Institutions in Heterodox Economics

Institutions in Heterodox Economics

Major Associations in Heterodox Economics

Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE)

The Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) is an international organization of economists and other social scientists devoted to analysis of economics as evolving, socially constructed and politically governed systems.  AFEE publishes the Journal of Economic Issues (JEI).

The intellectual heritage of AFEE is that of the Original Institutional Economics (OIE) created and developed by early twentieth-century economists such as Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, and Wesley Mitchell. Over recent decades, this legacy has evolved to address such contemporary issues as:

  • The role of diverse cultures in economic performance.

  • Domestic and international inequalities of income.

  • The roles of social, economic and political power in shaping economic outcomes.

  • Globalization and the increasing weight of multinational corporations in the international economy.

  • The need for expanding use of modern technologies to relieve want.

  • The urgent need to for awareness of the impact of new technology on the biosphere.

  • The ways in which economic thought is affected by and affects always changing economics.

Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE)

The Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE) is a learned society which aims to promote open and tolerant debate in economics through a pluralist approach to theory, method, and ideology. The Association, and its membership, seek to promote heterodox economics and perspectives in the academic, governmental and private spheres of the discipline of economics.

The Association is primarily committed to pluralistic analyses of contemporary society and its alternatives. Researchers in the heterodox tradition work on many themes, including: sustainability; globalisation and geographical inequality; exploitation by social class, gender, ethnicity, religion or sexuality; the ethical basis for competing economic systems; the theory and history of economic crisis; the analysis of pricing, competitive processes and monopoly power; fundamental uncertainty; and finance, value and debt. The AHE also promotes the study of economic history and the history of economic thought, insofar as they have shaped the present economic system and our thinking about it. In exploring these themes members of the AHE accept and embrace the legitimacy of competing theoretical perspectives and recognise that a plurality of methods is required to provide a robust analysis of, and policy prescriptions for, the socio-economic system.

There are many traditions which make up contemporary economics – including neoclassical, Austrian, feminist, green, institutionalist, Marxian, post-Keynesian, radical and Sraffian economics. However, among these competing perspectives, one “mainstream” approach – neoclassical economics – has come to occupy a position of hegemonic domination. It is this domination which the AHE seeks to challenge, through dialogue between alternative perspectives. Heterodox economists in the non-neoclassical traditions are welcome to join the Association, as are neoclassical economists if their work reflects upon the plurality of perspectives which make up the contemporary economics discipline.

In more than ten years the AHE has established a reputation as a major national and international forum for the discussion of alternative economic perspectives and for the interdisciplinary and pluralist nature of its discussions. It also plays an on-going role in strengthening the community of heterodox economists and in the development of heterodox economic theories on various themes through the dissemination of ideas and arguments. For example, since the onset of the recent global financial crisis, heterodox economists have held neoclassical economics to account for its failure to predict and explain what has happened. The AHE has also been particularly vociferous in challenging the power structures of the profession in theUK, such as the Research Excellence Framework, the Royal Economic Society and the Association of Business Schools (ABS) ranking of economics journals. Finally, nationally and internationally, it has lobbied on issues such as pluralism in teaching, research and research evaluation, openness to innovation and creativity, and the policy stances of economists and decision-makers.

The annual AHE Conferences have been a particular feature of our Society. They have taken place at various British universities, as well as at Dublin City University (Ireland) and the University of Bordeaux (France). In addition the Association runs a Postgraduate Training Workshop – delivered by internationally renowned heterodox economists – which introduces graduate students to the pluralist methods which can be utilised to further our understanding of contemporary socio-economies.

The hetecon listserv (subscribe here) is owned and managed by the AHE. It is intended primarily as an economics-related announcement list for workshops, academic events, jobs etc. When replying to a post, please consider whether you want to reply to the entire list or only to the person who sent the announcement. Since we aim to maintain a moderate traffic list, members are encouraged to continue extended discussions outside the list. Members who consistently use this list for other purposes will have their posting privileges removed.

Association for Institutional Thought (AFIT)

The Association for Institutional Thought (AFIT) is an organization devoted to encouraging and fostering the development of institutional thought in extension and modification of the contributions of Thorstein Veblen, John Dewey, Clarence Ayres, John Commons, Wesley Mitchell and others.  They offer their ideas and the ideas of other Institutionalists as a basis for inquiry into the interrelationships of society.  AFIT was officially organized on April 27, 1979 at the 21st annual conference of the Western Social Science Association.

Association for Social Economics (ASE)

The ASE welcomes academics and practitioners who regard economic behavior to be the result of complex social interactions with ethical consequences.

The Association for Social Economics was founded in 1941. Its aims and objectives are:

  1. To foster research and publication centered on the reciprocal relationship between economics and broader questions of human dignity, ethical values, and social philosophy. The Association strives to encourage the efforts of all scholars who are dedicated to exploring the ethical presuppositions and implications of economic analysis.

  2. To consider the personal and social dimensions of economic problems and to assist in formulating economic policies consistent with a concern for ethical values in a pluralistic community and the demands of personal dignity.

  3. To meet annually and regionally at such times as are appropriate, to discuss and publicize current socioeconomic issues and scholarly achievements having to do with the objectives of the Association.

The Association for Social Economics was begun in 1941 by a group of economists who sought to bring “the principles of economic ethics into contact with economic reality.”

During the 1940s the first issue of the Review of Social Economy was published, membership was expanded beyond the United States, and both annual meetings and meetings in various regions were begun.

Since the 1950s, the ASE has had an arrangement with the major United States conference of economists (the Allied Social Science Association) for the hosting of several sessions.

In 1970 the organization gained its current name, moving away from a prior explicit connection with specifically Christian ethics. In 1971, the Forum for Social Economics began publication.

Since then, the Association has continued to grow and flourish.

For more about the Association’s early history and leaders, see these essays by Louis F. Buckley and Edward J. O’Boyle. Historical overviews of social economics can also be found in the Association’s journals, such as in these 1991 and 1993 special issues, as well as in many individual articles.

For further information visit the website: https://socialeconomics.org/about/history/

European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE)

EAEPE originates from a meeting at a conference in Grim's Dyke, London, on 29 June 1988. The main purpose in forming the association was to promote evolutionary, dynamic and realistic approaches to economic theory and policy. Instead of the over-formalistic and often empty theorising of orthodox economics, the aim was to bring together the ideas of a number of theorists and theoretical traditions, and to help to develop a more realistic and adequate approach to theory and policy (see our Theoretical Perspectives).

The formal founding meeting of the association was at its first Annual Conference in Keswick, Cumbria, UK on 19-22 September 1989. The EAEPE Constitution was adopted, leading to the election of a Steering Committee, which later changed into the EAEPE Council. The association published the first issue of its twice-yearly Newsletter in January 1989.

In November 1990 the association formed a charity, the Foundation for European Economic Development (FEED). This is formally registered under the Charities Act (England and Wales) and provides financial assistance for the EAEPE conference and other EAEPE projects.

In 1991 EAEPE adopted a Scientific Development Plan for the Association, in order to designate a number of priority Research Areas and appoints Research Area Coordinators who play a central role in EAEPE.

In collaboration with Edward Elgar Publishing, EAEPE has produced a series of conference volumes and of volumes on specific topics, some of which have received very positive reviews in leading academic journals.

EAEPE sponsors the Journal of Institutional Economics (JOIE). The first issue was published in 2005. JOIE is devoted to the study of the nature, role and evolution of institutions in the economy, including firms, states, markets, money, households and other vital institutions and organizations. EAEPE members get this journal for free.

The association runs three prizes: the EAEPE-Kapp Prize (formerly known as the K. William Kapp Prize and the EAEPE Prize), the EAEPE-Myrdal Prize(formerly known as the Gunnar Myrdal Prize) and the EAEPE-Simon Young Scholar Prize (formerly known as the Herbert Simon Yound Scholar Prize).  

With a membership of over 500, EAEPE is now the foremost European association for heterodox economists broadly defined, and is the second-largest association for economists in Europe.

International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE)

The International Association for Feminist Economics is an open, diverse community of academics, activists,
policy theorists, and practitioners from around the world. Our common cause is to further gender-aware and
inclusive economic inquiry and policy analysis with the goal of enhancing the well-being of children, women,
and men in local, national, and transnational communities.

