The Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) aims to connect scholars and students of international political economy and political economy in Australia and beyond and provide a forum for discussion of ideas and research.
AIPEN’s origins are in a workshop at the University of Adelaide convened by Juanita Elias and Leonard Seabrooke in 2007 to discuss the state of IPE in Australia. The successful event generated momentum leading to a second workshop at the Australian National University in 2009 and a third at Griffith University in 2010. Shahar Hameiri, the convenor of the fourth workshop in 2012 at Murdoch University, sought to better institutionalise the network and improve communication among its members. He coined the name AIPEN and established an AIPEN listserv and later a Facebook page. AIPEN has since grown. From the fifth workshop at the University of Sydney (December 2013), the workshop has become an annual event, held in recent years at University of Wollongong (February 2015), University of Tasmania (February 2016), University of Queensland (February 2017), Monash University (February 2018), University of Western Australia (February 2019), University of Sydney (February 2020), University of Queensland (February 2022), University of Melbourne (February 2023), and Australian National University (2024).
In 2015, AIPEN established the Richard Higgott Prize for best journal article in IPE/PE by an Australia-based scholar. The prize is awarded annually through a voting process combining the views of the wider membership with a decision by a judging panel. The recipients thus far have been:
2024 Elliot Dolan-Evans, ‘Pipes, profits and peace: toward a feminist political economy of gas during war’, Review of International Political Economy, 30:2 (2023).
2023 Ainsley Elbra, John Mikler and Hannah Murphy-Gregory, ‘The Big Four and corporate tax governance: From global dis-harmony to national regulatory incrementalism’, Global Policy, 14:1 (2023).
2022 Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri, ‘COVID-19 and the failure of the neoliberal regulatory state’, Review of International Political Economy, 29:4 (2022).
2021 Melissa Johnston, ‘Frontier Finance: The Role of Microfinance in Debt and Violence in Post-conflict Timor-Leste’, Review of International Political Economy, 27:6 (2020).
2020 Claire Parfitt, ‘ESG Integration Treats Ethics as Risk, but Whose Ethics and Whose Risk? Responsible Investment in the Context of Precarity and Risk-Shifting’, Critical Sociology, 46:4-5 (2020).
2019 Linda Weiss and Elizabeth Thurbon, “Power Paradox: How the Extension of US Infrastructural Power Abroad Diminishes State Capacity at Home.” Review of International Political Economy 25:6 (2018).
2018 Maria Tanyag, ‘Invisible Labor, Invisible Bodies: How the Global Political Economy Affects Reproductive Freedom in the Philippines’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 19:1 (2017).
2017 Samanthi J. Gunawardana, ‘“To Finish, We Must Finish”: Everyday Practices of Depletion in Sri Lankan Export-Processing Zones”, Globalizations, 13:6 (2016).
2016 Gareth Bryant, Siddhartha Dabhi and Steffen Böhm, ‘“Fixing” the Climate Crisis: Capital, States and Carbon Offsetting in India’, Environment and Planning A, 47:10 (2015).
2015 Ainsley Elbra, ‘Interests Need Not be Pursued If They Can be Created: Private Governance in African Gold Mining’, Business and Politics, 16:2 (2014).
While the annual workshop and prize remain AIPEN’s main activities, the network provides an excellent platform for forming new research collaborations, announcing new publications, advertising academic jobs in the field, or anything else members are keen to share.
To be part of AIPEN, either ‘like’ us on Facebook @AusIPEN, or join our listserv at by emailing aipen+subscribe [at] googlegroups.com
In my article ‘Pipes, Profits and Peace: Toward a Feminist Political Economy of Gas during War’, which was awarded the 2024 AIPEN Richard Higgott Prize for best journal article, I analyse the cessation of government subsidies on gas to the Ukrainian population.
0142
The prize committee is pleased to announce that Elliot Dolan-Evans’ article, titled ‘Pipes, profits and peace: toward a feminist political economy of gas during war’, published in the Review of International Political Economy, has won the 2024 Australian International Political Economy [...]
0232
The selection committee for the Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) Richard Higgott Journal Article Prize is pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2024 prize, as voted on by AIPEN members.
The prize will be awarded to the best article published in 2023 [...]
0224
15th Annual Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) Workshop
Adelaide University / Flinders University, February 6-7 2025
The world economy is increasingly challenged by wicked problems and acute questions produced [...]
01021
The selection committee for the Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) Richard Higgott Journal Article Prize is pleased to announce the articles nominated by AIPEN members for the longlist for the 2023 prize, now celebrating its 10th year. The prize will be awarded to the [...]
0154
We are pleased to announce that nominations are now open for the 2024 Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) Richard Higgott Journal Article Prize. We are delighted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the prize, which is awarded annually for the best article published in [...]
0222
In our article, that was awarded the 2023 AIPEN Richard Higgott Prize for best journal article, we analyse some of the key political actors that do talk about taxes, namely the Big Four professional services firms of PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG.
0251
In my undergraduate dissertation, titled: An exploration into how neoliberal economic policies have impacted Britain's North - South divide in urban spaces since the 1980s, I explore how Britain’s adoption of neoliberal policies furthered existing urban inequality through an ability to [...]
1340
© Progress in Political Economy (PPE)
