „Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises”.

Alyssa Schneebaum: „Knowledge is Power: But Who has the Power to Produce Knowledge?”

Alyssa Schneebaum is a Professor at the Vienna University of Business and Economics’ department of heterodox economics and an expert in feminist, labor and inequality economics.

Thematic Scope of the Conference:

The COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent economic reshuffle, and the broader question of socio-ecological transformation put the issue of power front and center. Who decides how society and the economy will be transformed, and how can economists and social scientists ensure that the transformation will benefit the many and not the few? Not only the results of the reshuffle, but also the decision-making process will shape economy and society for decades to come.

The power dynamics that are central to the economic reality are often neglected in mainstream economic analyses. Research that leaves out the fundamentally unequal distribution of power – economic and political – fails to identify the decision set of the powerless, as well as action motives of the powerful. Especially when agents face crises and conflict, these omissions render economists powerless.

Can a thorough and multidimensional analysis of power structures shape a more realistic understanding of growth, crisis, and inequality? Can it also broaden our understanding of the gendered and racialized distribution of labor – productive and reproductive, unequal impacts of the climate crisis and differential stakes in socio-ecological transformation? We are convinced that a multi-disciplinary and pluralist approach is necessary to prepare societies in general, and the most affected parts of the population specifically, for the challenges ahead.