INDEP

INDEP online Talk with Al Campbell on Protagonistic Planned Socialism (PROPLASO) and Human Development
2025-10-15 17:00 - 18:30 UTC | Online
Social discontent with the existing world capitalist system is high and increasing. Many people look for major reforms of the capitalist system (some progressive, quite a few reactionary). A major part of those who to the contrary think capitalism must be replaced with an alternative system, consider themselves in favor of some type of socialism or communism. The ideas about what constitutes socialism or communism vary greatly, with some general consensus on some core ideas and a broad spectrum of different ideas about other issues (hence the need for ongoing social discussions and experiments concerning these).
In this talk Al Campbell will very briefly discuss 1) the question of why society should replace capitalism, 2) the historical relation of pre-figurative visions of alternative systems to what exists to the development of such alternatives, 3) the Goldilocks dilemma for visions of an alternative society from the point of human development, 4) the DPS (Democratic Planned Socialism) family of vision (and its importance as a family), and 5) the three pillars of PROPLASO (Protagonistic Planned Socialism). At least the following six issues about which there is much ongoing discussions and debates among advocates of socialism will be discussed in the course of discussing the above 5 points – a) capitalist exploitation without wage labor, b) the nature of wages in a socialist system, c) consumer councils, d) the possibility of simple commodity production and producers in a socialist system, e) the possibility of required socialist planning if the system has markets, and f) money in a socialist system (and beyond that, whatever else hopefully comes up in the questions).
This event will be in English.
To participate, please register here.

Introductory Talk on Labour Time Accounting by IDA
2025-10-16 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | AZ Mühlheim, Auerstr. 51, Mülheim an der Ruhr, North Rhine-Westphalia, 45468, Germany
The IDA (Initiative demokratische Arbeitszeitrechnung/Initiative democratic Labour Time Accounting) is giving two introductory talks on the concept of democratic Labour Time Accounting in the Ruhrgebiet area of Germany. Both events will be in German.

Introductory Talk on Labour Time Accounting by IDA
2025-10-17 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Black Pigeon Dortmund, Scharnhorststr. 50, Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, 44147, Germany

Is Democratic Socialist Planning Possible? - A Conversation with Christoph Sorg
2025-10-23 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Denver) | UC Santa Cruz, Rachel Carson Red Room, Student Commons, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, Santa Cruz, 95064, United States
This description is copied from the event flyer:
This talk explores the resurgence of economic planning debates, arguing that planning has expanded under capitalism rather than declined. It revisits the socialist calculation debate and reviews three planning models: Keynesian, Neurathian, and Polanyian. Emaphasizing Polanyian planning, Sorg highlights its potential for democratizing surplus allocation, decommodifying essential goods, and advancing digital-ecological approaches to price-setting.
Christoph Sorg is a social scientist at Humboldt University Berlin and guest researcher at UC Berkeley. His work focuses on capitalism, economic planning, and social reproduction, combining insights from economic sociology and political economy. He recently co-edited Rethinking Economic Planning (Competition & Change) and Creative Construction: Democratic Planning in the 21st Century (Bristol University Press).

Online Talk - Utopia in the Factory - Prefigurative Knowledge Against Cybernetics
2025-10-27 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | Online
Online talk by Rhiannon Firth & John Preston on their new book Utopia in the Factory. Prefigurative Knowledge Against Cybernetics. Find the link to the respective Zoom call here, or on the event’s website.
The description is taken from the event’s website:

The idea that automation, AI and Robotics might lead to a utopian future for humanity is a powerful one both in mainstream and radical discourse.
The paradigm of ‘Industry 4.0’ where digital manufacturing enables the seamless production of goods (and services) and ‘lights out’ factories where machines and robots effortlessly produce for our future needs and wants are powerful drivers of a capitalist, free market cybertopia. For some radicals, technology and automation produce the conditions for a Fully Automated Luxury Communism, drawing on an interpretation of Marx, where human work would be replaced by a life of leisure and abundance for all. For others, an earlier discourse – cybernetics – and the use of AI and social media in communication and co-ordination enable forms of radical organisation through ‘anarchist cybernetics’.
This book questions that technological optimism – particularly cybernetics, automation and AI – through a critique of these technologies and organisational forms. Cybernetics and corresponding technologies and forms (particularly Industry 4.0) can never capture human forms of creativity and working practices. Furthermore, there are similar problems with the ‘cybernetic paradigm’ as a radical form of organisation or social movement in terms of human autonomy, creativity, desire and social prefiguration.
As counterpoint the book shows, through empirical evidence and drawing on interviews with workers or activists in a variety of organizational forms, that tacit knowledge and autonomous and spontaneous human projects (what the authors define as ‘hobbying’) are critical in the physical act of making and co-operating.

