Bringing production back into development

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Production was at the heart of economics from the days of Classical economics. However, with the rise of Neoclassical economics in the late 19th century, production has lost its status as the ultimate interest of economics. Several opportunities for fruitful integration of alternative streams of economics research—Evolutionary, Structuralist and Keynesian in particular—have also been missed. Even the humanist approaches to development, such as Sen’s Human Capability Approach, paid little attention to the domain of production. The fragmentation of the production-centred paradigm has weakened both academic research and policymaking related to economic development.

This special issue of the European Journal of Development Research, is a contribution to the emerging attempt to bring production back into development. We have collected eight original articles that use state-of-the-art theoretical developments and empirical evidence to evaluate the recent changes in various aspects of the domain of production, with a focus on developing countries. The launch event will offer an opportunity to discuss why a renewed ‘productionist’ agenda is essential in addressing the structural challenges faced by developing countries, even more so after the pandemic, and how to do so.

Speakers

2PM: Panel discussion 1
Bringing Production Back: Theoretical perspectives on productive capabilities, linkages, and digitalisation

• Ha-Joon Chang (Cambridge University)
• Maria Savona (University of Sussex)
• Fiona Tregenna (SARChi University of Johannesburg)
• Mateus Labrunie (University of Cambridge)
• Spencer Henson (University of Guelph)

3PM: Panel discussion 2
Bringing Production Back: Emerging themes in competition, global value chains, sustainability and financialisation

• Antonio Andreoni (UCL IIPP)
• Keun Lee (Seoul University)
• Pamela Mondliwa (CCRED University of Johannesburg)
• Sophie van Huellen (SOAS University of London)
• John Rand (University of Copenhagen)

• Amir Lebdioui (London School of Economics)

 Volume 33, Issue 2, April 2021

Open access until the end of April 2021: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41287/volumes-issues/latest-issue

Read more about the IIPP seminar series 2020-2021