AHE 2025 Conference: Call for Papers

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Call for Papers for the 27th Annual Conference of the Association of Heterodox Economics (AHE)

18-20 June 2025

at King’s College London (Waterloo Campus)

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Deadline for papers and panels: February 14th 2025

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We invite submissions of papers and panels for the 27th Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics, taking place on June 18-20, 2025 at King’s College, London (Waterloo Campus), in London (UK). This is an event organised in collaboration with the Department of International Development at King’s College London. 

The AHE conference seeks to support scholarship, reflection, and debate on innovative and diverse heterodox and radical understandings of the global political economy. In the midst of multiple crises, including environmental breakdown, genocide, mental health crises, rise of authoritarianism, and crises of social reproduction, heterodox and radical approaches to economics and political economy are crucial for grappling with the challenges we face. We welcome submissions that challenge conventional economic paradigms, offer alternative frameworks for understanding and navigating these complex crises, and actively work towards radical social change.

We have a series of streams running this year that you can submit your papers and/or panels to. You can see a full overview of the streams below. Please read the stream description carefully before submitting.

Paper submission 

Submit abstracts for individual papers (max 300 words) by February 14th 2025 and be a part of the dialogue shaping the future of heterodox economics. We particularly encourage applications from underrepresented groups in the economics discipline including, but not limited to women, people of colour, scholars from the Global South. Limited travel support is available for selected early career scholars from the Global North and South. Early career scholars include PhD students as well as those who received their PhD no more than 2 years prior to the date of the conference and are not currently in a full-time, tenured position. When submitting your abstract, please indicate if you would like to be considered for the bursaries. Submit your paper here.

Panel submission 

A panel typically consists of 3-4 presentations on a similar theme, but we are also open to panel submissions in non-standard formats (e.g. round table or workshop). Submit your panel here.

Fred Lee Prize

If you are an early career researcher and interested in having your paper considered for the Fred Lee Early Career Prize, please indicate this on the paper submission form. You will be asked to send your full paper by May 1st, 2025 with the subject line “Early career prize submission” at heteconevents@gmail.com. Eligible scholars for the prize include PhD students as well as those who received their PhD no more than 2 years prior to the date of the conference and are not currently in a full-time, tenured position.

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Overview of Streams

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From Factory Floors to Economic Prosperity: Role of Manufacturing in the Development of Global South 

Stream coordinators: Amr Khafagy and Bhabani Nayak

Industrialisation remains the primary driver of development and growth, with the manufacturing sector contributing to two-thirds of the observed growth episodes over the past fifty years (UNIDO, 2024). Manufacturing-led growth is generally more sustainable and yields more equitable outcomes compared to other sectors. However, the size of the manufacturing sector has been declining in nearly all countries. While deindustrialisation may be an expected outcome for high-income economies after achieving advanced levels of industrialization, premature deindustrialisation has constrained the growth potential of underdeveloped economies and deepened core-periphery dependencies. Moreover, with the rapid degradation of the environment, the Global South faces increasing pressure to balance the goals of degrowth with the necessities of industrialisation which is crucial for development and economic sovereignty. This stream seeks to attract both theoretical and policy-oriented submissions that address the challenges of industrial development in underdeveloped economies. We welcome contributions that critically examine the following topics, though the panel is open to other relevant themes as well: 

• Industrial Policy and National Strategies: Analysis of national strategies that have succeeded or failed in promoting the growth of manufacturing capacities. 
• Degrowth and Industrialisation: Exploring the balance between the legitimate industrial ambitions of underdeveloped economies and environmental concerns, including the impact of ecologically unequal exchange on resource depletion and the deindustrialization of peripheral economies. 
• Premature Deindustrialisation: Investigating the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to premature deindustrialisation in the Global South. 
• Centre-Periphery Relationships: Examining how political and economic dependencies shape industrial capacities in peripheral economies. 
• Extractive Industries, Metabolic Rift and Nature: Evaluating the role of extractive industries (e.g., mining) in perpetuating economic dependence. 
• Technological Dependence and Development: Assessing the impact of reliance on foreign technology on domestic industries and exploring strategies to achieve greater technological autonomy.

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Global Production/Finance and Labour

Stream coordinators: Ewa Karwowski and Samuel Moore

This is a multidisciplinary stream centering around critical political economy and focusing on the dynamics and interactions of global production, labour, money and finance in a globalised and unequal world economy characterized by hierarchies and recurring social and economic crises. We are particularly interested in the dynamics of contemporary capitalism, specifically the processes of financialisation, global production networks and value chains and labour relations and regimes in distinct countries, across regions and periods, (spatial) processes of capital accumulation and overlapping inequalities, and their implications for development.

