CAUGHT BETWEEN THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION AND A CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY

Feminist Economics Responses and Imaginations for the Future

Rome, Italy, 3–5 July 2024

The theme of IAFFE’s 32nd Annual Conference aspires to provoke critical reflection on feminist economics responses to two of the defining features of the current economic and political landscape: the technological breakthroughs of a digital economy on the one hand, and a crisis of democracy, political polarization, and backlash on the other.

Conference Chair, İpek İlkkaracan (Istanbul Technical University) has, with IAFFE’s Conference Program Committee, crafted a rich and varied Conference. You can expect paper presentations on cutting-edge Feminist Economics research from around the world, dynamic round table and panel discussions, workshops, poster sessions and much more. The full program will be published on our Conference website in April.
You may read the Call for Papers below, but please note that the deadline for submissions has now passed.
La versione italiana dell’Invito a presentare proposte è disponibile qui.    La convocatoria de ponencias en español está aquí.
Most sessions will be in-person. All plenaries and a varied set of paper presentations, panels and roundtables will be hybrid or remote.
Due to unprecedented demand, IAFFE is limiting the number of onsite participants to 670, so we encourage you to register soon if you wish to participate in-person. Registration for online participation will remain open until June.

All presenters and panelists must register for the Conference, whether participating in-person or remotely.

We look forward to engaging with you in Rome in July 2024.

For further information, please visit the Conference website or contact [email protected]

Poster Sessions
  • Poster exhibits will be accessible during Conference hours on July 4 and 5.
  • A Poster Session chaired by the Conference Chair, İpek İllkaracan, is scheduled for 4 July.

Pre-Conference & Mentoring Workshop

 The Pre-Conference & Mentoring Workshop will take place at Sapienza University in Rome on 2nd July from 3 - 6 pm. It will be accessible free of charge to Conference participants. Please find more information here. 

If you would like to attend, please register here by May 31. 

Register for the Pre-Conference Workshop here
Interpretation/Translation
  • IAFFE is endeavouring to ensure interpretation for as many of the Conference sessions as possible. The Rome Conference’s main languages will be English, Italian and Spanish.

____

CALL FOR PAPERS
32nd IAFFE Annual Conference | July 3-5, 2024
Rome, Italy

La versione italiana dell’Invito a presentare proposte è disponibile qui.
La convocatoria de ponencias en español está aquí.

An in-person conference, with some remote and hybrid sessions

CAUGHT BETWEEN THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION AND A CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY
Feminist Economics Responses and Imaginations for the Future

Technological advances such as artificial intelligence, 3-D printers and digitalization bring the utopian visions of an egalitarian abundance economy akin to Trekonomics ever closer. Yet the current political landscape characterized by authoritarian populism, political and social polarization, evokes a dystopian Handmaid’s Tale economy. The potential for improved wellbeing-for-all offered by technological breakthroughs is hindered by the persisting neoliberal economic paradigm and receding political spaces. There is widespread acknowledgement of the ecological crisis, the cost of living and economic crisis, vast inequalities in income and wealth distribution, a crisis of politics and democracy, a crisis of care, the migration crisis and armed conflicts, all of which intertwine through their different dimensions. But the gap between diagnosis of problems and implementation of effective policies remains persistent, as politics fails to provide solutions. Instead, it is increasingly characterized by governance failures at multiple levels. An alarming factor is the strong backlash against the progress achieved by feminist, LGBTQ+ and human rights movements, culminating in a regime of gender apartheid in some places. Many, in particular the younger generations, feel alienated from political spaces, struggling to identify with any political party or movement, facilitating emergence of political homelessness.

Against this backdrop, the 2024 Conference theme aspires to provoke critical reflection on feminist economics responses to the present and imaginations of the future. We invite debates on the following questions: What are the contributions of feminist economics to interpreting the current global landscape of multiple intertwined crises and rapid technological change? Where do women stand in their heterogeneous identities, as subjects and agents in the crisis of democracy, polarization and rising authoritarianism? What are the forward-looking strategies, concrete solutions and models that emerge from feminist economics towards reaping the benefits of technological change for all towards an egalitarian, sustainable and resilient economic order? To what extent does feminist economics carry the potential to provide an ideological home to women, younger generations and others who wish to see progressive policies?

This Conference will provide a forum for scholarship and inquiry that recognizes the interdisciplinary nature and methodological pluralism of our field, and that addresses the question of how progressive economists can affect policy in today’s increasingly polarized political landscape. We accept paper, poster, session and panel proposals which engage in feminist economics inquiry of a broad range of issues at the theoretical, empirical, policy and action levels.