Membership Meeting Minutes

5. Working Groups  (Susan Newman: newman@iss.nl)

Susan Newman conducted an audit of working groups to ascertain the level of activity and commitment of working group coordinators. As a result, a small number of working groups have been closed down. One of these has been replaced by the Conflict, War and Development working group that will be coordinated by Niels Hahn. Robin de la Motte has stepped down as coordinator of the Environmental working group. Susan is currently searching for a replacement from active members of the group. Working group coordinators have been encouraged to draft call for papers for WG panels at Naples 2014. The full list of current WGs can be found in the latest issue of IIPPE in brief.

Other working group news include a new working paper series from the poverty working group.

6. Newsletter – Susan Newman

Issue 9 of IIPPE in Brief has now been circulated. There was no spring/summer issue for 2013 owing to difficulties in finding editorial support at a time when Susan was heavily commited to the organisation of the Hague conference. Susan will now be joined by Hannah Bargawi to take on shared responsibility for the newsletter. Serap Saritas and Florian Shaefer (both PhD students at SOAS) have also joined the editorial team. The team are currently discussing the way forward for the newsletter. A priority is to step up the quality and depth of the content.

7. External Relations Officer

We are glad to announce IIPPE’s new External Relations Officer who is Ewa Karwoski (ek12@soas.ac.uk) of SOAS. She replaces Daniela Tavasci who has stepped down.

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Hague Conference IIPPE Membership Meeting Minutes

The Hague IIPPE Conference was a big success in all respects: it was the biggest conference organised by IIPPE alone (the Paris conference which was bigger was a joint conference) with about 360 paper submissions, about 250 participants from more than 30 countries and 6 continents and 70 parallel sessions. We want to thank very much Susan Newman, Peter van Bergeijk and their team of local organisers at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of the Erasmus University who have done a magnificent job in organising this conference. Also our many thanks go to Al Cambpell and Maria Dafnomili for putting together our conference programme with efficiency and skill.

There were three plenaries all related to the theme of the conference: Political Economy, Activism and Alternative Economic Strategies. The first one had Susan George, the well-known writer and activist, as keynote speaker with Bridget O’Laughlin of ISS as discussant. The other two plenaries were on the theme of the conference both in Europe and Outside Europe with academic representatives of political parties in Europe (the Netherlands, Germany and Greece) and Stuart Holland on Europe in the first plenary, and with speakers on China, South Africa and Venezuela in the second plenary. This conference had two important innovations. One was the one day Training Workshop which was organised one day prior to the conference and was very successful with about 50 people attending, and the discussions during the lunch break on themes such as the comparison of the Turkish and the Brazilian revolts, and the International Moscow Economic Forum.  At the conference there were representatives from many other organisations such as the European Progressive Economists Network, the EuroMemo Group, the Brazilian Association of Political Economy, and the Russian International Moscow Economic Forum.

1. Amended Constitution (Kate Bayliss, kb6@soas.ac.uk)

Our amended constitution has been voted with only one abstention.  There was one further amendment proposed which was rejected.  Our thanks to Kate Bayliss who has done most of the recent work. With the new constitution, once the officers are elected, IIPPE will become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) registered in the UK. It was agreed that the elections will be held through e-voting by Christmas (see below item 9). 

2. IIPPE 2014 Conference (Pietro Masina, pietro.masina@gmail.com and Michela Cemirele, michela.cerimele@gmail.com)

The 2014 IIPPE Conference will be hosted by the L’Orientale University in Naples, Italy. We have already cooperated with L’Orientale University in the past. They organised our Second International Research Workshop in Political Economy in Procida with great success. The conference will be held in the third week of September. Tentative dates are 16-18 September 2014 (Tuesday-Thursday). The Conference theme will be “The Crisis: Scholarship, Polices, Conflicts and Alternatives”

Pietro Masina will lead the Conference Local Organising Committee together with Michela Cemirele. Alfredo Saad Filho (as59@soas.ac.uk), Al Campbell (al@economics.utah.edu) and Niels Hahn (nh40@soas.ac.uk) will form the Conference Programme Committee. Alfredo will draft a Call for Papers which will be circulated soon.