By opening new areas of economic inquiry, welcoming diverse voices, and encouraging critical exchanges,
IAFFE’s many activities and award-winning journal provide needed space for a variety of theoretical perspectives
and advance gender-based research on contemporary economics issues.

IAFFE Purposes

  • To foster dialogue and resource sharing among economists and others from all over the world who take feminist viewpoints
  • To advance feminist inquiry into economic issues
  • To educate economists, policy makers, and the general public on feminist points of view on economic issues
  • To foster evaluations of the underlying constructs of the economics discipline from feminist perspectives
  • To aid in expanding opportunities for women, and especially women from under represented groups, within economics
  • To promote interaction among researchers, activists, and policy makers in order to improve scholarship and policy
  • To encourage the inclusion of feminist perspectives in the economic classroom

IAFFE Activities

  • Organization of an annual conference to present current research, plan future research, and interact with economists and advocates with similar interests
  • Organization of sessions at national, regional, and international meetings of economists
  • Publication of a newsletter which reports on activities, opportunities, and resources of interest
  • Maintenance of an electronic mail network to provide quick and low-cost communication among subscribers interested in feminist economics
  • Compilation of bibliographies, course syllabi, and a list of working papers on feminist economics
  • Publication of a scholarly journal, Feminist Economics, to increase awareness of feminist research in economics

International Confederation of Associations For Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE)

Founded in 1993, ICAPE is a consortium of over 30 groups in economics working cooperatively to maintain diversity and innovation in methods, approaches, policy analyses, and higher education in the profession. This network of groups seeks to foster intellectual pluralism and a sense of collective purpose and strength among these heterodox organizations.

ICAPE is dedicated to the idea that pluralism and intellectual progress are complements. This is not to say “anything goes,” but that each tradition of thought (Austrian, feminist, old and new institutionalist, Marxian, neoclassical, Post Keynesian, Sraffian, etc.) adds something unique and valuable to economic scholarship.

Achieving productive discussion and debate across schools of economic thought is not a simple matter. There are many institutional and practical obstacles to pluralism. It is precisely by helping to remove those obstacles that ICAPE hopes to render a service to the community of economists throughout the world. In 1993, our founders outlined four goals for ICAPE:

  • to publicize and help develop a multiplicity of approaches to the scientific analysis of economic activity;

  • to promote a new spirit of pluralism in economics, involving critical conversation and tolerant communication among different approaches, within and across the barriers between the disciplines;

  • to campaign for greater pluralism in the range of contributions to economics journals and in the training and hiring of economists; and,

  • to coordinate the activities of economists and economic associations who share one or more of the above aims.

Though the particular means used may vary over time, ICAPE’s activities are always inspired by these aims.

Further information can be obtained here.

International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs)

IDEAs has been established with the purpose of building a pluralist network of heterodox economists engaged in the teaching, research and application of critical analyses of economic development. While the organization will be South-based, the network will be open to all committed to developing more appropriate and progressive analysis of development challenges. 

Concern with the development process has been central to the study of economics from its inception. However, the study of development economics, which emphasized structural change and systemic processes, has been increasingly marginalized in the teaching and study of economics.

Simultaneously, the policy approaches that emphasized market regulation and collective action (including government intervention) to promote sustainable growth with justice, human rights and democratic participation, have also lost ground in both developed and developing countries.

These processes have been associated with the rise to dominance of the neo-liberal paradigm propagated by political establishments in some developed countries through powerful multilateral economic institutions. Such hegemony has been accompanied by efforts to dismiss, discredit and displace at the policy level other theoretical and applied work in economics. And this is occurring in a context in which developing economies across the world are facing acute difficulties, partly induced (and often aggravated) by policies of adjustment, stabilization and liberalization simplistically derived from standard neo-liberal premises.

Since the current mainstream economic paradigm, as formulated by neo-liberal orthodoxy, has failed to achieve sustainable, equitable and participatory growth, it is believed necessary to build an international network of progressive economists engaged in the teaching, research and utilization of development economics.

The network's website can be accessed here: http://www.networkideas.org/.

 

International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE)

IIPPE was founded in 2006 with the aim of promoting political economy in and of itself but also through critical and constructive engagement with mainstream economics, heterodox alternatives, interdisciplinarity, and activism understood broadly as ranging across formulating progressive policy through to support for progressive movements. Thus, in terms of intellectual content and direction, we see ourselves as commanding and criticising mainstream economics, offering alternatives from within political economy, addressing the nature of contemporary capitalism and corresponding policy and applied issues, and drawing upon and contributing to the presence of political economy, and critique of “economics imperialism”, within other disciplines. Although we do expect Marxist political economy to have a strong presence and to be engaged with seriously as such by participants, IIPPE is a pluralistic forum where all progressive brands of political economy are welcome. We are keen, however, to avoid continuing sterile and academic controversy at the expense of more constructive engagement across theoretical, empirical and practical issues. Current intellectual retreats from the extremes, and agenda-setting postures, of postmodernism and neo-liberalism mean that prospects across the social sciences are more open than for a long time, and some lasting and significant influence can be exerted by concertedly promoting political economy both within academia across the social sciences and more widely.

Activities

The intention of IIPPE is to promote political economy, especially but not exclusively Marxist political economy, at a particularly opportune and appropriate moment. Within the discipline of economics itself, all heterodoxy has been marginalised, and engagement with alternatives is more or less proscribed. Across the other social sciences, though, interest in political economy is stronger than for a long time, especially in the wake of retreat from, and rejection of, the agendas set by neo-liberalism and postmodernism. This is evidenced by the strong interest in, and intellectual direction given to, “globalisation”, for example, as a way of characterising the realities of contemporary capitalism. Contribution to debate over contemporary capitalism will be a major element in IIPPE’s contribution. Especially in the wake of the global financial crisis, it will range over the nature and causes of the present structure, pace and dynamic of the accumulation of capital at global, national and sectoral levels as well as the implications for developing and transitional economies.

But it will also remain important to continue to hold a critical perspective on developments within mainstream economics, and especially its most recent aggressive attempts to colonise other social sciences. But the ranks of those trained within economics as a discipline and also critical of it are now sorely depleted with little prospect of them being replenished so intolerant is the discipline of alternatives. An important task is to draw upon critical reflection from within economics as much as is possible with dwindling resources. By the same token, there is an increasingly compelling need for political economy to be promoted within other disciplines and across fields and topics that have become perceived as non-economic in light of the strength of interdisciplinary boundaries and an understandable hostility to economics itself as a discipline. For this reason, apart from sustaining a critique of mainstream economics, we wish both to assess and advance political economy as it is now but also to address and engage with its presence across the other social sciences. We believe it needs a stronger and more developed presence, without which the economics content of social science will become subject to capture by orthodoxy and/or arbitrary and fragmented heterodoxy. We are also keen to address the relationship between political economy and activism, broadly interpreted, especially in view of the drift in academia towards policy advice, consultancy and self-promoting publicity as the core forms taken by its external activity.

Our main goal is to establish and sustain a network of support for IIPPE, with our main activity being the setting up of a number of working groups around particular topics. These will run themselves subject to conforming to broader IIPPE aims and activities. We have also held an annual international research student workshop in political economy (the first in Crete in 2007 involved forty students from over a dozen countries, the second in Naples in 2008, involving over fifty students from even more countries, and a third projected to be held in Turkey in 2009). IIPPE formally launched at the Historical Materialism Conference at SOAS in November, also holding a numbers of panels of its own and a major support to other panels. It is projected to organise a major conference in 2010, and to launch both a book series and, ultimately, a journal. We already have a number of offers for special issues in leading journals. Our first Call for Papers is for a special issue of the journal “Forum for Social Economics” .

International Schumpeter Society

The International Joseph Alois Schumpeter Society has at its aim the scientific study of the problems of development, primarly in advanced economies. Following the ideas of Schumpeter it conceives of development as the combination of growth and structural change broadly defined. It intends, therefore, to concentrate on the dynamics of structural change, its origins and effects in all its aspects: the role of the dynamic entrepreneur, income distribution, technical change, employment etc. It also considers political and social problems of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial history. The ISS sees as its primary aim the fostering of knowledge. While it has no objection to being useful for economic policy research, it wishes to avoid an a priori commitment to any particular political point of view and is, therefore, open to research by scholars of all scholarly traditions provided it is scientifically sound and non-ideological as defined by Schumpeter: that it respects facts as they are and behave and not as one wishes them to be or behave.

