Call for Papers — Putting Culture in its Place in Political Economy

University of Lancaster, 1-2 September 2015

The Cultural Political Economy Research Centre (CPERC) at Lancaster University will be holding its Inaugural Conference between 1-2 September 2015.

Putting Culture in its Place in Political Economy

Date: 1-2 September 2015

Place: Lancaster University

Plenary Speakers: Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum, Lancaster University

Cultural Political Economy (CPE) is an emerging and still developing trans-disciplinary approach oriented to post-disciplinary horizons. It engages with ‘cultural turns’ in the study of political economy to enhance its interpretive and explanatory power. Intellectually CPE originated in a synthesis of critical discourse analysis, critical political economy, neo-Gramscian state theory, neo-Gramscian International Political Economy, the regulation approach, feminism, postcolonialism, governmentality and governance studies. This two-day post-disciplinary conference will give researchers and post-graduate students an opportunity to examine and debate the philosophical and methodological foundations of CPE and to explore its substantive implications for research. It invites discussion at the interface of ‘cultural turns’, critical realism, critical discourse analysis and political economy. Specifically, it focuses on the cultural (and semiotic) dimensions of political economy considered both as a field of inquiry and as an ensemble of social relations. In the light of multiple crises at many sites and scales in the global economic, political, and social order, the organizers invite papers that address theoretical or substantive aspects of the changing nature and dynamic of contemporary social formations and identities.

Potential topics might include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Cultural Turns and Critical Realism
• Critical Discourse Analysis and Political Economy
• Intersectionalism and Political Economy
• Marx, Gramsci and Foucault
• Social Relations, Everyday Life and Subjectivities
• State, Governance and Governmentality
• Discourse, Power and Space
• Global Capitalism, Crises and Imagined Recovery
• Globalization of Production, Retail and Finance
• Finance, Austerity and Debt
• Work, Employment, Body and Embodiment
• Competition, Competitiveness and Resilience
• Globalization, Education and Societies
• Sustainability and Green Capitalism
• Inequalities of Wealth and Income
• Subalternity, Social Movements and Resistance

Abstracts of 200-250 words should be sent to n.sum@lancaster.ac.uk by 5:00pm on 29th June 2015.