3. IIPPE Annual Conference 2015

One tentative suggestion has been made for the 2015 IIPPE Conference to be held in Berlin with Trevor Evans taking the lead.

4. Political Economy Training Workshop

(Simon Mohun: s.mohun@qmul.ac.uk and Elisa van Waeyenberge: ew23@soas.ac.uk)

Two Training Workshops have been organized so far this year, a two day Workshop in March in London (with about 70 participants) and a one day Workshop in the Hague, one day prior to the conference (with about 50 participants). Both were very successful with positive responses from participants, and many suggestions for the future. We therefore are planning to expand our activities over the next year. We have tentatively scheduled a two-day event in London in March 2014, and will be investigating the possibilities of training workshops in the North of England (Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester conurbation) and internationally in Berlin, Paris, and The Hague.

5. Working Groups (Susan Newman: newman@iss.nl)

Working groups provide much of the intellectual content of IIPPE. We currently have 22 Working Groups which are more or less active. Working groups have been active in organising panels/streams at each of the IIPPE Conferences. This year 11 working groups organised panels for the conference which is the highest number ever: These include the Financialisation, the Neoliberalism, the Social Capital, the Political Economy of Institutions, the Urban and Regional Development Political Economy, the Marxist Political Economy, the Poverty, the Privatisation, the Marxist Dependency Theory, the Environmental and the Minerals Energy Complex/Comparative Industrialisation Working Groups. Thanks to the coordinators of these Working Groups for their work. Also the European Progressive Economists Network and the EuroMemo Group co-organised two very successful panels. We want to thank them very much for their cooperation.

Also we are in the middle of an effort to sort things out especially with Working Groups that  have been inactive for sometime in the direction of their becoming active again or, if not, of discontinuing their functioning. Also it was agreed that there will be a separate meeting of Working Group Coordinators in our annual conference starting with Naples.

6. IIPPE newsletter (Susan Newman and Hannah Bargawi, hb19@soas.ac.uk)

The IIPPE Newsletter comes out twice a year. It is currently being edited by Susan Newman. Hannah Bargawi has agreed to become the co-editor.

We welcome contributions for the next Newsletter which will come out in November. Please send calls for papers, announcements, short opinion pieces and summaries of research to newman@iss.nl or hb19@soas.ac.uk or iippe@soas.ac.uk.

7. IIPPE Finances (Ben Fine: bf@soas.ac.uk)

IIPPE currently enjoys an accumulated surplus of about 5000 Euros, derived from a number of small sources not least membership fees over the past two conferences. Following the passing of our amended constitution and with the election of our officers and the appointment of a Treasurer, IIPPE’s finances will be regularised with its own bank account, etc.

8. Pluto/IIPPE book series on “Political Economy and Development”.

(Editors: Ben Fine and Dimitris Milonakis, d.milonakis@uoc.gr)

The fourth volume of our series is out. Details at http://www.iippe.org/wiki/IIPPE_Book_Series

We welcome proposals for new volumes, particularly those that are not focused on development to give the Series a wider ethos than currently.

9. IIPPE Officers Elections Committee

In addition to Heesang Jeon (hidarang@gmail.com), Alexander Abreu (alexjabreu@gmail.com), Al Campbell (al@economics.utah.edu) and Aberlando Marina (abmf60@me.com) who were elected at the 2012 HM Conference IIPPE Membership Meeting, another two members have been added to the Committee, Jan Toporowski (jt29@soas.ac.uk) and Lucia Pradella (lucia.pradella@unive.it).

It was agreed that an attempt will be made to hold the elections electronically by Christmas. The Elections Preparatory Committee has already done a feasibility check of the Helios System a few months ago and, as Heesang Yeon reports, has concluded that this service is suitable for our use. It is a free but highly secure e-voting service.