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History of Heterodox Economics

Stream coordinators: Danielle Guizzo and Marco Vianna Franco

This stream warmly welcomes submissions on any aspect of the history of heterodox economics, notably (but not limited to): 

• the history of heterodox ideas, debates, concepts and wider economic thought; 
• the history of the marginalisation or dissemination of heterodox economics; 
• intellectual histories of individual heterodox economists or communities; 
• the history of the professionalisation of heterodox economists; 
• the relationship between heterodox economics and policy seen through a historical perspective; 
• heterodox economics or economists in the media seen through a historical perspective •        the history of heterodox economics education and teaching; 
• any historical aspect related to the scientific production of heterodox knowledge or dissemination 

We welcome a diversity of methods of inquiry, data, and schools of thought or perspectives.

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Imperialism and Dependency in the 21st Century

Stream coordinator: Fabio de Oliveira Maldonado

More than two decades into the 21st century, there is a renewed interest in the relationships between imperialism and dependency. This interest has not only gained fresh momentum in universities and institutions in underdeveloped countries but has also been reintroduced into research agendas at universities and institutions in developed countries. This stream aims to bring together research dedicated to understanding the contemporary manifestations of imperialism and dependency across their economic, social, political, and environmental dimensions. Issues such as financialization, the role of transnational corporations, the hyper-concentration and centralisation of the Economy 4.0, environmental exploitation, and the perpetuation or deepening of global inequalities are examined in their relation to the dynamics of imperialism and dependency. In this context, the stream seeks to foster theoretical reflections that engage both with classical readings and with recent perspectives on imperialism and dependency, including their derivative categories and analytical developments. This stream proposes to explore the following questions: 

• How can imperialism be defined in the 21st century? 
• How can dependency be defined in the 21st century? 
• How should the role of intermediate economies in the 21st century be characterised? Are they sub-imperialist, multipolar alternatives, or expressions of intensified inter-imperialist rivalries? 
• What are the dynamics of financial capital in the relationship between imperialism and dependency? 
• In what ways does the Economy 4.0 deepen the subordinate position of dependent countries in the international division of labour? 
• What is the impact of imperialist dynamics on global ecological collapse? 
• How do contemporary forms of imperialism and dependency interact with issues of race, gender, and class, both in imperialist and dependent countries? 

Thus, this stream aims to contribute to the deepening of debates on imperialism and dependency, with both practical and theoretical implications for the critique of political economy and its role in understanding and overcoming the challenges currently facing humanity.

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International Financial Subordination 

Stream coordinators: Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo, Bruno Bonizzi, Carla Coburger, Aissata Diallo, Annina Kaltenbrunner, Kai Koddenbrock and Jeff Powell

The global monetary and financial system is a hierarchical system characterised by the relations of power, dependency, and domination. Ultimately, these manifest themselves as value transfers and constraints on agency of those actors operating in subordinate spaces. Since the establishment of the “international financial subordination” research agenda, an emerging literature has sought to uncover specific manifestations of subordination. Contributions are highly interdisciplinary, drawing on economic geographers and sociologists’ focus on the spatially and socially variegated financial practices, scholars of critical macro-finance’s work on institutional and policy configurations as well as existing scholarship on dependency theory and structuralism. Nevertheless, more work is needed to investigate specific financial relations, practices and mechanisms which constitute the concrete reality of financial subordination. Furthermore, the evolving international context, with a resurgence of forms of “state capitalism”, the fragility of multilateral institutions and the restructuring of global production into “resilient” value chains, is reshaping existing forms of financial subordination. This stream invites contributions from a range of perspectives and methodological approaches. We particularly welcome contributions that explore the following issues: 

1. Manifestations and Drivers of Financial Subordination: What are the specific manifestations of financial subordination? How do macro-variables combine with micro mechanisms to generate subordination? 
2. The Historical and Contemporary Evolution of International Financial Subordination: What is the historical development of this process? How is it changing in the evolving international context since the COVID pandemic? 
3. Value, Class and Distribution: What are the underlying class dynamics that produce and reproduce the global financial dynamics we observe? How is value captured and distributed in the context of financial subordination? 
4. Finance and Production: How is financial subordination in developing economies linked to their real integration into international production networks? In what way does monetary and financial subordination favour corporations centred in core capitalist economies? 
5. Struggles to overcome international financial subordination: How have governments and movements in the Global South tried to overcome the constraints imposed on them through international financial subordination by structurally transforming their economies, delinking from the world market or by building regional complementarities?

