Allied Social Science Association Annual Meeting

San Diego, CA: January 3-5 (Friday to Sunday), 2020

THEME: 2020: A Vision for Economics and Social-Political Economy

The number 2020 is replete with meaning and suggestive of many possibilities.

2020 implies that one has good vision, that one can see clearly what is going on and read what is happening now in front of us. It also implies that one can engage in social-economic inquiry that is able to see far ahead– the dangers lurking on the horizon and how we might deal with them. 2020 is also a Presidential election year in the US, maybe the most important one that has taken place in the past century. 2020 is important not only for the US. African leaders launched a 2020 initiative in 2011. The World Bank set a goal of universal financial access by 2020; the International Planned Parenthood Federation made gender equality a 2020 goal. The European Commission developed a 10-year strategy for growth and developed, Europe 2020.

While all paper and session proposals are welcome for the ASSA conference in San Diego, preference will be given to those addressing the 2020 theme.

In particular, I would welcome proposals that examine the vision (or lack thereof) in the economics profession, some professional blind spots, whether economics has done better over the past few decades and how it might be propelled to do better in the future. Likewise, I am interested in papers that address issues of race, gender and sexual orientation both in relationship to the economics profession and to the larger social economy– especially whether we are we moving towards greater equality, and what can be done to enhance diversity and equality in the future within the discipline and within the economy.

Also, I welcome papers with a clear policy focus– particularly on issues such as (to name just a few) poverty and inequality, the environment, debt (consumer, corporate and government), education, health care, retirement, labor relations, government regulation and corporate governance. Papers need not focus on the US. Analyses of policies employed in other countries, or across countries, with lessons that may be useful for the US and the US President in 2021 would fit well into this theme, as would analyses of other 2020 initiatives around the world.

Paper proposals and complete sessions are welcome. The submission deadline is April 30, 2019. Please include, for each paper, author names, affiliations, and emails, plus an abstract of around 250 words explaining how the paper fits within social economics, and (preferably) the theme in this Call for Proposals. Individuals whose papers are accepted for presentation must either be or become members of the Association for Social Economics by June 30, 2019 to be included in the program. Membership information can be found at www.socialeconomics.org. All papers presented at the ASSA meetings are eligible for the Warren Samuels Prize, awarded to the best paper advancing the goals of social economics and with widespread appeal.

Due to limited session slots, we cannot accept all submissions. Papers and sessions not accepted for the ASE program will be automatically considered for the ASE portion of the ICAPE conference, held right after the ASSA meetings. See icape.org for details.

Submissions and questions should be sent to Steven Pressman:

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