10. International Moscow Economic Forum Conference 2014 (Alexander Buzgalin, buzgalin@mail.ru)

It was agreed that, in the context of our cooperation, IIPPE will be a Supporting Organisation of next year’s Conference of the International Moscow Economic Forum which will take place in Moscow in March 2014. Also the event will be advertised in our website and our Newsletter and IIPPE members are encouraged to participate and present papers. Local organisers can cover part of participants’ expenses.

11. IIPPE Interim Coordinator (Dimitris Milonakis, d.milonakis@uoc.gr)

Dimitris Milonakis has been re-elected as the IIPPE Interim Coordinator until the governing bodies of IIPPE according to its amended constitution, the Executive Committee and the Council, have been elected.

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HM Conference IIPPE Membership Meeting Minutes (9/11/12)

1. In accordance with IIPPE constitution, it has been decided that

1. the membership fee is statutory and
2. it is fixed at 30 euros (or 25 British Pounds) for senior members and 15 Euros (12 British Pounds) for students and unwaged.
3. It has also been decided that anyone who wishes can remain or be added to our mailing list without becoming a full member.

2. An “IIPPE Elections Preparatory Committee”

has been set up with its main function being to investigate and recommend the best way to conduct the elections for the IIPPE bodies which will take place in 2013 (in particular to explore the technical feasibility of e-voting) and do all the necessary preparations (technical or otherwise).The following were voted as Members of the Committee: Alex Abreu (alexjabreu@gmail.com), Al Campbell (al@economics.utah.edu), Heesang Yeon (hidarang@gmail.com) (with Abelurdo Marina [abmf60@me.com] as substitute)

3. Hague 2013 Conference, 9-12 July

The Call for Papers is out.Local Organising Committee:  Susan Newman (newman@iss.nl), Peter van Bergeijk (bergeijk@iss.nl)

Conference Programme Committee: Al Campbell (al@economics.utah.edu) Maria Dafnomili (M.dafnomili@mdx.ac.uk)

4. Working Groups

It was decided that a letter should be sent to all IIPPE WGs coordinators in an attempt to promote the activities of Working Groups and reactivate those which have recently been inactive, both generally and in relation to the upcoming IIPPE Hague conference: Susan Newman (newman@iss.nl)

5. 2013 IIPPE Summer Workshop in Political Economy

Following last summer’s success it was decided that another Summer Workshop will be held in 2013. The time and place will be announced once known: Simon Mohun (s.mohun@qmul.ac.uk), Elisa van Waeyenberge (ew23@soas.ac.uk)

6. IIPPE finances

Kate Bayliss (kb6@soas.ac.uk) has been voted to act as temporary Treasurer until a Treasurer is properly elected in the upcoming IIPPE elections.

7. 2014 IIPPE conference

Although the 2014 conference was decided to be held in Lisbon with Alex Abreu (alexjabreu@gmail.com) in the lead, there have been some unforeseen complications which make this possibility uncertain at this point. We will know for sure next January. Failing this, another possibility suggested by Alex is Coimbra in Portugal again. Because of the uncertainty at this stage we would welcome any other possible suggestions. If you have any such suggestions please contact the IIPPE Coordinator Dimitris Milonakis (d.milonakis@uoc.gr)

8. IIPPE official status

Paul Hudson to investigate the best option for IIPPE to adopt (e.g. Educational Trust, Charity etc.). If you have any suggestions please contact  Ben Fine (bf@soas.ac.uk) in first instance if not having done so already.

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Minutes of the 21st May Meeting at Joint IIPPE AHE FAPE Paris 2012 CONFERENCE

1. Dates of the Paris 2012 conference: 5 to 8th of July 2012

2. Title: Political Economy and the Outlook for Capitalism.

3. Conference Venue

The conference will be hosted by the University of Paris 1 “Panthéon-Sorbonne”. The University is located in many different places of Paris but the conference will take place in the 13th arrondissement (south east of Paris) close to the underground stations “Bibliothèque François Mitterrand” and “Olympiades” (line 14) and “Tolbiac” (line 7).

We will use two buildings:

• one for parallel sessions (10 rooms) and lunches
• another one for plenaries: two theatres of 400 places

Both places are 10 minutes walk from one another.