The ISS carries out its aims in the following manner: It organizes and helps finance international symposia on topics within the general purview of its aims. It is interested in the completion of the publication of Schumpeter's writings and of furthering Schumpeterian studies. It helps to finance the publication of the results of the research in conference proceedings. It publishes the results of the research in the Journal of Evolutionary Economics. It awards prizes in recognition of recent scholarly contributions related to Schumpeter.

The Society's website can be accessed here.

International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE)

The ISEE was founded in 1989. The ISEE is a transdisciplinary partnership of scholars, professionals, and activists from a broad range of backgrounds. Through education, research, policy, and social action, we foster transformation towards an equitable and ecologically sustainable society with respect for the rights of people and nature, biological and cultural diversity. At the heart of this, we recognise that our economy is part of a finite biosphere and needs to respect its ecological limits. ISEE is not-for-profit and member-governed. 

Ecological economics exists because a hundred years of disciplinary specialization in scientific inquiry has left us unable to understand or manage the interactions between the human and environmental components of our world. While none would dispute the insights that disciplinary specialization has brought, many now recognize that it has also turned out to be our Achilles heel. In an interconnected evolving world, reductionist science has pushed out the envelope of knowledge in many different directions, but it has left us bereft of ideas as to how to formulate and solve problems that stem from the interactions between humans and the natural world. How is human behavior connected to changes in hydrological, nutrient, or carbon cycles? What are the feedbacks between the social and natural systems, and how do these influence the services we get from ecosystems? Ecological economics as a field attempts to answer questions such as these.

The Society assists its members and ecological economists, regional societies of ecological economics, related societies, and other organizations in such matters of common concern as can be dealt with more effectively by united action. To this end, the Society publishes a research journal, books, and other materials; holds and sponsors scientific meetings; develops educational materials; and facilitates a voice for ecological economists in public forums.

Further information can be obtained here.

Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES)

The Post-Keynesian Economics Society supports and promotes research and encourages collaboration in the field of post-Keynesian economics. Our activities include an Annual Workshop, panels at conferences of friendly learned societies and thematic conferences and lectures as well as Introductory Workshops and a PhD conference. We maintain an active members’ mailing listand Working Paper series.

Membership entitles individuals to submit working papers, post on the mailing list and to online access to the European Journal of Economics and Economic Policy (EJEEP) and the Review of Keynesian Economics (ROKE).

While most of our physical activities (e.g. workshops) take place in the UK and most committee members are UK-based, our membership is international and open to scholars in all countries. Our online activities, such as working papers and the mailing list, reach an international audience and play an important role in disseminating information in the international PK network. A key aim of PKES is to strengthen international PK networks.

PKES was founded in 1988 by Philip Arestis and Victoria Chick with the support of the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The purpose of the Study Group is to encourage collaboration among scholars and students of post-Keynesian economics, defined broadly as a theoretical approach that draws upon the work of Keynes, Kalecki, Joan Robinson, Kaldor, Kahn and Sraffa. This approach is distinguished by the central role of the principle of effective demand (that demand matters in the long run) and an insistence that history, social structure and institutional practice be embodied in its theory and reflected in its policy recommendations. These aims broadly correspond to those of Cambridge Journal of Economics, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Review of Keynesian Economics, Review of Political Economy and European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention.

FInd further information here: https://postkeynesian.net/about/

Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE)

The Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), founded in 1982, is a community of scholars committed to developing behavioral economic analysis.

SABE is intended to be a forum for particularly creative work, a society through which scholars from different disciplines can meet and develop productive collaborations.

SABE welcomes the use of psychology, sociology, history, political science, biology, and other disciplines to assist in furthering our understanding of economic choice. SABE accepts and encourages economic analysis based on behavioral assumptions that challenge the basic premises of the neoclassical paradigm, or, alternatively accept those premises. SABE members consider the optimizing assumptions of neoclassical theory to represent an extreme but at times a useful subset of possible assumptions about economic behavior.

Further information can be obtained here.

Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE)

Founded in 1989, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) is an international, inter-disciplinary organization with members in over 50 countries on five continents. The academic disciplines represented in SASE include economics, sociology, political science, management, psychology, law, history, and philosophy.

Further information can be obtained here.

Society for the Development of Austrian Economics (SDAE)

Formed in 1996, the SDAE has over 100 members in a number of countries world-wide. Our goal is to advance the ideas of Menger, Mises, and Hayek and other economists of the Austrian school through both internal development and interaction with the ideas of other related approaches to economics. We sponsor numerous panels and hold an annual meeting and dinner as part of the Southern Economic Association meetings, in addition to providing members with a discount on The Review of Austrian Economics.

Further information can be found here.

 

Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE)

The Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) is a membership organization of academics and activists who share an interest in a radical analysis of political and economic topics. Since its founding in 1968, URPE's members have used this analysis to advance various progressive social agendas. URPE publishes the Review of Radical Political Economics, runs a set of presentations at the academic professional meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Associations and the Eastern Economic Associatoin, and sponsors a resource/speakers bureau called Economy Connections. Its members are active in a wide variety of professional and activist projects.

URPE critiques the capitalist system and all forms of exploitation and oppression, aiming to create progressive social policies and alternatives to capitalism.

URPE uniquely blends theoretical and practical approaches, supporting a diverse membership from various theoretical traditions. The organization emphasizes action, providing radical analyses of political and economic events to fight for social justice and construct social, political, and economic alternatives. URPE believes that combining activism with solid facts and sound theoretical tools can significantly impact the struggle for an equitable world.

World Association for Political Economy (WAPE)

WAPE is an international civilian academic organization founded on open, non-profit and voluntary basis by Marxian Economists and related groups all around the world. The academic basis and tenet of WAPE include, insisting the core of the Marxian economics paradigms such as the labor theory of value, the superiority of public ownership and the theory of socialism and communism. The mission of WAPE is passing down, developing and carrying forward Marxian economics; utilizing modern Marxian economics to analyze and study the world economy, reveal the law of development and its mechanism, offer proper policies to promote the economic and social improvement on the national and global level, so as to improve the welfare of all the people in the world.

Further information can be obtained here.

World Economics Association (WEA)

The World Economics Association (WEA) was launched on May 16, 2011. It fills a gap in the international community of economists — the absence of a truly international, inclusive, pluralist, professional association. The American Economic Association and UK’s Royal Economic Society provide broad associations mainly for their country’s economists. The WEA will do the same for the world’s community of economists, while promoting a pluralism of approaches to economic analysis.

The WEA welcomes, as members, non-economists interested in economics and its relationship with their own field of interest.

To this end, the WEA will initially publish online three quarterly journals and host online conferences. Online subscriptions are free to members (a fee will be charged for print copies). The anticipated size of the WEA’s membership means that its journals will have one of the largest readerships of any in the world.

World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research (WINIR)

Institutions are the stuff of social and economic life. Institutions, broadly defined as systems of established social rules, are key factors in explaining human well-being, economic performance and social evolution. Officially launched in October 2013 WINIR brings together researchers in all disciplines who are devoted to the study of the nature, function, evolution, and impact of the institutions and organisations of economic and social life.

WINIR organises conferences, workshops, and hosted conference sessions around the world. All WINIR events are explicitly about institutions (or organisations), and/or address institutional thought, from any academic discipline.

Further information can be found here.

Associations dedicated to the History of Economic Thought

European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET)

The European Society for the History of Economic Thought promotes:

  • the teaching and research in the history of economic thought in Europe, taking into account different traditions and languages,
  • the co-operation with European national economic societies and organisations in the history of economic thought,
  • the communications and exchange of ideas amongst European teachers and researchers in the history of economic thought, including the organisation of conferences, seminars and summer schools,
  • the establishment of links with national economic societies and organisations for the history of economic thought outside Europe,
  • the introduction of innovative methods in the teaching of the history of economic thought,
  • the collaboration in researches in the history of economic thought on a European basis.

Further information can be obtained here.

History of Economics Society of Australia (HETSA)

The History of Economic Thought Society was founded in 1981. It publishes the History of Economics Review, a refereed and ECONLIT listed biannual journal.

Further information can be obtained here.