Speakers
Rhiannon Firth is Lecturer in Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education, University College London. She is interested in anti-authoritarian organising within, against and beyond the crises of capitalism. Her research focuses on grassroots utopias, mutual aid and the pedagogical and prefigurative practices of radical social movements.
John Preston is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex. He has pioneered an original stream of research in the sociology of disasters and existential threats. His work also explores the sociology of education and, most recently, skills and AI.

INDEP online Talk with CibCom on Cybernetics, Planning and Democracy
2025-10-27 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/Paris) | Online
In this event CibCom (acronym for Cibercomunismo), an interdisciplinary research group from the Spanish speaking world, will introduce themselves and their work. They argue that the idea of the market as the best possible resource allocator has long been surpassed by advances in digital technology. Corporations already plan their production and distribution on a global scale through cybernetic systems processing vast amounts of data in real time. The only remaining question is in whose service economic planning is done – Planning in the hands of the oligarchy, and thus based on private profit? Or democratic planning addressing social needs? They claim that for the first time, the tools exist to make the latter real: a global cybernetic system for the people, coordinating the production process based on real-time feedback.
The event will be in English.
To participate, please register through this link.
Please note that this event will take place after daylight savings in european timezones.

Launch of Common Wealth's "Green Planning Commission"
2025-10-30 19:00 - 21:30 UTC | October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AL, United Kingdom
The event description is copied from the event’s eventbrite page, please register there to attend.
The event will be in English.

“Green Planning Commission Launch by Common Wealth in London.
Building a new era of green democratic planning
A panel discussion and reception to launch the Common Wealth Green Planning Commission.
—-
Common Wealth is launching a transatlantic Green Planning Commission to rethink the politics and practice of planning to recover a democratic and decarbonised future from the crises of our age.
Join us in London on Thursday 30th of October to discuss on the state of decarbonisation in domestic and global context, the changing frontiers of climate action, and how green democratic planning can underpin a decisive progressive consensus, programme, and winning coalition.
—-
Chaired by Sarah Nankivell, Common Wealth
Featuring:

Carolina Alves, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Melanie Brusseler, Common Wealth
Richard Kozul-Wright, SOAS
Mathew Lawrence, Common Wealth

Location: The October Gallery,
24 Old Gloucester St, London WC1N 3AL
Time: 19:00 – 21:30
19:00 – 20:00: Panel Discussion
20:00-21:30: Drinks Reception
—-
Please register in advance as we have limited capacity.”

Art Exhibition "Planning" by Raphael Arar
2025-11-01 17:00 - 2025-11-30 17:00 (America/Denver) | Carnation Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR, 97217, United States
The description is taken from the website of the event.
“Opening Reception
Saturday, November 1, 5-8 pm
Open Hours
Sat-Sun 12-5 pm
drop in or by appointment
Email info@carnationcontemporary.com
to schedule a visit
EXHIBITION
In Planning, Raphael Arar extends his research-based art practice into the terrain of collective decision-making. The exhibition moves between earnest proposals and playful provocations, between technical schemas and poetic operations. Each piece navigates the design challenges of organizing ourselves differently, treating economic coordination as both practical problem and aesthetic proposition. The works assemble fragments of other possibilities, leaving open the question of what democratic economic planning might look like.

ARTIST
Raphael Arar works at the nexus of complex systems, transdisciplinary design and arts-based research. His work highlights the social, political and economic implications of technological acceleration and human-to-machine interaction. His artwork has been exhibited at venues internationally including the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, The Science Gallery, Moscow Museum of Applied Art, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Gamble House Museum, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, and Athens Video Art Festival. Notable commissions include Noema Magazine, Goethe Institut, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Intel Labs and IBM Research. Commercially, his design work has been featured in publications including Forbes, TED, Inc. Magazine, FastCompany, Wired and others.”

INDEP online Talk with Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell on Radical Abundance
2025-11-04 18:00 - 19:30 UTC | Online
Capitalism has created a world of bullshit abundance, where we have too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we do. Through this system’s relentless pursuit of profits, we have been put on a collision course with social and ecological limits that can no longer be ignored. We need an alternative. We need radical abundance. A world of human and non-human flourishing made possible by democratically planned production. But radical abundance can’t just be voted into existence through parliamentary means, it must be made by taking control of our collective reproduction in the here and now.
Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green Democratic Future examines what a transition to a world of radical abundance looks like and lays out a concrete strategy for achieving it. Join the authors Kai Heron, Keir Milburn, and Bertie Russell as they discuss their book and their attempts to build democratic economic planning from below.
The event will be in English.
To participate, please register here.

