CfP: "History of Ecological Economics and Theory of Natural Capital"

Call for Papers for an online conference devoted to the "History of Ecological Economics and Theory of Natural Capital". The conference will take place digitally from January 28 to 29, 2022.

Although it had important antecedents in the nineteenth century, ecological economics is usually related to the thinking of twentieth century biologists and economists, including Kenneth E. Boulding, Howard T. Odum, Robert Costanza, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, and Herman E. Daly, among many others. The initial debate on the entropic nature of the economic process gave rise to a systematic questioning of neoclassical economics and its basic foundations, such as the assumption of the circular flow of exchange value. A new generation of economists sensitive to environmental issues sought to elaborate alternative economic models based on steady-state economics and on a theory of natural value. The successive energy crises of 1973 and 1979-1980 gave definitive impulse for institutional support to, and consolidation of, this type of approach, previously considered heterodox.

 

This international conference aims to focus on the history of ecological economics and the theory of natural capital, on the process of formation of ecological economics as a scientific discipline, and on the controversies that surrounded its formation.

We look forward to proposals addressing any of following areas of interest:

• Authors and topics related to the history of ecological economics and its process of disciplinary formation.

• The historical influences and relationships between the environmental sciences and ecological economics.

• The reception of classical thermodynamics in ecological economics.

• Controversies related to the use of neoclassical methodologies in the estimation of the value of natural capital or of the dangers of commodifying the biosphere.

• Explanations as to why ecological economics fails to persuade many economists, even though, as a scientific discipline, it has been growing in importance for several decades.

Please, send proposals of no more than 500 words to Alberto Fragio no later than November 1, 2021.