Members Meeting Minutes (Istanbul, 2011)

May 22, 2011, Istanbul University, Beyazit

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)