4. Three Conference Committees

• Local organisation committee: Composed by FAPE members but also one representative each from IIPPE and AHE.
• Conference Programme Committee: composed of 2 colleagues of each Association. The names will be decided at the AHE Nottingham conference (6–9 July 2011).
• Scientific Committee: each Association will propose names. Total number to be decided.

5. Supporting Organisations and Journals

will be able to organise panels and to appoint one member to the Scientific Committee. This will be coordinated by Daniela Tavasci (dt28@soas.ac.uk). There are already two of them:

• GDRI DREEM (Développement des recherches économiques euro-méditerranéennes) Euro-Mediterranean Economic Research Development headed by El Mouhoub Mouhoud em.mouhoud@dauphine.fr

http://gdri.dreem.free.fr

• GDRE “Monnaie Banque Finance” European Research Network on Money, Banking and Finance head by Jean-Bernard Chatelain Jean-Bernard.Chatelain@univ-paris1.fr

http://www.univ-orleans.fr/deg/GDRecomofi/

6. Funding already secured:

• 6000 € from the Region
• 5000 € from the University of Paris 1
• 2000 € from the University of Paris 13
• 13000 €

7. Call for papers

Still in progress, to be finalised at the AHE Nottingham conference

8. Bilbao Conference

The colleagues of the Bilbao Conference which is normally held in early July have been informed of the date in order to avoid possible clash.

9. Fees

Design a system with a significant discount rate for those who pay in advance.

10. Publications

Revue de la Régulation

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Istanbul Conference Membership Meeting Minutes

The Second International Conference in Political Economy co-organised by the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE), the Turkish Social Sciences Association (TSSA) and Istanbul University was a huge success. With only nine months from our previous conference in Crete to prepare, it still managed to attract a large number of participants with about 170 papers presented (30 more than in Crete), showing that IIPPE is becoming more and more established and more visible as a major forum for political economy. 100 of these papers have been uploaded on our website. There were representatives from more than 30 countries, mostly from Europe but also from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Iran, Taiwan, Bangkok, Tunisia, South Africa etc. The conference was very well organized in all respects, with local organisers having done a splendid job.

1. The Joint 2012 Conference

The joint 2012 Conference to be co-organised by IIPPE, the Association of Heterodox Economics (AHE) and the French Association of Political Economy (FAPE) was discussed. It will be held in Paris (University of Paris 1 “Panthéon-Sorbonne”) between 5-8th of July 2012. The theme of the conference is to be: “Political Economy and the Outlook for Capitalism”. The aim is to make it a major event and bring together scholars from all strands of political economy in order to discuss the future of political economy and heterodox economics and the recent developments in the global economy and in economic science following the global economic crisis. Next meeting of the interim conference committee will take place at the AHE Nottingham conference, 6-9th of July.

We also discussed the 2013 Conference. We are exploring two possibilities: the Hague in the Netherlands with Susan Newman and Berlin with Trevor Evans as points of contact.

2. Political economy summer/spring school

Simon Mohun proposes to organise a one or two day summer/spring school. One possibility is next spring in London.

Contact: Simon Mohun (s.mohun@qmul.ac.uk )

3. Publication Outlets for papers from our conferences

We have had an offer from the International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy to publish two special issues related to the conference. And about twenty papers will be published later this year. IIPPE is arranging a similar initiative this year and we hope to publish as many papers.

Contact: Daniela Tavasci (dt28@soas.ac.uk )

Also the Revue de la Régulation would welcome publications from the IIPPE conference. Papers should be sent both to regulation@revues.org and to agnes.labrousse@u-picardie.fr.

Contact: Agnès Labrousse ([mailto:agnes.labrousse@u-picardie.fr agnes.labrousse@u-picardie.fr)

4. Working Groups

So far, activities that have been organised by IIPPE working groups include workshops, panels at conferences, online debates and exchange of literature and other resources.

There are 18 working groups on paper; some are more active than others and some are currently inactive, and we would welcome initiatives to revive these. There is also considerable collaboration between scholars across working groups.