INDEP online Talk with Dennis Yao on Political, Theoretical, and Computational Models of Social Worlds
2025-11-08 16:00 - 16:45 UTC | Online
This talk considers the role of politics in the construction of systems of democratic planning. The thesis is that planning systems are downstream of theoretical models of society, and theoretical models are downstream of politics. But what makes a political question different from a theoretical one? The definition of a good model may change as we shift registers. And what guarantees do we have that the tools we build for democratic planning will be responsive to these questions?
For example, there may be various demands that a planning system should operate the same regardless of your position in society. But then this implies taking into account those positions which may be exogenous to the system. The definition of success thereby becomes bounded to historical-political processes. We will consider a framework for incorporating this type of social information in the case of computer simulations, as well as the challenges of deploying such computational models.
Dennis Yao is a member of the Subset of Theoretical Practice.
The event will be in English.
To participate, register here.
Photo by Bioscience Image Library by Fayette Reynolds on Unsplash.

Bimodal seminar with Jason W. Moore: Postcapitalism in the Web of Life?
2025-11-12 19:00 - 20:30 UTC | UQAM PK Hall Room PK2205, 201 Av. du Président-Kennedy, Montréal, Québec, H2X 2J5, Canada
Jason Moore offers a critique of capitalism as a way of organizing planetary life. We would like to have a prospective discussion on how planetary life could be organized after capitalism. The conclusion of “L’écologie-monde du capitalisme” is entitled “Vers le Prolétarocène”; what form could this new relationship with our planet take? What would its institutions, productive forms, symbolic mediations, and ways of allocating resources be? What must be done to avoid returning to or reproducing the Capitalocene?
This seminar is bimodal. People are welcome to join online, but priority will be given to in-person discussion. This seminar is not an introduction to Jason W. Moore’s work; participants are expected to be familiar with his work to engage in the discussion.
To register for online participation: https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/5M5TYijKR0egHz2JpJcZpA
This seminar is organized by the research group on democratic economic planning of the Research Center on Social Innovation and Transformation (CRITS) and the Atelier d’écologie sociale du capitalisme avancé (ESCA).

Workshop "Mit Plan gegen die Klimakatastrophe"
2025-11-15 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | Linkes Zentrum Freiburg (LiZ), Glümerstraße 2, Freiburg im Breisgrau, Baden-Württemberg, 79102, Germany
Dieser Workshop findet als Teil der “Kritischen Einführungstage Freiburg” statt.
Die Beschreibung des Workshops ist aus dem Programm entnommen:
“In dem Workshop werden wir auf aktuelle Ansätze zu einer Alternative zum fossilen Kapitalismus eingehen. Wir möchten anschließend gemeinsam mit euch Fragen der Ökologie, der Reichtumsverteilung und eines erstrebenswerten politischen Systems, diskutieren. Es wird Snacks geben. Es sind keine Vorkenntnisse nötig!”
Die Veranstaltung wird auf Deutsch stattfinden.

CibCom reading club on the economic system of early North Korea
2025-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/Paris) | Online
Description in English:
On November 20th at 19:00 CET, Cibcom has organized a reading club (in Spanish) to discuss the political economy of North Korea during its first period (centralized planning, the Ch’ŏllima movement, and the Taean system), using the first chapter of Phillip Park’s “History of Economic Management in North Korea” as a basis. To join the meeting, simply access their Discord server. https://discord.gg/DZzn5Y7thw
Description in Spanish (the event’s language):
El 20 de noviembre a las 19:00 CET, Cibcom ha organizado un club de lectura para debatir sobre la economía política de Corea del Norte durante su primer periodo (planificación centralizada, el movimiento Ch’ŏllima y el sistema Taean), utilizando como base el primer capítulo de «History of Economic Management in North Korea», de Phillip Park. Para participar en la reunión, solo hay que acceder a su servidor Discord. https://discord.gg/DZzn5Y7thw

Workshop: 'The Grounds of Planning: Rationality, Pseudorationality, and Critique'
2025-12-04 13:00 - 2025-12-05 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Auditorium, Grimm-Zentrm, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 1-3, Berlin
The description is taken from the organizer’s website:

With keynotes by John O’Neill (University of Manchester) and Aaron Benanav (Cornell University)
and contributions by Rabea Berfelde, Jacob Blumenfeld, Lillian Cicerchia, Solveig Degen, Jan Groos, Max Grünberg, Jakob Heyer, Christian Schmidt, Sandra Sieron and Gabriel Wollner

Topic
What does it mean to plan an economy rationally—and what counts as „rational“? This workshop revisits key moments in the theoretical development of economic planning, from the classic disputes between Hayek, Mises, and Neurath to contemporary debates over ecological rationality and algorithmic coordination. Across four panels and a keynote, we’ll examine how different standards of rationality have been used to justify—or discredit—forms of planning. The aim is not only to reanimate past debates, but to ask how planning might be rethought today given the distinct logic of ecological constraints, technological infrastructures, and political demands for democratic coordination.
This two-day workshop brings together scholars working at the intersection of philosophy, political economy, and critical theory to reflect on the contested rationality of economic planning. How has the concept of planning been shaped by debates over knowledge, value, nature, and technology? What models of rationality—formal, substantive, instrumental—have guided or distorted our visions of a planned economy? And what might planning mean in the face of ecological limits, algorithmic governance, and authoritarian capitalism? The event is organized around four key discussions, framed by classic and contemporary texts, and features two keynotes by John O’Neill and Aaron Benanav.
Discussions will be held in English.