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New Technologies in Context: Socioeconomic Impacts and Dynamics of Technical Change

Stream coordinators: Juan Grigera and Elena Papagiannaki

In this dedicated stream we explore the disruptive role of emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, automation, and digital platforms, in reshaping economies, societies, and labour markets. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions addressing themes such as:

• The future of work and employment relations in the age of automation and artificial intelligence. 
• The impact of new technologies on the international division of labour and global value chains. 
• Blockchain technologies and their implications for economic governance and transactions.
• Digital labour platforms and their regulatory and socioeconomic challenges. 
• Broader implications of technical change for inequality, sustainability, and economic justice.

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Political Economy and Ecological Crisis: ‘Green’ Contradictions and Radical Alternatives 

Stream coordinators: Lorena Lombardozzi, Angus McNelly, and Marco Vianna Franco 

With 2024 on track to be the warmest year on record, confronting the contradictions inherent in the ecological crisis is more urgent than ever. Recent climate negotiations at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP), hosted by oil-producing Azerbaijan, which witnessed walk outs from developing countries, were heated and demonstrated the disputed and contradictory nature of tackling climate change. Exactly what the ecological crisis is; which components and associated feedback loops are more pressing (e.g. carbon emissions, biodiversity collapse, etc.); who decides what is (or not) to be done; and who the winners and losers will be are all hotly contested issues. Moreover, empirical evidence on the socio-economic impacts of the so-called green transition across different contexts remains scant. Bearing these elements in mind, this stream warmly welcomes contributions that address theoretical, critical, and practical aspects of how economies might be (re)conceptualised to avert or cope with the impending ecological crisis, especially from radical, heterodox, or interdisciplinary perspectives. We welcome a range of methodological approaches, including historical, critical, conceptual and applied. We also welcome empirical works including but not limited to: The role of the state and green industrial policy; global energy markets; the political economy of hydrocarbons;  green energy systems; financialisation and the de-risking state; green grabbing, green colonialism and/or green extractivism – the role of multilateral institutions in Green Transition; Ecofeminist, indigenous, and abolitionist movements ‘from below’; the distributional effects of green transition; and labour in the green transition. 

We encourage women, first-gen academics, people of colour, early-career scholars, and scholars based in the Global South to submit their work.

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Political Economy of Palestine

Stream coordinator: Luis Cortés and Gabriel Rivas

The ongoing genocidal violence in Gaza and the West Bank is part of a long-standing historical process of Palestinian expulsion and dispossession. This stream aims to critically examine various economic perspectives on the current crisis and its deeper historical roots. Depending on the range of topics and papers submitted, the stream could consist of a single panel or multiple panels. A panel will explore diverse concepts of settler-colonialism. These analyses may focus solely on Israel and Palestine or adopt a comparative approach, examining other settler-colonial societies, and the potential papers can discuss the economic characterization of these arrangements, the form in which they are profitable (or not), the property and financial relations implicit in them, amongst other topics. The discussion can also extend to the Nakba particularly, discussing its specificity or the form in which it is part of a more general process (such as primitive accumulation, for example). One potential panel will delve into the more recent economic structures of the Oslo Accords. The Palestinian Authority, its relationship with Israel. In this case, it will be encouraged to delve into the national difference, the way in which it is enforced institutionally, either through case studies (at a sectoral level, or in particular industries) or through other approaches, in order to intervene in the political debates on a one-state versus two-state solution. Another panel would investigate the economic processes involved in the ongoing genocide, or in connected political processes from an economic approach. Topics might include the weapons trade, the role of humanitarian aid, ecocide, the erosion of international humanitarian law by Western countries, and the role and effectiveness of international boycott campaigns targeting Israel. By foregrounding economic perspectives, this stream seeks to enrich the economic approaches on the subject, which has largely been dominated by more cultural and political narratives.

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Quantitative Political Economy

Stream coordinators: Tomas Rotta, José Coronado, Patrick Mokre, and Josephine Baker

This stream brings together papers that employ quantitative and computational methods within the field of Political Economy. It embraces a wide range of theoretical traditions, including (but not limited to) Marxian, Keynesian, Kaleckian, Sraffian, feminist, critical race theory, and radical ecology.

We encourage submissions on topics such as (but not limited to) development economics, ecological economics, inequality, exploitation, unequal exchange, colonialism, decolonialisation, imperialism, socialism, economic planning, innovation, and technical change.