Recent achievements of working groups

• Beyond the Development State WG: Daniela, Jyoti and Ben are working on an edited volume that will soon be completed and published as part of the IIPPE book series with Pluto
• The Financialisation WG have organized an excellent working paper series with some very high quality contributions some to be published in one of the special issues of International Journal of Management Concept and Philosophy this fall.
• The Socialism and Urban and Regional Political Economy WGs organised panels at the conference.

The full list of existing working groups is available at www.iippe.org. Please contact individual WG coordinators, iippe@soas.ac.uk or newman@iss.nl if you wish to join a working group or start a new one.

5. Newsletter

This comes out twice a year and includes announcements of publications and upcoming events, news of IIPPE activities and short-opinion pieces. It is published online and we usually distribute print copies in November at the HM conference.

The last issue came out in November 2010 and we are currently looking for short contributions (300 words) for the next newsletter that should be out by July. Please send contributions to newman@iss.nl and/or iippe@soas.ac.uk.

Susan is also looking for someone to share editorial responsibilities for the newsletter. Those interested to contact her at newman@iss.nl.

6. External Relations

IIPPE has already established working relations with many international and national political economy groups and organisations. These include the associations of Heterodox Economics, the French Association of Political Economy (with both of which we are co-organising next year’s conference), the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, the EuroMemorandum group (they organised a panel at this year’s conference), the Greek Association of Political Economy (which co-organised last year’s conference in Crete), the Turkish Social Sciences Association (which co-organised this year’s conference), the Brazilian Political Economy association and the Russian Political Economy group (the latter co-organised two panels with the Socialism Working group at this year’s conference).

Contact: Daniela Tavasci (dt28@soas.ac.uk )

7. Pluto/IIPPE Book Series on “Political Economy and Development”

The second book in the series “Political Economy of Development: the World Bank, Neoliberalism and Development Research” edited by Kate Bayliss, Ben Fine and Elisa van Waeyenberge was successfully launched at the conference. The third one “Beyond the Developmental State: Industrial Policy into the 21st Century”, edited by Daniela Tavasci, Jyoti Saraswati and Ben Fine is in the pipeline.

More proposals are needed.

Contact: Ben Fine (bf@soas.ac.uk) and Dimitris Milonakis (milonakis@econ.soc.uoc.gr)

8. Membership

The IIPPE mailing list now includes about 800 names

Contact: Heesang Jeon (hidarang@gmail.com)

9. World Economics Association

The World Economics Association was launched in May based on the principles of plurality and global democracy. This will be followed by the launch of two new journals in addition to the already existing “Real World Economics Review”. IIPPE will explore ways of liaising with them. In the meantime we urge our members to become members of the Association. Membership is free. For more details see http://worldeconomicsassociation.org/

10. Constitution

Discussion of the constitution was postponed until the HM conference in November.
Contact: Alex Abreu (alexjabreu@gmail.com)

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IIPPE Membership Meeting Minutes (held at the HM Conference, Friday 11 November 2010)

1. Attendance

about 25 people

2. 2011 IIPPE Conference in Istanbul, May 20-2.

IIPPE’s Second International Conference in Political Economy will be organised in association with the Turkish Social Sciences Association (TSSA) and the Istanbul University Research Center For Global Politics Administration (GLOPAR) at Istanbul University, Beyazit, between 20-22 May, 2011.

Theme of the conference “Neoliberalism and the Crises of Economic Science”

Call for papers is already out.

The conference is only six months away, with the deadline for submissions of abstracts and session proposals only three months away (15 February), so we need to act promptly in order to make it a success.