Programme
Thursday, December 4: Past Debates on Planning
13:00–14:45 | Rationality or Pseudorationality
Jacob Blumenfeld / Christian Schmidt / Lillian Cicerchia
Text basis for discussion:
1911 Otto Neurath, “Lost Wanderers of Descartes”
1925 Otto Neurath, “Socialist Utility Calculation and Capitalist Profit Calculation”
14:45-15:15 | Break
15:15–17:00 | Knowledge and the Limits of Planning
Rabea Berfelde / Gabriel Wollner / Jakob Heyer
Text basis for discussion:
1945 Friedrich Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”
17:00-17:30 | Break
17:30 –19:00 | Keynote John O’Neill

Friday, December 5: Present Debates on Planning
10-11:15 | Keynote Aaron Benanav
11:15-11:30 | Break
11:30 –13:00 | Planning Nature
Solveig Degen / Jan Groos
13:00 –14:15 | Lunch
14:15–15:45 | Algorithmic Planning
Max Grünberg / Sandra Sieron
15:45 – 16:00 | Closing
Christian Schmidt, Jacob Blumenfeld, Rabea Berfelde

Download the workshop reader here.

The workshop is free to the public and does not require any registration.

INDEP online Christmas Party
2025-12-16 18:00 - 19:00 UTC | Online
Join us for this year’s INDEP online Christmas party! This is going to be an informal get-together without an agenda to just talk, share and look back at the year together.
To join, please register here.

How do we want to plan the Economy? - Report and Discussion with teilbar e.V.
2025-12-18 20:00 - 22:00 (Europe/Paris) | Im Kiosk, Augustenstraße 127, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, 70197, Germany
The event will be in German
The description and program are from the flyer of the event:
“Care work and production are currently organized on the basis of domination and separated ownership, leading to unnecessary suffering, environmental disasters, and the climate crisis. Under what circumstances can we plan and organize care work and production in a way that serves life? This question was recently explored in a variety of ways at two conferences on democratic planning in Berlin. On this evening, we want to report on these discussions and ask ourselves: How do we want to plan our economy?”
Program:
20:00 Uhr: Report The State of Economic Planning
20:30 Uhr: Q&A, short break
21:00 Uhr: Discussion How do we want to plan the Economy?
22:00 Uhr: Ending

Talk by Walther Zeug: After the Failure of Really Existing Socialism and Capitalism - Democratic Economic Planning – For a good Life for Everyone within Planetary Boundaries
2026-01-15 19:30 - 21:00 (Europe/Paris) | Stiftung Geißstraße, Geißstraße 7, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, 70173, Germany
This talk will be hosted by ‘Emanzipation & Frieden e.V.‘ The talk will be in German.
Here is the translated description of the event:
What can we learn from the historical failure of real socialism and the current escalating crisis dynamics of capitalism for the possibilities of a post-capitalist economy?
Building on classic and current debates on economic planning as well as new insights and methods from systems science, Jakob Heyer and Walther Zeug have developed an economic model: Cybernetic Democratic Economic Planning (CDEP) – a cybernetic, democratic form of economic planning that aims to enable a good life for all within planetary boundaries.
CDEP is a tool that we could use to decide democratically, fairly, efficiently, and effectively which and how many resources we can and want to use, with which technologies and production systems, to satisfy which social needs.

Talk by Walther Zeug: Democratic Economic Planning - For a good Life for Everyone within Planetary Boundaries
2026-01-22 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Paris) | TU Chemnitz, Raum C10.001 (Orangerie), Reichenhainer Str. 90, Chemnitz, Sachsen, 09126, Germany
This talk is hosted by the group ‘Plurale Ökonomik Chemnitz‘ (heterodox economics Chemnitz). The talk will be held in German.
Here is the translated description of the event:
“What can we learn from the historical failure of really existing socialism and the current escalating crisis dynamics of capitalism for the possibilities of a post-capitalist economy?
We invite you to a presentation by Walther Zeug, in which he will introduce the economic model he developed together with Jakob Heyer: Cybernetic Democratic Economic Planning (CDEP) – a cybernetic, democratic form of economic planning that aims to enable a good life for all within planetary boundaries. CDEP is a tool that we could use to decide democratically, fairly, efficiently, and effectively which and how many resources we can and want to use, with which technologies and production systems, to satisfy which social needs.”