History of Economics Society

Since its formal establishment in 1974, the History of Economics Society has committed itself to encouraging interest, fostering scholarship, and promoting discussion among scholars and professionals in the field of the history of economics. The society is an international organization that publishes the Journal of the History of Economic Thought in conjunction with Cambridge University Press, sponsors an online collection of working papers under the name of the SSRN History of Economics eJournal, supports with other societies the SHOE email list hosted by York University, provides grants as part of the Samuels Young Scholars Program, and is a contributing partner to new initiatives.

Further information is available here.

Japanese Society for History of Economic Thought (JSHET)

The JSHET, an academic society, was founded in April 1950 and celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2020, consisting of more than five hundred researchers on the history of economic or/and social thought.

The JSHET is one of the original members of the Union of National Economic Associations in Japan, founded in January 1950; the JSHET also formally cooperates Science Council of Japan (SCJ), founded in January 1949.

The main activities are as follows:
1) to organize an annual conference (once a year), and seminars and workshops by the five local branches and other voluntary groups.
2) to publish a refereed journal (twice a year), History of Economic Thought, established in November1963. HET is the only journal on the history of economics or economic/social thought in Japan.
3) to promote academic exchanges domestically and internationally.
4) to hounor distinguished studies and to award them prizes such as the Jshet Award and Young Scholars Awards.

The JSHET is supported by Grant-in-Aid for Publication of Scientific Research Results (22HP3001) from 2022 to 2026. Based on this grant and other resources, the JSHET attempts to promote both sending young scholars abroad and raising the ratio of English papers in HET.

Further information can be obtained here.

The History of Economic Thought Society

The History of Economic Thought Society (THETS) is one of the longest established groups of scholars with an interest in the history of economic thought.

The Society organises an annual conference in September, and regularly publishes book reviews on this website. Other Society activites include curation of an online archive, and representation of the professional interests of historians of economic thought on national and international level, in close collaboration with other learned societies and allied organisations.

Further information can be found here.

Local and Regional Associations in Heterodox Economics

Association Recherche & Regulation

The Association Recherche & Régulation (R&R) promotes research on economic and social regulation theories, focusing on how organized social groups adapt to external shocks and internal conflicts. Founded on May 27, 1994, it aims to develop macroeconomic theories addressing global economic, social, and ecological issues.

Goals:

  • Develop macroeconomic theories to address severe global problems.

  • Analyze economic regulation and the role of collective actions.

  • Promote interdisciplinary research.

Further information can be found here.

Association d’Economie Politique (aEp)

The Association d’Économie Politique (aEp) is an influential organization dedicated to promoting the study and practice of political economy through critical and interdisciplinary approaches. Here's an overview of its mission, activities, and membership:

  • Mission: The aEp aims to foster innovative research and dialogue in political economy, challenging conventional economic paradigms and exploring the complex interactions between economic systems, social structures, and political institutions.

  • Activities: The association organizes conferences, workshops, and seminars to provide a platform for scholars and practitioners to share their work and collaborate on transformative economic ideas. They also engage in publishing scholarly journals, working papers, and books that contribute to the field of heterodox economics.

  • Membership: Membership is open to academics, researchers, and students interested in exploring and promoting alternative economic theories. The community is diverse, including various schools of thought such as Post-Keynesian, Marxist, Institutional, and Ecological Economics.

For more detailed information, you can visit the aEp's homepage on the EDIRC website​ (RePEc)​.

 

Association for Economics and Social Analysis (AESA)

AESA’s purpose is to stimulate interest in and debate over the explanatory power and social consequences of non-essentialist Marxian economic, cultural, political, and social analyses in order both to interpret and to change world. 

AESA recognizes that Marxism is a formation shaped by historical and contemporary processes that include political, social, economic, cultural, natural and intellectual dimensions. AESA seeks to articulate Marxism as a condensation of these processes into a concept of class and presents this articulation in an open-ended way. AESA emphasizes both the concept of class and the conditions of its possibility. This emphasis emerges from a non-essentialist, overdeterminist Marxism influenced especially by the work of Althusser. AESA’s particular articulation of Marxian class analysis began in the Economics department of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and from that basis it has proliferated. This work now encompasses varied research traditions, such as those that examine the relation of class to subjectivity, gender and its intersections with other axes of power and difference, community economies, psychoanalysis, private lives, ecology, and more.

AESA encourages contributions from people in many disciplines and from a wide range of intellectual, political/activist, and artistic perspectives, including both academic and non-academic projects.  Notably, AESA remains committed to producing the journal Rethinking Marxism: a journal of economics, culture, and society and undertaking additional public activities such as conferences, both national and international, that expand the work of the organization.

Ongoing Activities

Rethinking Marxism: a journal of economics, culture and society
Since 1988, AESA has sponsored the publication of Rethinking Marxism (RM). RM is a quarterly journal, and each issue contains full-length scholarly articles, art (including photoessays and fiction), Remarx essays (short, current pieces that intervene in political and theoretical debates), reviews (of books, films, conferences, exhibits, demonstrations, and more), and correspondence. Plus special issues, minisymposia, interviews, and a new series entitled "Globalization Under Interrogation."

International Conferences
Approximately every 4 years, AESA sponsor an international conference at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Plenary speakers have included David Harvey, Mike Davis, Gayatri C. Spivak, Angela Davis, Sheila Rowbotham, Ernest Mandel, Judith Butler, Cornel West, and Etienne Balibar. The latest conference was "Surplus, Solidarity, Sufficiency," in September 2013. Pevious conferences are available here.

Occasional mini-conferences.
Since 1982, AESA has sponsored smaller-sized conferences. Speakers have included Fredric Jameson, Martha Rosler, Arturo Escobar, Michael Eric Dyson, Cindy Patton, and Anwar Shaikh. A list of previous conferences is available here.

Further information can be obtained here.

Association of Critical Economics (AEC)

The AEC was created in 2003 with the aim of supporting the celebration of the Critical Economics Conference (JEC), which, on a biennial basis, have been organized in the Spanish State since 1987, as well as to publish the Journal of Critical Economics (REC) on a biannual basis. Today, more than three decades after its foundation and faithful to the social and political commitment that marked its birth, the AEC seeks to contribute to the development and dissemination of economic knowledge from diverse theoretical approaches, such as the post-Keynesian economy, the ecological economy, the feminist economy, the Marxist economy or the institutional economy, both in the university field of teaching and research and in its broader projection towards the rest of society. 

It aspires, as an ultimate objective, the integration of those elements that the different approaches to the economy have been contributing to economic analysis because only in this way can the reality be better known and explained and, therefore, to draw the inclusive response that the current socio-ecological crisis demands. The AEC also seeks to build bridges between all those people who, from the critical analysis, want to contribute to reversing the crisis of civilization that we are experiencing, because only from cohesion and joint work will our voice be given more strength.

For further information please visit the website: http://www.asociacioneconomiacritica.org

Brazilian Keynesian Association (AKB)

Associa o Keynesiana Brasileira (AKB) uma sociedade civil, sem fins lucrativos, aberta a filia es individuais e institucionais, que tem como objetivo desenvolver o conhecimento da teoria e da economia Keynesiana, entendida como cincia social, mediante: (i) a cria o de um f rum cient fico em nvel nacional para o debate das quest o  es de economia Keynesiana; (ii) a promo o, amplia o e fortalecimento do interc mbio entre os estudiosos da teoria e da economia keynesiana e das disciplinas correlatas, tais como Filosofia, Poltica, Hist ria e Sociologia; (iii) a promo o de encontros, congressos, confer ncias, cursos e atividades de atualiza o; e (iv) a divulga o de livros e peri dicos relacionados tem tica Keynesiana.

Here is a link to the AKB's facebook page.

Cambridge Political Economy Society (CPES)

The Cambridge Political Economy Society, founded in the 1970s, aims to advance the education of the public in political economy and related matters, and to promote research in matters pertaining to political economy and to publish the useful results of such research. To this end the Society publishes the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the Cambridge Journal of Regions,Economy and Society and Contributions to Political Economy.

Further information can be found here.

 

Cambridge Social Ontology Group (CSOG)

The Cambridge Social Ontology Group has been formed with the aim of pursuing social ontology, the systematic study of the nature and basic structure of social reality. A motivating belief is that there is much to be gained not only from the determination of new social categories, where appropriate, but also from the systematic study and elaboration of such familiar categories as process, change, difference, gender, race, space, time, law, internal-relationality, open and closed systems, value, money, markets, firms, regions, power, authority, trust, testimony, institutions, norms, rules, custom, convention, profit, output, income, wealth, identity, individual, social evolution, development, human flourishing, probability, society and economy.