• Publicity (Daniela Tavasci): Call for papers has already been sent to all our members and to all our other lists and institutions.
• Working groups/streams (Susan Newman): The role of working groups in organising streams played a vital role for the success of the Crete conference. Susan to chase working groups coordinators, some are more active than others, but this should not stop other individuals from organising sessions or streams. If anybody wants to start a working group can do so by emailing us with a proposal following the main guidelines listed on the website. We have about 800 members and we can invite them to follow your working group. A good way is to organise a stream for the conference to see how many people may be interested in your idea.
• Funding (Elisa van Waeyenberge, Hannah Bargawi, Galip Yalman): There is an application to the British Academy to pay for travel and accommodation for invited speakers. Also our Turkish colleagues are looking for potential sources of funding in Turkey.
• Scientific Committee: Simon Mohun, Hannah Bargawi, Marco Boffo, Ben Fine, Heesang Jeon, Jo Michell (interchangeably with Nina Kaltenbrunner), Dimitris Milonakis, Susan Newman, Alfredo Saad-Filho, Daniela Tavasci, Korkut Boratav, Oktar Turel, Erinc Yeldan, Galip Yalman, Gulay Gunluk Senesen, Fuat Ercan, Sedat Aybar, Izzettin Onder, Sabri Oncu, Ahmet Hasim Kose, Erol Taymaz, Pinar Bedirhanoglu, Sermin Sarıca, Nuray Ergunes
• Chair of the Scientific Committee: Simon Mohun
• Local Organising Committee: Galip Yalman, Fuat Ercan, Sermin Sarıca, Nuray Ergunes, Kivanc Ulusoy, Pinar Bedirhanoglu, Hakan Mihci, Omur Birler, Aysegul Yakar Onal, Sezai Temelli, Ahmet Bekmen

3. Political Economy School/Workshop:

Alfredo Saad-Filho and Simon Mohun in association with Elisa van Waeyenberge are working on the idea of a day school/workshop in political economy targeted mostly at students which might take place either just before the conference or at a different time and place, with London sometime in April being one possibility. Details will be announced once fixed.

4. IIPPE 2012 Conference

One possibility which will be explored is to hold a joint conference in Paris with the Association of Heterodox Economics and the French Association of Political Economy. The idea is make it a big event where we can discuss the future of political economy and heterodox economics.

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Crete Conference Business Meeting Minutes

The First International Conference in Political Economy co-organised by the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) and the Greek Scientific Association of Political Economy was a huge success. It proved to be a very interesting and stimulating experience in all respects and for all involved. The numbers well exceeded our expectations with 140 papers presented. Almost one hundred of these have been uploaded on our website. There were representatives from more than 20 countries, mostly from Europe but also from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Japan, South Korea, India, Turkey, Kenya and South Africa. About 40 papers were directly related to the theme of the conference. The format with three plenaries and no keynote addresses proved to be successful as the plenaries attracted large numbers of people (the first one, on Friday, was attended by 180-200 people) and created fruitful discussions. The quality of the papers was generally very good with many interesting new findings, both theoretical and applied.

1. 2011 IIPPE Conference

IIPPE’s Second International Conference in Political Economy will be held at Istanbul University, Beyazit, 20-22 of May, 2011. Theme of the conference: “Neoliberalism and the Crises of Economic Science” We also discussed the 2012 Conference. We will explore the possibility of co-organising this one with the French Association somewhere in France with another option being somewhere in Holland.

2. Pluto/IIPPE Book Series on “Political Economy and Development”

edited by Ben Fine (bf@soas.ac.uk) and Dimitris Milonakis (milonakis@econ.soc.uoc.gr) has taken off the ground with one book already in print by Ben Fine “Theories of Social Capital: Researchers Behaving Badly”, and two more edited volumes on development issues already in the pipeline. More proposals are needed.

3. Publication outlets for papers from our workshops and conferences

The special issue in Spectrum from the Ankara workshop has now been published with Faruk Yalmaç as editor. The special issue of the Forum for Social Economics with Guest Editor Dimitris Milonakis and with 8 articles drawn chiefly, but not exclusively, from the Procida workshop is in the final stages of preparation and will appear in 2012.

Several ideas were put forward about possible themes for special issues with articles drawn from the Crete conference (including one on systems of accumulation) and possible outlets have been identified (including Capital and Class, Economy and Society, Historical Materialism, and other journals). Expressions of interest in publishing individual articles and editing special issues are welcome.

Contact: Alfredo Saad Filho (as59@soas.ac.uk).