Movie Screening and Discussion on Democratic Collective Firms
2026-01-29 19:30 - 22:00 (Europe/Paris) | Regenbogenfabrik, Berlin, Lausitzer Straße 21a, Berlin, 10999, Germany
IDA (Initiative Demokratische Arbeitszeitrechnung) invites to a screening of the movie “Ohne Chefs – Demokratie bei der Arbeit” (‘Without bosses – democracy at work’). After the movie there will be a discussion with Mario Burbach, the director of the movie, a member of a coffee cooperative from Hamburg that play a role in the movie and with the IDA.
The movie and the discussion will be in German language.
The screening will take place at Regenbogenfabrik, Lausitzer Straße 21a, 10999 Berlin.
More information on the event and about the IDA can be found on their website.

INDEP online Talk with Paul Adler - What Socialist Planning can Learn from Business Management
2026-02-04 18:00 - 19:30 UTC | Online
This event will take place in English.
In order to participate, please register here.

Description:
In his work, Paul Adler has been exploring how large capitalist firms deal with the challenges of corporate planning, and indeed of democracy in planning, aiming to understand what they might teach us about how socialism could deal with similar challenges (albeit at a much wider level and in the context of new relations of production). In his 2019 book, The 99% Economy, he reviewed four principles that he sees operative in leading firms which suggests ways of overcoming four of these challenges—centralization, specialization, standardization, and incentives. In this talk, he will review that argument and dive deeper into centralization, and what we can learn from capitalist firms efforts to combine high levels of centralization with high(er) levels of participation.
Paul Adler is Professor Emeritus at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. He began his education in Australia and completed his graduate studies in France. His research and teaching focus on organization theory and comparative political economy. He has published widely in academic journals, and has edited or co-edited several volumes, the more recent being The Firm as a Collaborative Community: Reconstructing Trust in the Knowledge Economy (2006), The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies: Classical Foundations (2009), and The Oxford Handbook of Sociology, Social Theory and Organization Studies: Contemporary Currents (2015). He co-authored Healing Together: The Labor-Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente (2009), and most recently published The 99% Economy: How Democratic Socialism can overcome the Crises of Capitalism (2019).

Talk by Matthias Zwack: Attempt and Failure of a Utopia - The Self-managed Socialism in Yugoslavia
2026-02-06 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/Paris) | translib, Lütznerstraße 30, Leipzig, Sachsen, 04227, Germany
The event will take place in German.
The description has been taken and translated from the event website.
“An open society, grassroots democracy, and direct worker control over firms—in the midst of the Cold War, Yugoslav communists attempted to implement something that today sounds like a distant utopia. Yugoslavia’s “socialist democracy” sought to overcome both the state and capital. The people were to decide for themselves on all matters of social life.
For decades, the Yugoslav model inspired political and economic scientists, critical thinkers, social protests, and reform movements on both sides of the Iron Curtain – until it collapsed in a series of bloody civil wars at the end of the 1980s.
Did Yugoslavia fail because of the supremacy of its communist party, which was unwilling to relinquish its power? Or did the self-management system ultimately create the causes for its own demise? Can the Yugoslav model only be evaluated in terms of its demise? Or does the focus on its failure obscure the possibilities and potential it held?
In a brief journey through time into this almost forgotten chapter of left-wing history, the lecture sets out to search for clues: What can we learn from the Yugoslav experience for today’s perspectives on a better future?”

Seminar: "Planning and Autonomous Control: Reappraising the Cases for Economic Planning in Socialism" by Sergey Steblev
2026-02-10 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Online
The REAL-Postgrowth project (Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal) hosts an online-talk on “Planning and Autonomous Control: Reappraising the Cases for Economic Planning in Socialism” with the doctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB, Sergey Steblev as part of their monthly public seminar series.
If non-market socialists want to overcome commodity production, does it mean that a socialist economy must be “planned”? What is the difference between planning and non-planning? In this talk, I will define economic planning more precisely; show why “”the market”” is not the only alternative to planning; and discuss what and why should be planned in a socialist economic system. The essence of planning is determination of production (or investment) rates by future needs ascertained a priori. Non-market socialism does not logically presuppose planning, because the system can be coordinated via autonomous control: economic mechanisms that can function without either a priori decided needs or commodity exchange and are based on local feedback. However, socialism still needs to plan some production and investment, should it be interested in three goals: the avoidance of slow, wasteful, and turbulent regulation; the negotiation of structural change; the pursuit of aggregate-level socio-environmental goals. Non-market socialism can use autonomous control as its minimal basis and complement it with planning.
Sergey Steblev is a doctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB and is part of the REAL – A Post Growth Deal project. His current research examines how socialism for the twenty first century can work, as well as conflictual dynamics of radical eco-social reforms in the context of capitalism.
Find more information on the online-event and the link for the broadcast here.