Further information can be obtained here.

Critical Political Economy Research Network

The network brings together critical scholarship on political economy. Our interests are rooted in but not limited to European political economies. It is a platform to promote and facilitate such research endeavours, to reassert the critical political economy perspective in European Sociology and European social science in general, and to promote critical and emancipatory scholarship in Europe. The network was established in 2005 and is a member of the European Sociological Association (ESA).

Further information can be obtained here.

Foundations for European Economics Development (FEED)

Mainstream economics has changed significantly since the 1980s and all positive developments should be welcomed. FEED aims to build on genuine achievements and further promote institutional and evolutionary approaches. But despite many positive advances, mainstream economics is often concerned more about mathematical technique than explanatory substance. Insufficient use is made of insights from other disciplines. Since the Second World War, the scope of mainstream economics has vastly narrowed and “economic theory” has become a largely mathematical exercise. Even in leading universities, students of economics are no longer encouraged to read the works of major economists such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Joseph Schumpeter or John Maynard Keynes. The study of economic history is typically a lower-status option, the history of economic thought is not taught, and philosophical reflection on economic theories and methods is often regarded as of negligible value. This means that many students and graduates have not got the breadth and variety of knowledge to deal with real-world problems. Mainstream economics has had manifest limitations in dealing with major challenges, such as the capitalist transformations in the post-Soviet countries and the global financial crises of 1997 and 2008. Radical uncertainty and bounded rationality were overlooked, the institutional preconditions of economic activity were neglected, unregulated markets were assumed to be efficient, and problems with unregulated financial markets were ignored. Mainstream economics has other weaknesses in dealing with structural and dynamic phenomena such a technical and institutional change. It is in all these areas that institutional and evolutionary approaches are of proven value.

The Contribution of FEED

FEED believes that there is enduring value of reading the classic writers on the nature of modern economic systems. We can still learn from writers as diverse as Kenneth Boulding, John Commons, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas Kaldor, Michal Kalecki, William Kapp, John Maynard Keynes, Alfred Marshall, Karl Marx, Hyman Minsky, Gunnar Myrdal, Edith Penrose, François Perroux, Karl Polanyi, Joan Robinson, Gustav Schmoller, Joseph Schumpeter, George Shackle, Adam Smith, Werner Sombart, Thorstein Veblen and Max Weber. Yet today their works are seldomly cited in the most prestigious journals of economics. FEED believes that economists should not only have a knowledge of the history of their subject and allied work in the social sciences, but also they should have a much richer understanding of economic and business history. Economists should be trained to think critically about their assumptions and methods, and to judge theories not simpy on their mathematical originality or elegance. FEED believes in the value of pluralism and diversity in any science, where radically innovative ideas are encouraged, but they are tested by rigorous scrutiny and debate. Accordingly, FEED favours a greater pluralism of theoretical approaches within economics. The discipline should not be defined in terms of a set of favoured assumptions or techniques, but in terms of the use of rigorous scientific approaches to understand and explain economic phenomena.

Further information can be found here.

French Association for Political Economy (FAPE)

The Association Française d’Économie Politique (AFEP) or French Association for Political Economy (FAPE) is dedicated to promoting pluralism in economics and social sciences. AFEP encourages critical and interdisciplinary research that challenges mainstream economic theories.

  • Mission: Advocate for diverse perspectives in economic research and education.

  • Activities: Hosts annual conferences, seminars, and publishes research supporting heterodox economic theories.

  • Membership: Open to academics, researchers, and students interested in heterodox economics, providing a platform for collaboration and discussion.

For more information, visit their official website.

German Keynes Society--Keynes-Gesellschaft

Die Keynes-Gesellschaft hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die Diskussion und die Verbreitung der wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse von John Maynard Keynes, dem bedeutendsten konom des 20. Jahrhunderts, der von 1883 – 1946 lebte, sowie der darauf aufbauenden Theorien zu fördern. Ihr wichtigstes Instrument dafür ist ihr Informationsangebot im Internet. Informationen ber Keynes und seine Theorien sind insbesondere für die nachwachsenden Studentengenerationen dringend notwendig, weil in Zeitungen, in Lehrbüchern und in der Lehre an vielen – vor allem deutschsprachigen – Universitäten die keynesianische Ökonomie und die Ökonomie von Keynes nur sehr stiefmütterlich behandelt und häufig verw ssert oder verfälscht dargestellt werden. Sie wird häufig irrigerweise als eine spezielle Theorie dargestellt, die nur für tiefe Depressionen oder nur in der sehr kurzen Frist gültig ist. Daher ist die Theorie von Keynes inzwischen keineswegs jedem Absolventen einer wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät vertraut. Aus diesen Gründen wollen wir allen Interessierten ber das Internet einen Zugang zu Keynes eröffnen, damit sie sich selbst ein Urteil bilden können. Darüber hinaus veranstaltet die Gesellschaft wissenschaftliche Tagungen und vergibt Preise für wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschungsarbeiten sowie für Wirtschaftspublizistik.

Further information is available here.

 

IDEAs International Development Economics Associates

IDEAs has been established with the purpose of building a pluralist network of heterodox economists engaged in the teaching, research and application of critical analyses of economic development. While the organization will be South-based, the network will be open to all committed to developing more appropriate and progressive analysis of development challenges.

Further information can be found here.

International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS)

The International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS) is an association of engaged citizens, researchers, teachers, activists, journalists and professionals from diverse policy fields based on the rich intellectual, moral and political legacy of Karl Polanyi and the vivid scientific and public debates he has inspired. The International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS) aims at putting the economy in its place. The “economy”, a sphere of social life that should organize the livelihood so that people can live well, has become the dominant societal domain, intruding in all spheres of life in an aggressive, “imperialist” way. Hospitals, schools and care centers “commercialize” their services, researchers “sell” their knowledge; companies “buy” CO2-emission rights, politicians manipulate the “electoral market”. The economistic language is instructive for a society that is losing its sense of social responsibility, citizenship and democratic zeal, increasingly subordinating everything to the economistic rationale of optimizing. IKPS will counter this civilization shift. It aims at putting the economy in its place again, as a serving, alimental and supportive activity in a flourishing social, cultural and ecological civilization. To counter the currently dominant market society, it is decisive to understand the deep changes our societies are undergoing.

For further information visit the website: https://www.karlpolanyisociety.com/about-us/

Japan Association for Evolutionary Economics (JAFEE)

Japan Association for Evolutionary Economics (JAFEE) was founded in 1997 and currently has more than 500 members with heterogeneous background, economics, business science, law, sociology, history, physics, biology, engineering and mathematics. Primary aim of our association is to make a breakthrough of economics and to find a new way of market economy. We held a conference twice a year, publish academic journal and develop young scholars. Moreover, we are going on international conversation and research programs.

Further information can be obtained here.

Japan Society of Political Economy (JSPE)

The Japan Society of Political Economy is an interdisciplinary association devoted to the study, development, and application of Marxian political economy to social problems. JSPE was founded in 1959 and since then has played a central role in the academic study of political economy. JSPE is one of the registered Academic Societies of The Science Council of Japan.

Further information can be found here.

Japanese Society for Post Keynesian Economics (JSPKE)

The Japanese Society for Post Keynesian Economics was established in April 1980 in order to promote the researches on Post Keynesian Economics in Japan and to activate communications among scholars who have interests in Post Keynesian Economics. The Society holds seminars(or Meetings) about three times a year.

Further information can be found here.

Keynes Society Japan (KSJ)

The Keynes Society Japan (KSJ) is an interdisciplinary organization dedicated to advancing the study and application of Keynesian economics. The society promotes discussion and research across various fields, including economic theory, policy, social philosophy, history, and culture. KSJ aims to foster international collaboration and interdisciplinary exchange to understand and address contemporary economic issues. The society organizes annual meetings, symposiums, and publishes research to support the dissemination of Keynesian ideas and solutions.

For more information, visit the Keynes Society Japan page.

Sociedade Brasileira de Economia Politica-Brazilian Society of Political Economy (SEP)

A Sociedade Brasileira de Economia Política (SEP) foi fundada em 1996 como uma associação sem fins econômicos. Seu objetivo primordial é garantir espaço ampliado de discussão a todas as correntes teóricas e áreas de trabalho que entendam a economia como uma ciência essencialmente social e que, por isso mesmo, tenham na crítica ao mainstream da Economia seu elemento comum e articulador das atividades acadêmicas e políticas.

