Dear Political Economy of Europe researchers,
We hope that you are well and that your work has not been held back too much by the pandemic.
First, we would like to introduce ourselves, since we only managed to meet a small subset of our increasingly populous working group. Salome, Stefano and I are very excited to begin our two-year term as coordinators, during which we would like to first and foremost get to know you and your research. To facilitate this task we have added a little bio at the bottom of this message with some (hopefully) interesting questions and ideas we are juggling with these days. Please do feel free to drop us an email if you happen to share some of these thoughts, or just to say hi!
Secondly, we would like to update you briefly on some of the things that are happening in the YSI galaxy that are particularly important for our working group. You have probably heard already that the next YSI Virtual Plenary is coming up soon (mid November). This will be a great chance to hang out all together, get feedback on our work and absorb as much new inputs as possible. With the help of Malthe and Volodymyr we have put together a Call for Papers. Make sure to check it out and send your work!
Beside the academic element, the Plenary will also be the right time to set up a new roadmap for the Working Group after it has remained relatively quiet in the past year. Indeed, during the Plenary we will have time to meet and discuss what the academic priorities of our group should be, which partnership we would like to set up and how to best . In other terms, we will draft a new Mandate. Of course, this document will have to build on what we think are the most important questions and issues Europe is — and will be– facing. So much has happened in the Old Continent in the past 2 months!
The idea is thus to draft a State of The Field Report that gathers our ideas on how the current crisis is affecting and shifting research questions and priorities.
So much already.. But fear not, we will come back to you with more information on this soon.
In the meantime we are working towards setting up a calendar for the beginning of the academic year, where we will introduce webinars, working paper seminars, a book club, a Mandate Discussion Group. These activities will help us getting to know each other more and allow us to provide a first input to the State of The Field Report that will be essential to draft the new Working Group mandate. Therefore, stay tuned and reach out with your ideas!
We are looking forward to meeting you!
Best wishes,
Stefano, also on behalf of Salome and Stefano DB
Salome is from Tbilisi, Georgia but lives in Berlin, where she is working on her PhD about the feasibility of industrial policy in open economies. She holds M.A. in Political Economy of European Integration from the Berlin School of Economics and Law. Her interests include analysing peculiarities of economic transition of the former Soviet countries and their integration into global division of labour. For non-scholarly activities, Salome loves black and white photography and listening to jazz music. (get in touch!)
Stefano (M.) comes from the Italian Alps, but is now living in a couple of meters below sea level in the Netherlands where he is completing a PhD project at the John Stuart Mill College (VU Amsterdam). He is an economist by training but has now moved his research focus towards more normative-philosophical questions: which ideal of democracy should be employed to analyse the Economic and Monetary Union? What role should non-majoritarian institutions play in this system? His favourite philosopher is Philip Pettit, but if he has some free time he’d rather read Daniel Dennet’s latest book. (get in touch!)
Stefano (D.B.) works as a post-doc research fellow in economics at the University of Siena. In the last academic year he has also been visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin. His research agenda includes topic such as the Secular Stagnation theory, financialization, history of economic thought and the modern reappraisal of the Classical-Marxian surplus approach. Stefano is also an amateur drummer and loves watching movies. (get in touch!)