D-Econ will be attendance at the upcoming conference Envisioning the Economy of the Future, and the Future of Political Economy 3-5 July, 2019 (see full programme). This conference brings together heterodox scholars from across a variation of political economy and heterodox associations , including the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE), the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE), the Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE), Association Française d’Economie Politique (AFEP) and Association pour le Développement des Études Keynésiennes (ADEK).

D-Econ is taking this opportunity to discuss issues of diversity and decolonization within heterodox economics. We have an activist session and a stand at the conference. We will also be conducting a survey to better understand the nature of the challenges faced by the heterodox economics communities. You’ll find the survey at our stand.

Our panel will take place on Thursday July 4th at 215pm. The panel will be on Diversity in Heterodox Economics: Radical Solutions for an Old Problem. 

The rationale behind the panel is as follows:

Diversity in Economics has come in the wind in the wake of Alice Wu’s (2017) paper on misogyny in the profession and the #MeToo movement. But the issue is old and so far solutions have mainly come from the mainstream of the profession (e.g. the American Economic Association), and they have been lacking in depth and understanding of the issue (e.g. promoting mentoring programs of women and people of color, rather than addressing structural constraints, patriarchy, social norms, etc). We believe addressing diversity in terms of identity cannot be done without also addressing diversity in terms of approaches. 

We invite heterodox scholars, students, and members of heterodox institutions to this session to be prepared to brainstorm, share and learn about how we can address sexism and racism in our profession at all levels. We will present some of our projects (a diversity database and diversity guidelines), but we want to spend most of the session collectively 1) identifying obstacles to diversity and inclusivity, and 2) identifying possible solutions. 

In addition to raising awareness among the participants and organizers, we hope this session will lead to collective projects that can improve diversity in the heterodox institutions in attendance. 

From the executive board, Carolina Alves, Danielle Guizzo, Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven  and Hanna Szymborska will be there. You can get in touch with either of them directly or contact D-Econ at info@d-econ.org.