Dentre as diversas atividades organizadas e/ou incentivadas pela SEP, destaca-se o Encontro Nacional de Economia Política, de periodicidade anual, cuja primeira edição é de 1996. A instituição possui um periódico, a Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Economia Política, e articula estudos e pesquisas de seus associados em grupos de trabalho temáticos. A SEP articula-se com instituições nacionais e internacionais diversas, dentre as quais a Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia (ANPEC) e a Associação Nacional dos Curso de Graduação em Economia (ANGE) e a Sociedad Latinoamericana de Economía Política y Pensamiento Crítico (SEPLA).

The Brazilian Society of Political Economy (SEP) was founded in 1996 as an association without economic purposes. Its primary objective is to ensure an expanded space for discussion to all theoretical currents and areas of work that understand the economy as an essentially social science and that, for this very reason, have in the criticism of the mainstream of the Economy its common element and articulator of academic and political activities.

Among the various activities organized and/or encouraged by SEP, the National Meeting of Political Economy stands out, of annual periodicity, whose first edition is from 1996. The institution has a journal, the Journal of the Brazilian Society of Political Economy, and articulates studies and research of its members in thematic working groups. SEP articulates with various national and international institutions, including the National Association of Graduate Centers in Economics (ANPEC) and the National Association of Undergraduate Courses in Economics (ANGE) and the Sociedad Latinoamericana de Economía Política y Pensamiento Crítico (SEPLA).

Further information can be obtained here.

Heterodox Research Centers

BISA International Political Economy Group (IPEG)

IPEG, short for International Political Economy Group, was formed in 1971 on the initiative of Susan Strange, then with the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House. It received a limited amount of funding from the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK in 1974, and became affiliated with the British International Studies Association (BISA) after that organisation was founded in 1974. IPEG has functioned continuously since 1971 except for a brief interval in the late 1980s , and counts among its past Convenors the likes of Susan Strange, Fred Hirsch, Roger Tooze, Geoffrey Underhill, Randall Germain, Rorden Wilkinson, and Nicola Phillips. Paul Langley has been Convenor since June 2005.

Further information can be found here.

Center for Development, Innovation, and Economic Policy Studies (CEDIEP)

The Center for Development, Innovation, and Economic Policy Studies (CEDIEP) is a research center on development, innovation and political economy which articulates the research agenda of a group of scholars from the Department of Economics and Administration at the National University of Quilmes (Buenos Aires, Argentina). CEDIEP has four main lines of research:

I.              Economic development and Argentine political economy.

II.             Geopolitics and international political economy.

III.            Institutions, innovation, and technological change

IV.            State, public companies, and SMEs.

For more information regarding scholarships and internships, you can visit the following link: https://cediep.web.unq.edu.ar/

Center for Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE)

The Centre of Full Employment and Equity (known as CofFEE) is an official research centre at the University of Newcastle and seeks to promote research aimed at restoring full employment and achieving an economy that delivers equitable outcomes for all.

Further information can be found here.

Center for History of Political Economy at Duke University

The mission of the Center for the History of Political Economy is to promote and support research in, and the teaching of, the history of economics. It supports an active Fellowship and Visiting Scholars program, a regular Workshop series, a Hope Lunch series for the discussion of work in progress, special events, a summer Teaching Institute, and, with Duke University Press, the annual History of Political Economy conference. The Center was founded in 2008 with a significant grant from the John W. Pope Foundation.

More information can be found here.

Centre of Political Economy, Governance, Finance and Accountability (PEGFA)

Centro Sraffa

The aims of the Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione Piero Sraffa are to foster research based on the approach of the Classical economists, from the Physiocrats and Adam Smith to Ricardo, as taken up and developed by Piero Sraffa and subsequent authors, and to stimulate debate in both the theoretical and the applied spheres with other schools of contemporary economic analysis. As an essential part of the reconstruction of political economy along these lines, the Centro Sraffa also promotes the study of economic realities and policies in their social and institutional contexts.

More information can be found here.

Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) at Boston University

The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) is a research program at Boston University. It was founded in 2008 to advance policy-relevant knowledge about governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment.

More information can be obtained here.

Heterodox Research Centers Institutions

The UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies a world-leading centre for critical interdisciplinary research into the past, present, and future of capitalism. The CCS brings together UCL faculty and students from across departments, studying how markets, finance and economic institutions shape our everyday life, structure societies’ capacity to change, and are contested and remade across time and space. You can also check out our event diary for the Autumn Term with launch events for three fantastic new books by Carly SchusterToby Seddon and Maitrayee Deka. The Centre is delighted to have an outstanding International Advisory Board and foster collaboration with leading institutions around the world. Our international network includes partnerships with the Heilbroner Centre for Capitalism Studies at the New School of Social Research, the Observatory of Market Society Polarization at Sciences-Po Paris, and the Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales in Chile.

Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of Economy (ICAE) at the Johannes Kepler University Linz

The Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of Economy was established at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz in the Autumn of 2009 almost exactly one year after the crash of commercial finance. It is an externally funded research institute with a focus on on the causes and background of the economic crisis. The institute prefers an interdisciplinary approach, embedding the economy as a whole into the complex of the social areas of academics, politics and the media. Socio-economic theories in the tradition of Thorstein Veblen, Max Weber, Joseph A. Schumpeter or John Maynard Keynes serves as an inspiration for this, as does the vast area of heterodox economics. The Institute sees economics as a social science which is aware of its macroeconomic and sociological foundations and which axiomatically opposes the idea that market processes represent natural orders.

Further information can be found here.

Institute for International Political Economy (IPE) at the Berlin School of Economics and Law

The Institute for International Political Economy Berlin (IPE) is concerned with the relation between the economy and political power in a globalised world, and the social implications that this raises. The recurrence of serious financial crises, rising social inequality and a disregard for human rights indicate that conflicts involving economic and political interests have become more acute. This raises many urgent questions about the types of political and social regulation of the economy that would be desirable. In addition, since globalisation has depended on energy generated from non-renewable fossil fuels which poses a serious threat to the global climate, international political economy must be complemented by an international political ecology. The IPE aims to promote interdisciplinary research drawing on economics, political science and sociology to deepen our understanding of these issues, and to make the results of this research available to individuals and groups who are active in political, social and economic initiatives.

Further information can be found here: https://www.ipe-berlin.org/en/

Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)

Founded in October 2009 with a $50 million pledge by George Soros, the New York City-based Institute for New Economic Thinking is a nonprofit organization providing fresh insight and thinking to promote changes in economic theory and practice through conferences, grants and education initiatives.

The Institute recognizes problems and inadequacies within our current economic system and the modes of thought used to comprehend recent and past catastrophic developments in the world economy. The Institute embraces the professional responsibility to think beyond these inadequate methods and models and will support the emergence of new paradigms in the understanding of economic processes.
The Institute firmly believes in empowering the next generation, providing the proper guidance as we challenge outdated approaches with innovative and ethical economic strategy.

Their approach is guided by a set of key principles:

  • Economists and their ideas must be independent from powerful interests. Otherwise, economics is beholden to those at the very top and fails to serve all of society.

  • Complexity and uncertainty are inherent in economic and financial systems. We must question theories based upon the flawed assumption that humans always behave rationally and predictably, and that markets always trend towards equilibrium.

  • Inequality and distribution matter as much to the economy as growth and productivity.

  • Heterodox models that pose alternatives to the neoclassical orthodoxy are essential to understanding the economy and promoting a vibrant intellectual pluralism.

  • History matters. We must learn the lessons of past mistakes, and also draw on roads not taken historically to map a more equal and prosperous future.

  • Diversity of race, gender, class, and other forms of identity enrich economic thought.

  • An outdated economic structure is endangering our planet—but new approaches could save it. To uncover solutions, economists must first incorporate analyses of climate change, population growth, and stressed resources into their research.

  • Multidisciplinary learning. A discipline in isolation develops harmful blind spots. We collaborate with scholars in other social sciences, the humanities, and the natural sciences to better understand our world.

INET’s Approach

Left to their own devices, academic, governmental, and corporate institutions will continue to cling to outmoded economic models, out of fear that new ideas would undermine their own financial advantage.

