This description of the Call for Papers has been taken from the Call’s website:
LIEPP (Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies), in partnership with the Sciences Po’s Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) and TIERED (Transforming Interdisciplinary Education and Research for Evolving Democracies) project, is issuing a call for papers for the workshop “What is Economic Planning? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives”, which will take place at Sciences Po Paris on 10 and 11 December 2026.
You can read the full CfP here.
The Workshop
From the economic rescue measures of the COVID-19 crisis to the European Central Bank’s role during the Eurozone crisis, via the energy transition and China’s economic trajectory, several recent episodes have revived interest in economic planning, now debated in think tanks, among policymakers and in public discourse.
Yet the concept remains vague, and its history fragmented across disciplines (political economy, intellectual history, political theory) that rarely engage with one another. This workshop aims to bring together scholars from different fields to examine what planning is, its political dimensions, and what happens when it moves from idea to practice.
Three axis
- Axis 1 | What is planning? Can we speak of a unified history of planning, given the diversity of its uses and proponents? Is it a plural tradition, a distinct subfield of historiography, or simply a political slogan?
- Axis 2 | The Politics of Planning. From utopian ideal to concrete bureaucratic infrastructure: case studies on the historical inspirations behind planning practices, their institutionalisation, and the reasons behind the end of post-war planning experiments in Europe.
- Axis 3 | The Relevance of Planning Today? What can be learned from past successes and failures for current proposals, across Europe, China and beyond — including for central banks?
Practical Details
- Submission: abstract of up to 500 words + short CV
- Deadline: 12 October 2026
- Contact: zoe.evrard@uclouvain.be and thomas.kayzel@sciencespo.fr
- Notification of results: 20 October 2026
- Full papers due: 1 December 2026
- Limited funds are available to cover accommodation and travel costs.
You can read the full CfP here.