We expect submissions to feature a substantial quantitative or computational component, such as mathematical modelling, simulations, econometrics, Bayesian statistics, entropy and info-metrics (information theory), input-output analysis, machine learning, network analysis, or artificial neural networks.

Submissions must be theoretically grounded in Political Economy.

We anticipate hosting at least two panels, each comprising four papers, but we warmly welcome additional submissions. 

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Social Studies in Economics: Sociology, Methodology, and Policy

Stream coordinators: Danielle Guizzo and Nastassia Harbuzova

This stream warmly welcomes submissions dealing with aspects of social studies in heterodox and critical economics from a sociological, methodological or policy-based perspective (including policy conceptions or conceptualisations, applications, and the politics of these processes).

We welcome papers dealing with the following topics (but not limited to): 

• Philosophical aspects or interpretations of economics;
• Economic methodology, including decolonising methodologies in economics;
• The fragmentation of the economics discipline;
• Criticisms to the mainstream and/or neoclassical economics, from the grounds of both theoretical works and policymaking practice;
• Bibliometric or network analysis studies in economics and related fields;
• The sociology of the economics discipline, academic communities, or heterodox economics; Political philosophies and critical social theory in economics;
• Discussions related to policy conceptions, applications or shortcomings from heterodox and mainstream approaches;
• Critical and comparative studies on policy experimentation and its potential to challenge mainstream approaches, tools and (policymaking) practices (with alternative solutions), including but not limited to: the analysis of the ongoing policy experiments, the role of politics in policy experimentation, and the challenges of evaluation and scaling-up of experimental policy solutions.

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The Changing Global Political Economy of Finance

Stream coordinators: Mona Ali, Nina Eichacker, Ann Davis, and Ramya Vijaya

This stream will invite papers addressing the systemic inequalities embedded in the global financial architecture and the forces of instability that are increasingly threatening its viability in its current form. Interconnected crises of sovereign debt burdens, climate finance along with new dynamics of resistance to globalization, increasing frequency of wars, and the rise of political parties of right-wing populism are challenging the existing political economy of global finance. The ongoing waves of debt distress from the COVID 19 crisis and the differential fiscal space available to countries in the global north versus the global south to manage crises have spurred debate about systemic global inequalities. From calls to reform the highly concentrated sovereign credit ratings industry to the new UN tax convention for international tax cooperation, there has been some momentum towards recognizing the need for an overhaul. At the same time countries, particularly in the global south continue to be confronted by the deeply entrenched austerity practices and conditionalities imposed through for example the IMF debt sustainability framework, and the current credit ratings methodologies that have yet to calibrate for climate financing and other longer term social infrastructure and fiscal space needs. Meanwhile the norms of free trade, which had been ascendant since 1945 are being increasingly challenged, with tariffs, protectionism, industrial policy, AI applications, and new forms of money like crypto and CBDCs. The primary sponsor of the global trading system and its key currency, the US, may also have less predictable policies with the incoming Trump administration, including corporate taxes, trade agreements, and climate change subsidies. The threats of instability will be an ongoing challenge to financial institutions and investment decisions. Such global economic instability may feed back into politics, undermining the resilience of indebted nation states and already fractured electorates.

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Feminist Economics 

Stream coordinators: Sheba Tejani, Ines Heck, Irina Herb, and Holly Isard

This stream explores feminist economic perspectives on the multiple and intensifying global crises reshaping economies and societies, including climate breakdown, genocidal violence, surging economic inequality, the erosion of democratic institutions and rise of authoritarian populism. These crises demand urgent rethinking of traditional economic frameworks, and feminist political economy provides critical tools for imagining and creating more equitable and sustainable futures. We welcome contributions on topics including but not limited to the following:

•  Conception, Pregnancy and Birth under Capitalism
• Feminist analyses of global crises including the gendered dimensions of climate breakdown, conflict and genocide
• Political ecology and environmental justice from feminist perspectives
• Care work and social reproduction
• Intersectional analyses of the labour market, informality and precarity
• Gender dimensions of trade, finance and global production networks
• Gender and macroeconomics
• Gender analyses of tax and fiscal policy
• Feminist activism and policy pathways for transformative change

 
Contributions may draw from diverse disciplines, methodologies, and geographic contexts, fostering a rich dialogue on transformative feminist praxis. We especially welcome contributions on conception, pregnancy and birth under capitalism which will be reviewed by Irina Herb and Holly Isard. 

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General Stream on Heterodox Economics

If you believe your submission does not fit on any of the above streams, you can submit to AHE’s general stream on heterodox economics.

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Please submit your paper here or your panel here.

The conference will be in-person only. 

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