That’s why INET carefully incubates new economic thinking within the academy and beyond. We work to guide the field away from economic orthodoxy so that it can free itself of inertia and past failures. We then promote the new economic thinking we develop and support among influencers, policymakers, and the engaged public so that it can have real-world impact.

We work with the economics community to:

  • Produce and fund innovative research.

  • Develop curricula and educational resources for students.

  • Support INET’s Young Scholars Initiative, a global network that is nurturing the next generation of new economic thinkers.

  • Host conferences where leading and emerging economists, students, and other scholars exchange and develop new research and ideas.

We work with influencers and policymakers to:

  • Amplify the work of our staff economists and grantees, ensuring that their findings and ideas can have real-world impact.

  • Apply new economic thinking to policy questions, as with our Commission on Global Economic Transformation.

  • Demystify economics for the engaged public through our blog and video content, social media channels, and events.

Further information can be found here.

International Centre of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy (CIRIEC)

CIRIEC (International Centre of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy) is a non-governmental international scientific organization. Its objectives are to undertake and promote the collection of information, scientific research, and the publication of works on economic sectors and activities oriented towards the service of the general and collective interest:

  • action by the State and the local and regional public authorities in economic fields (economic policy, regulation);

  • public utilities;

  • public and mixed enterprises at the national, regional and municipal levels;

  • the so-called “social economy” (not-for-profit economy, cooperatives, mutuals, and non-profit organizations); etc.

In these fields CIRIEC develops activities of interest for both managers and researchers.

Further information can be found here.

Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, founded in 1986 through the generous support of Bard College trustee Leon Levy, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization. The Levy Institute is independent of any political or other affiliation, and encourages diversity of opinion in the examination of economic policy issues while striving to transform ideological arguments into informed debate.

Further information can be found here.

Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) at Hans Boeckler Foundation

The Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) is an independent academic institute within the Hans-Böckler-Foundation, a non-profit organisation fostering co-determination and promoting research and academic study. The Foundation is linked to the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB).

The IMK was founded in 2005 to strengthen the macroeconomic perspective both in economic research and in the economic policy debate. The IMK analyses business cycle developments and conducts economic policy research, notably on fiscal and monetary policy, labour markets, income distribution and financial markets. The Institute seeks to address the challenges facing macroeconomics and economic policy in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Further information can be found here.

PRIME: Policy Research in Macroeconomics

Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME) is a network of macroeconomists, political economists, and professionals from related disciplines. This network seeks to engage with a diverse audience to demystify economic theories, policies, and ideas.

PRIME highlights the glaring failure of mainstream economics to challenge the finance sector’s role, partly explained by the profession’s blind spot regarding the role of credit in the economy.

The approach outrightly rejects the method of drawing macroeconomic conclusions from microeconomic reasoning.

Fundamental to PRIME's approach is the restoration of ethics in relation to money, credit, and the rate of interest.

PRIME aims to:

  • Develop and frame macroeconomic theories, applications, and solutions to severe economic, social, and ecological problems.

  • Restore the use of macroeconomic theory to its proper place, i.e., the analysis of macroeconomic conditions.

  • Promote policies for greater equality, full and decently-paid employment, and ecologically sustainable economic activity.

  • Promote understanding of the nature of credit and its role in determining macroeconomic outcomes.

  • Promote policies for a new global financial architecture and national and international monetary systems based on international justice, equity, and stability.

Further information can be found here.

Political Economy Research Group (PERG) at Kingston University

PERG reflects the pluralist nature of economics at Kingston. It includes applied economics researchers, whose objective is to develop theoretical insights using state-of-the-art empirical techniques to analyse substantive applied economic issues with the objective of generating impact. It also includes researchers who put more emphasis on the fundamental importance of institutions and social conflict for the understanding of economic relationships and outcomes. PERG is committed to pluralism in economic research and provides a collaborative and inclusive research environment for its members to engage in intellectual debate and to exchange ideas.

The department's new Pluralist Economics Seminar Series was launched in April 2023 with the aim of promoting dialogue and cooperation across different economic approaches, and address important economics, political and societal issues. Seminars are held in hybrid form and you can view all discussion papers online.

Further information can be found here.

Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at UMASS-Amherst

The Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) promotes human and ecological well-being through our original research. Our approach is to translate what we learn into workable policy proposals that are capable of improving life on our planet today and in the future. In the words of the late Professor Robert Heilbroner, we at PERI “strive to make a workable science out of morality.”

Established in 1998, PERI is an independent unit of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with close ties to the Department of Economics. PERI staff frequently work collaboratively with faculty members and graduate students from the University of Massachusetts, and other economists from around the world. Since its founding, PERI has become a leading source of research and policy initiatives on issues of globalization, unemployment, financial market instability, central bank policy, living wages and decent work, and the economics of peace, development, and the environment.

PERI’s goals for the future are to:

  • continue producing high-quality research;

  • increasingly focus the public economics debate on human and ecological welfare;

  • expand the number of economists collaborating on PERI projects;

  • and continue to raise our profile in the full range of communities that are concerned with economic policy questions.

Further information can be found here.

Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) at New School

The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) is an economic policy research think tank located within the department of economics at The New School for Social Research. SCEPA works with New School economists and researchers to focus public debate on the role government can and should play in the economy to raise living standards, create economic security, and attain full employment. With a focus on collaboration and outreach, it provides original, standards-based research on key policy issues to empower policymakers and create positive change.

Further information can be found here.

UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies

The UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies a world-leading centre for critical interdisciplinary research into the past, present, and future of capitalism. The CCS brings together UCL faculty and students from across departments, studying how markets, finance and economic institutions shape our everyday life, structure societies’ capacity to change, and are contested and remade across time and space. You can also check out our event diary for the Autumn Term with launch events for three fantastic new books by Carly SchusterToby Seddon and Maitrayee Deka. The Centre is delighted to have an outstanding International Advisory Board and foster collaboration with leading institutions around the world. Our international network includes partnerships with the Heilbroner Centre for Capitalism Studies at the New School of Social Research, the Observatory of Market Society Polarization at Sciences-Po Paris, and the Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales in Chile.

Organizations connecting research and activism

Association for Integrity and Responsible Leadership in Economics and Associated Professions (AIRLEAP)

The Association for Integrity and Responsible Leadership in Economics and Associated Professions (AIRLEAP) is a non-profit organization. We are incorporated in the state of Virginia, in the United States, but our audience, and the relevance of the topics that we address, are worldwide.

AIRLEAP seeks to study and promote integrity and responsible leadership in economics and related professions. We are a nonprofit, charitable and educational organization under section 501 (c) (3).   Our approach to the issues of integrity and responsible leadership is positive, with a focus on fostering and disseminating useful and influential thought. We are open to a variety of possible mechanisms for carrying out this mission. For example, we will sponsor and organize sessions at economics conferences where research findings on these issues will be presented.

We are deeply concerned about the issues of integrity and responsible leadership in economics as they relate to economic discourse, economic decision making, and the career development of economists and related professionals.

Further information can be found here.

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)

CCPA offers an alternative to the message that we have no choice about the policies that affect our lives. Undertakes research on issues of social and economic justice. Produces research reports, books, opinion pieces, fact sheets and other publications, including The Monitor, a monthly digest of progressive research and opinion.

Further information can be obtained be here.

Center for Global Justice

The Center for Global Justice is a multi-cultural, democratically organized service, learning, and research center. Through our support of the social and solidarity economy, our public education programs, and our research collaborations we seek to empower ordinary people to work to create a more socially and economically just world.

The Center engages in local community support and outreach to promote and advance initiatives and movements toward social justice, grassroots empowerment and democracy, and environmental sustainability.  It is also devoted to critical analysis of the processes and impacts of globalization, both local and international. The Center works to develop alternative socio-economic systems that conserve and share the world’s cultural, economic, and environmental resources for the benefit of humankind.

Further information can be obtained here.

Conference of Socialist Economists (CSE)

The Conference of Socialist Economists (CSE) is an international, democratic membership organisation committed to developing a materialist critique of capitalism, unconstrained by conventional academic divisions between subjects. CSE has organised and supported conferences and seminars and publishes Capital & Class three times a year. Since 1977 Capital & Class has been the main, peer-reviewed, independent source for a Marxist critique of global capitalism. Pioneering key debates on value theory, domestic labour and the state,C&C reaches out into the labour, trade union, anti-racist, feminist, environmentalist and other radical movements.