Talk and Discussion: A Plan to Save the Future from Collaps: Half Earth Socialism
2026-02-11 17:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | Museum für Naturkunde, Invalidenstraße 43, Berlin, Berlin, 10115, Germany
The description is taken from the event’s website and has been translated into English.
The event will take place in English.
“Troy Vettese in conversation with Dirk Baecker and Maike Weißpflug
Moderation: Alexander Karschnia
An important legacy of naturalist E.O. Wilson is his book “Half-Earth.” In it, he calls on us to leave half of the globe to nature. Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass take up this call in “HALF EARTH SOCIALISM.” For them, the only alternative to rewilding is gigantic geoengineering programs. To illustrate the danger of such domination of nature, they read the classics of neoliberal literature against the grain. Hayek’s thesis of “agnotology,” or unknowability, is turned on its head: it is not markets but ecosystems that are too complex to regulate. Can this idea form the basis for ecological policy in times of impending collapse?
Entry is free, but requires registration.
The event is part of the event series Brecht-Days 2026”

Discussion About Moving Beyond Capitalism
2026-02-23 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Jerome Greene Hall, 435 W. 116 St., New York, NY 10027 Room/Area: 101, Jerome Greene Hall, New York City, NY, 10027, United States
The Center for Political Economy at Columbia University will be holding a discussion on how to move beyond capitalism.
The discussion will be held in English.
To participate, please register here.
The description of the discussion has been taken from the event website:
“We invite you to join the Center for Political Economy on Monday, February 23 at 6pm for a scholarly discussion of alternative approaches to moving beyond capitalism. The discussion will be centered around Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law and Center Co-Director Katharina Pistor’s new book, The Law of Capitalism and How to Transform It, and recent essays in the New Left Review entitled Beyond Capitalism written by Aaron Benanav, Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. Columbia Professors Suresh Naidu (Economics) and Jeremy Kessler (Law) will join Pistor and Benanav as discussants.

Event Contact Information:
Center for Political Economy
politicaleconomy@columbia.edu“

INDEP online Talk with Kyle Thompson and James Macumber - Lessons of Cybernetics for Democratic Economic Planning
2026-02-24 18:00 - 19:30 UTC | Online
This event is part of the INDEPxMetaphorum Online Talk Series for Stafford Beer’s Centennial.
This event will take place in English.
To participate, please register here.
The polycrisis of economic inequality, climate change, and widespread political instability has lead to many looking for new and viable alternatives. The current political and economic order of capitalism has shown itself to be incapable of addressing these existential threats to our society. The field of DEP argues that important decisions over production, reproduction, consumption, distribution, investment – and, indeed, about our lives in general – should be determined consciously and collectively via democratic processes rather than by state authorities or market forces.
The rapid growth in interest in democratic economic planning (DEP) over the past two years has given birth to a diversity of publications, policies, and initiatives. However, the discourse across continents has still remained isolated to a degree, preventing like-minded members of the DEP community from learning from each other and from the different approaches in development. Among the avenues of investigation which has not received an in-depth treatment are the fields of cybernetics and systems theory. This talk from Kyle Thompson (General Intellect Unit) and James Macumber will present the fundamentals of cybernetics in the context of economics with reference to modern examples and contemporary research. This talks’ aim is to demonstrate cybernetics’ continued relevance for DEP.