4. Working Groups

The conference was based to a large extent on streams and sessions organised by working groups (WGs) where some WGs did a fantastic job. These include the finance WG (5 panels), system of accumulation (5 panels), value (5 panels), political economy of work (3 panels), development (1 panel), environment (1 panel), social capital (1 panel), privatisation (1 panel), migration (1 panel), socialism (2 panels), public finance and welfare (1 panel), urban and regional political economy (1 panel). In addition to these, there were also four panels and two plenaries on the theme of the conference, of which one panel and one plenary on the Greek crisis. Last, there was one panel on the political economy of Turkey and another two on Greek poverty, one on critique of mainstream economics and one on applied political economy.

There are currently 18 IIPPE working groups, with some more active than others. All need to establish more permanent activity through the organization of thematic day conferences, working paper series etc., in addition to organising panels for our annual conference.

Contact: Susan Newman PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS (susanamynewman@googlemail.com).

5. Membership

The IIPPE mailing list now includes about 700 names and is currently managed using Microsoft Excel. We plan to use an open-source tool to manage our membership database and the mailing list.

Contact: Heesang Jeon (hidarang@gmail.com)

6. Website

The IIPPE web site is powered by MediaWiki, an open-source tool and the engine of Wikipedia. Currently, we have 100 pages about working groups, announcements, conference/workshops and so on. So far, about 250 files have been uploaded, most of which are papers for IIPPE research workshops/conference (86 papers from the Crete conference). WG coordinators are given edit rights and can create new pages about WG activities.

Up to now, our focus has been on building the web site and adding necessary content. Now is the time to think about enhancing the graphic design. We welcome contributions from members who have visual design capabilities.

Contact: Heesang Jeon (hidarang@gmail.com) and Satoshi Miyamura (sm97@soas.ac.uk)

7. External relations – country representatives

We need to extend and deepen our relations with other Institutions and organisations. The co-organisation of the first conference with the Greek Association was a move in this direction, as was the invitation to Cristina Marcuzzo who was the ex-president of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET). We are already exploring possibilities for further cooperation with ESHET. Similarly with the French Association with which, as mentioned already, we are exploring the possibility of co-organising the 2012 conference. After our conference, another conference of the EuroMemorandum group was held in Rethymno and we discussed with them the possibility of mutual cooperation.

We need more country representatives especially from European countries. So far we have representatives in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Belgium, S. Africa, S. Korea and Brazil.

Contact: Daniela Tavasci (dt28@soas.ac.uk).

8. IIPPE Newsletter

The next issue of the IIPPE Newsletter will appear in November. We are looking for short pieces (300-500 words) on any issue of political economy and current economic developments.

Contact: Susan Newman PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS (susanamynewman@googlemail.com).

9. Constitution – Elections

Two versions of the constitution were presented, one with membership sovereignty and one with working group sovereignty. The issue of fees was also discussed. There was a suggestion for the election of a Council who would run the organisation together with the Executive Committee, rather than the secretariat which would still exist. The question of voting for the Executive Committee and the Council every two years rather than every year was also raised. The timetable is for a final decision on the constitution to be taken at the IIPPE meeting at the HM conference, and for the first elections to take place around the next IIPPE conference in Istanbul. The discussion on the statutes will continue until the HM conference. You can find the two versions of the statutes at the IIPPE website and any comments should be directed to Alex Abreu (alexjabreu@gmail.com)

Other possibilities are:

• the Hague in Holland (Susan Newman has already done some preliminary exploration and the first signs are encouraging),
• Berlin (Simon Mohun and Ozlem Onaran to liaise with Trevor Evans),
• Turin (John Haskel to investigate).

5. Issue no 5 of the Newsletter is out.

If anybody wants to contribute to the next issue s/he can contact Susan Newman

6. Constitution

The discussion of the constitution was postponed due to lack of time. So far we have the two original versions and some new amendments by Irini Sotiropoulou, George Lambrinidis and Ferda Donmez. Alex Abreu will draft a new version on the basis of what we have at hand and final decisions will be taken at a special meeting at the Istanbul conference.