CfP: The Politics of Markets – scope, steering and evaluation

*Apologies for cross-posting 

Conference organised by University of Westminster (Centre of the Study of Democracy, Dept of Politics & International Relations) in collaboration with Goldsmiths, University of London 

Keynote speaker: Professor Andrew Gamble, University of Cambridge

Date: 13th June 

This inter-disciplinary conference addresses questions concerning politics and markets. Critiques abound of current national and international political-economic systems, often characterised as ‘neoliberal,’ with the role of markets in society being the subject of widespread debate and concern. At the same time, it is often said that ‘governance’ has shifted from hierarchical to networked-based arrangements, which has implications for the debate on markets and the state. Yet in political science and related disciplines there remains a need for engagement with evaluative questions related to the scope of markets and specific modes of ‘governance’, particularly the following: 

•       What should be the relative scope and inter-relationship between politics and markets?

•       How can coordination be achieved across different tiers of governance in steering and shaping markets?

•       How can policy processes more effectively address the different forms of complexity involved in steering markets?

•       What are the methodological challenges for research addressing these evaluative questions concerning governance and markets and how can these questions be effectively addressed?

•       How far and adequately does current academic research engage with these questions?

These questions about markets are clearly of fundamental importance to the study and practice of politics and inevitably emerge in research analysing various areas of national and international policy, being undertaken within various, quite separate, disciplines and sub-disciplines of the social sciences. This conference aims to bring together and compare research intersecting with these questions across policy sectors, mapping their findings and identifying emerging research agendas. Abstracts (of maximum 200 words) are invited that should summarise a proposed presentation for the conference. We welcome proposed presentations varying in terms of empirical/ theoretical/ methodological focus. Contributions might relate to the following areas (though this may not be an exhaustive list):

International development 
Health, education and social policy 
Fiscal and monetary policy 
Labour markets 
Public-private partnerships
Environmental sustainability
Planning, housing and infrastructure
Regulations and industrial policy
Quasi-markets in public policy
Tools for analysing and evaluating policy (e.g. cost/benefit analysis)

We are interested in exploring the possibility of organising a journal special issue to follow the conference.

Please submit abstracts to Tom Mills [log in to unmask] by 22 April 2013

Organisers: Dan Greenwood, Tom Mills, Ricardo Blaug (Centre for the Study of Democracy, Dept of Politics & International Relations) University of Westminster); Simon Griffiths (Goldsmiths College, University of London).

Conference venue: University of Westminster, Regent campus