Conference: What Can the Market Do? What Can Planning Do?
2026-03-04 11:30 - 2026-03-06 00:30 (Europe/Paris) | Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, Schlossstraße 2+4, Tutzing, Bavaria, 82327, Germany
To participate, please register here. The deadline for registrations is February 18. Prices for participation are on a sliding scale, depending which services you choose to claim. For more detailed info, see the section “Preise & Informationen” on the event website.
This conference will be in German.
The description below has beeen taken and translated from the event website:
“COORDINATING ECONOMIC PROCESSES – BUT HOW?
Market coordination and planning are no longer considered irreconcilable opposites. In light of the polycrisis comprising the climate crisis, technological upheavals, and massive trade and geopolitical interventions, the question of how collective goals can be achieved democratically and efficiently is increasingly being raised anew. Digital control instruments, demands for ecological economic planning in line with planetary boundaries, and the geo-economic orientation of global supply chains provide opportunities to reflect on the potential of markets and planning for coordinating economic processes.
At the same time, complex transformation processes—from the energy transition to industrial policy—require hybrid solutions: decentralized spaces for experimentation and central coordination, artificial markets, and decentralized mechanisms can be part of the toolbox, but they have clear limitations. How can planning and the market be combined in such a way that democratic processes become fully effective with regard to the major issues of the future that affect everyone?
How can the market and planning be combined in a complex world of transformation in which technocratic planning concepts and perfectly functioning markets are equally obsolete?
Of interest here are, on the one hand, the hybrids mentioned above—planning elements in capitalist markets—and, on the other hand, alternative concepts of democratic economic planning, as initiated by new debates in recent years. This opens up a field spanning two different yet combinable poles, whose history, variants, and theoretical foundations, as well as changes brought about by big data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence, offer a differentiated view of potentials and limitations in the face of transformative challenges.
Our conference offers the opportunity to take up this debate and critically develop it further, both theoretically and in terms of its practical implications. For the open part, we invite researchers from the economic, social, and cultural sciences, as well as representatives from the field, to present their research in parallel panel sessions.”
For more information on the conference, please contact this email: niedermaier[at]ev-akademie-tutzing.de
Conference Program:
Wednesday, March 4th
Arrival from 11.30
12.30 – Start of conference with snack
13.30 – Welcome & Introdcution – Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klüh & Katharina Hirschbrunn
I. Debates on market and plan yesterday and today
14.15 – Market vs. plan in the ecological transformation – Prof. Dr. Oliver Schlaudt
15.15 – Coffee, tea & cake
15.45 – Political economy of market-based criticism of community economies and socialist planning – Dr. David Mayer
17.00 – What can markets and prices do? Functions, problems, limits – Prof. Dr. Richard Sturn
18.00 – Dinner
20.00 – Biophysical limits and necessities of planning – Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sven Linow
21.30 – Encounters and conversations in the salons
Tursday, March 5th
07.45 – Morningprayer in the castle chapel
08.00 – Breakfast
II. Why planning? Why now?
On the renaissance of the planning debate
09.00 – Limits of the conceptions of markets and transformationprocesses in economics – Dr. Christiane Heisse
10.15 – Coffeebreak
10.45 – After the failure of really existing socialism and capitalism: cybernetic and democratic economic planning for a good life within planetary boundaries – Dr.-Ing Walther Zeug
11.30 – Planning the transition of our heating system: the example district heating – N.N.
12.30 – Lunch
14.00 – Plenary discussion
III. Economic policy praxis of planning and critical discussion
14.15 – Economic planning and industrial policy: chinese experience and current practices – Dr. Rainer Land
15.30 – Coffee, tea & cake
16.00 – Open conference part based on the call for papers
18.00 – Dinner
19.30 – Encounters and conversations in the salons
Friday, March 6th
07.45 – Morningprayer in the castle chapel
08.00 – Breakfast
09.00 – Critique of the planning debate from a feminist perspective – Dr. Heide Lutosch
10.15 – The political-economic and political-ecological limits of planning – Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klüh
11.00 – Coffeebreak
11.30 – Concluding discussion
12.30 – Ending of conference with lunch

INDEP online Talk with Angela Espinosa - The Viable System Model as an Emancipatory Approach to Sustainable Self-Governance: Examples from Applications in Communities and Nations
2026-03-05 18:00 - 19:30 UTC | Online
This event is part of the INDEPxMetaphorum Online Talk Series for Stafford Beer’s Centennial.
This event will take place in English.
To participate, please register here.
When Stafford Beer invented the Viable System Model (VSM) for explaining complex social systems as self-organised neural networks, capable of consciously adapting to chaotic or changing environments, he was 50 years ahead of his time. His famous Cybersyn project in Chile attempted to put it fully into practice at the national level, to reinvent the idea of governance. This webinar introduces recent work clarifying how the VSM understands sustainable self-governance in complex social organisations, and the challenges of putting it into practice, as an emancipatory systemic approach supporting the transition to a post capitalistic economy. It illustrates these ideas by reflecting on practical applications in Latin America and the EU, in communities, and nations. All together, they demonstrate the potential for using the VSM as an emancipatory approach to support a transition towards fairer, more democratic, and more sustainable organisations and societies.
Angela Espinosa has been an international leader in developing Organisational Cybernetics, a cybernetic theory for viability of social organisations pioneered by Stafford Beer, who she worked closed with. She co-founded and led the Metaphorum, a cooperative developing his legacy, when he passed away in 2002. She has developed innovative cybernetics’ theory and praxis and advised organisations in Europe and America on more effective ways of self-organising and being socially and environmentally responsible. She has taught Systems Thinking and Cybernetics for three decades and has published extensively in the European Journal of Operational Research and other systems and cybernetic journals. ‘A Complexity Approach to Sustainability’ and ‘Sustainable Self-Governance in Businesses and Society: The Viable System Model in action‘ summarise her recent work and applications. She is an Emeritus Fellow at the centre for Systems Studies – Hull University Business School; and a Board member of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics.