Further information can be obtained here.

Democracy at Work

Democracy at Work is a project, begun in 2010, that aims to build a social movement. The movement s goal is transition to a new society whose productive enterprises (offices, factories, and stores) will mostly be WSDE s, a true economic democracy. The WSDEs would partner equally with similarly organized residential communities they interact with at the local, regional, and national levels (and hopefully international as well). That partnership would form the basis of genuine participatory democracy.

A democratic society needs to have democracy in the workplace.

We are Democracy at Work, a worker-led, small-donor-funded non-profit, making media that says we can do better than capitalism - an unjust economic system that is at odds with democracy. For us, critiquing the system isn’t taboo, it’s the first step to a better world. 

Some of the most influential radical thinkers in America today host our free shows and author our books. With Democracy at Work, you can find different perspectives on class conflicts, the economy, and the impact of capitalism on our daily lives. Understand the root causes of the growing inequity all around us, and learn how democratic workplaces can shift power back into the hands of the majority in a real way.

Our shows are free, with no ads, and our books are easy to understand. Our goal is to provide everyday people with simple explanations of ideas like Marxism and socialism- empowering you with the knowledge to create a more equitable future together.

We seek a stronger, fuller democracy in and outside of the workplace. 

Watch, listen, or read Democracy at Work to learn how we can do better than capitalism.

Further information can be found here.

Economic Policy Institute (EPI)

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank working for the last 30 years to counter rising inequality, low wages and weak benefits for working people, slower economic growth, unacceptable employment conditions, and a widening racial wage gap. We intentionally center low- and middle-income working families in economic policy discussions at the federal, state, and local levels as we fight for a world where every worker has access to a good job with fair pay, affordable health care, retirement security, and a union.

We also know that research on its own is not enough—that’s why we intentionally pair our research with effective outreach and advocacy efforts as we fight to make concrete change in everyday people’s lives.

Further information can be found here.

Economics for Equity and the Environment Network

E3 Network includes hundreds of applied economists from across the U.S. and world with wide-ranging expertise related to climate, energy, natural resources, and the environment.

Today’s challenges demand new economic thinking, and such thinking will only emerge if economists engage with real world issues. E3 Network economists are dedicated to building a new applied economics of the environment that is committed to social equity and environmental sustainability at its core.

E3 Network economists believe that environmental protection and the pursuit of social justice are inextricably linked. A clean and safe environment is the right of every person, regardless of income, wealth, or political power. Without a fair distribution of wealth and power, neither the free market nor government regulation can secure human and ecological well-being.

What We Do

The E3 Network works to provide timely answers to policy relevant questions, to inform decision making and public debates, and to shape economic practice. Here’s how:

  • Active engagement — E3 Network facilitates collaboration between economists and the organizations and individuals who desire their expertise through the Green Economist Directory — an online guide to economists committed to working on real world environmental issues. Our economists regularly consult and work with major environmental organizations, influential foundations, members of Congress, state and federal agencies, and the public.

  • Public outreach — Affecting change in the public discourse on the economics of the environment is central to our mission. E3 economists publish op-eds in major newspapers, policy briefs, and expert commentaries that make the case for environmental protection accessible to a broad audience.

  • Research — E3 brings economists together from universities and institutions across the country to consult on economic research, produce timely policy-relevant reports, and publish in academic journals. Our reports and white papers have been cited widely by influential sources, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, Scientific American and others.

  • Economic practice — We promote our vision of a new and applied economics of the environment at professional meetings, through academic publications, and lectures. To support the next generation of economists in environmental protection, we offer workshops, internships, and fellowships for economics graduate students.

The website can be accessed here.

Foundations for European Progressive Studies (FEPS)

FEPS is a newly created European progressive foundation. Close to the Party of European Socialists (PES) but nevertheless independent, FEPS embodies a new way of thinking on the European labour, socialist and social-democratic scene. FEPS intends to establish an intellectual crossroad between social democracy and the European project, putting fresh thinking at the core of its action, which will be divided into the following axes: debate, reflection, training and communication.

Further information can be obtained here.

Green Economics Institute

The Green Economics Institute, based in the UK, focuses on promoting green economics, which integrates environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic well-being. The institute conducts research, organizes conferences, publishes books and papers, and offers educational programs. Its mission is to challenge conventional economic models by emphasizing the importance of environmental health, social equity, and long-term sustainability. Through its diverse initiatives, the institute aims to influence policy, business practices, and public understanding towards a greener and fairer economy.

For more information, visit the Green Economics Institute.

Institut de Recherche et d Informations Socio-economiques (IRIS)

The Institut de Recherche et d’Informations Socioéconomiques (IRIS) is a progressive research institute based in Quebec, Canada. It focuses on socio-economic issues through a critical lens, emphasizing public policy analysis, social justice, and economic equity. IRIS conducts rigorous research, publishes reports, and engages in public education to challenge dominant economic paradigms and promote alternative, equitable solutions. The institute covers various themes, including economic policy, public finance, labor, environment, and social inequality.

For more information, visit the IRIS website.

New Economics Foundation

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a UK-based think tank that aims to transform the economy by combining grassroots initiatives with rigorous research. NEF focuses on building an economy that prioritizes environmental sustainability, social equity, and well-being. It engages in various campaigns, publishes research, and collaborates with communities to develop democratic economic models. NEF is committed to funding transparency and operates as an independent charity.

For more information, visit the New Economics Foundation website.

Progressive Economics Forum (PEF)

The Progressive Economics Forum aims to promote the development of a progressive economics community in Canada. The PEF brings together over 200 progressive economists, working in universities, the labour movement, and activist research organizations.

On this site, you’ll learn more about our network, our research and education products, and ways to contribute to its growth and success through membership, meetings and conferences, and our annual student essay contest.

This is also the home of Relentlessly Progressive Economics, the PEF’s blog, a source of real-time commentary on Canadian economic policy issues from some of your favourite progressive economists. The RSS feed for the blog is: http://progressive-economics.ca/feed

Further information can be found here.

Reteaching Economics

The vast majority of universities teach only one school of thought: neoclassical economics. We think students deserve better. We are a diverse group of early career academics who are responding to the student campaign for greater pluralism in economics curricula.

To develop our response, we have set up an open network and invite early career academics to join us. We are interested in collaborating with other student, research and practitioner groups and look forward to hearing from you.

More information: http://reteacheconomics.org/

Roosevelt Institute

Drawing on the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the Roosevelt Institute champions new ideas and new leaders to make our economy and democracy work for the many, not the few.

The Roosevelt Institute is a think tank, a student network, and the nonprofit partner to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum that, together, are learning from the past and working to redefine our collective future. Focusing on corporate and public power, labor and wages, and the economics of race and gender inequality, the Roosevelt Institute unifies experts, invests in young leaders, and advances progressive policies that bring the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt into the 21st century.

Roosevelt takes on today’s greatest challenges by advancing bold, cutting-edge research and policy ideas. We believe that the future of the American economy and our democracy depends on a new way of thinking about markets and government. Too few people hold too much economic and political power today, and we know that a stronger society is possible if we rectify this imbalance between private actors and the public. With a commitment to transforming corporations, restructuring markets, reviving democratic institutions, and reimagining the role of government, our work moves our nation toward a more resilient, equitable, and green future.

Further information can be obtained here.

The socialist project

In the early 21st century, it is imperative that the Left begin a sustained process of organizational redevelopment, experimentation and struggle. Neither capitalism nor neoliberalism will fade from the planet based on the momentum of their own contradictions, or as result of new technologies. The SP is a Toronto-based organization that supports the rebuilding of the socialist Left in Canada and around the world. Committed to the development of a more free, democratic, humane and sustainable society than the one we live in, the SP opposes capitalism out of necessity and supports the struggles of others out of solidarity. We support struggles aligned with working class emancipation, anti-oppression, democratic self-determination, planetary sustainability, and peace. We do not propose a fast route out of capitalism, claim a ready alternative to take its place or extol any one Left tendency. We engage the concrete limits and possibilities of emerging struggles within and against capitalism as it is today with an eye to making a different kind of future.

Access the project's website.

United for a Fair Economy

United for a Fair Economy is a national, independent, nonpartisan, organization. UFE raises awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. We support and help build social movements for greater equality.

Further information can be found here.