Workshop - Planification Écologique: Reality and Aspiration
2026-03-19 09:30 - 15:00 (Europe/Paris) | SciencesPo Salle 900, 9 rue de la Chaise, Paris, 75007, France
This workshop is organized by Gabriel Kahan (Sciences Po) and supported by LIEPP’s Environmental Policies research group (project Ecological Planning in the 21st Century: Uses, Forms, Methods and Effects) and INDEP.
In order to participate, registration is mandatory. The registration form can be found here.
The workshop will take place in English.
The description and program have been taken from the event’s website:
Abstract
Ecological planning has taken root in French policy circles, with the “greening” of state budgets and billions of euros for low-carbon retrofits. Meanwhile, Mexico legislates public grid expansion, South Korea directs electric vehicle production, Denmark pioneers offshore wind development, and China barrels ahead with state-backed venture capital, positioning itself as a global provider of green technologies. Together, an emerging cohort of countries is rewriting the playbook for rapid decarbonization. The central message: transitions to low-carbon economies will require a strong state.
Simultaneously, researchers and climate advocates have turned their attention to planning as a promising if speculative alternative to market-led decarbonization. Flighty and risk-averse investors chasing dependable returns, it is argued, are proving incapable of providing the massive reallocation of capital necessary for low-carbon futures. In its place, robust public coordination of investment across diverse sectors and geographies appears increasingly urgent.
For France, ecological planning is now central to the state’s agenda, yet remains conceptually thin and institutionally underspecified. This ambiguity is striking for a country whose postwar experience continues to serve as a global reference point for planning. Today, clarifying the mechanisms that drive ecological planning — both in reality and in aspiration — is essential.
In response, this workshop treats ecological planning not as a slogan, but as a set of instruments and institutions. We will begin by revisiting France’s postwar period to capture how planning has functioned in the past, then turn to ongoing experiments in the contemporary policy landscape, and conclude with a forward-looking discussion of what ecological planning could become.
Programme
9h30 | Morning Coffee
9h50 | Opening Remarks, Gabriel Kahan (Sciences Po)
10h | Morning Panel — Postwar Planning: Historical Realities
Antoine Jourdan (EHESS), Éric Monnet (Paris School of Economics)
Audience Q&A
11h30 | Break: Lunch
12h30 | Afternoon Panel — Ecological Planning: Experiments & Aspirations
Clara Leonard (Institut Avant-Garde) Hannah Bensussan (Universität St. Gallen)
Audience Q&A
14h | Break
14h15 | Roundtable with Speakers — Future Directions
Antoine Jourdan, Éric Monnet, Clara Leonard, Hannah Bensussan
Moderator: Gabriel Kahan (Sciences Po)

Online Talk by Heide Lutosch - The Thirteenth Fairy: Caring for Children in a Liberated Society
2026-03-19 19:30 - 21:00 (Europe/Paris) | Online
The description of the event has been translated from the original German from the event’s website.
This online talk will take place in German.
You can find the Zoom link for the talk here.
Even people who advocate for a democratically planned economy as an alternative to capitalism become somewhat hesitant when confronted with the demand to consistently deprivatize care work, including childcare. On the one hand, this has to do with a widespread uncritical attitude toward the nuclear family, as well as a downplaying of the suffering it causes. On the other hand, historical attempts to collectivize childhood have in fact often wrongly ignored children’s basic needs, especially the fact that they must be able to form close, lasting, and reliable bonds—both physical and emotional—with their immediate caregivers. This lecture proposes a model of alternative parenting for a liberated society and argues for placing the realm of social reproduction at the center of the planning debate.
Heide Lutosch is a literary scholar and feminist activist. Her book Kinderhaben was published in spring 2023 by Matthes&Seitz Berlin. She works as a translator in Leipzig.
This is a joint event organized by Emanzipation und Frieden and teilbar e.V.

INDEP online Talk with Janina Urban and Solveig Degen - Who Plans the Future? Democratising Investment in a Financialised Economy
2026-03-24 18:00 - 19:30 UTC | Online
This event will take place in partnership with the Centre for Social Critique at the Humboldt University Berlin.
This event will take place in English.
To participate, please register here.
Investment is a form of planning: it brings into existence what currently does not yet exist. Today, large-scale investment decisions are largely made either by states or by actors in the financial sector. But can finance – one of the central nodal points of contemporary capitalism – be transformed into a tool for democratically shaping the future?
In this talk, Janina Urban (University of Witten-Herdecke) and Solveig Degen (Humboldt University Berlin) explore the principles that currently structure financial investment and the profound challenges these logics pose for social and ecological relations. Building on this diagnosis, they examine how investment could be reorganised along democratic lines. They will discuss both historical and contemporary initiatives aimed at socialising investment and introduce two prominent approaches within current debates on democratic economic planning. Finally, the talk reflects on the political and practical limits of such projects, given that the financial system is often perceived as the domain of experts rather than an arena for democratic contestation.
