Call for Papers: The 17th AIPEN Workshop

Call for Papers: The 17^th AIPEN Workshop: Political Economy in a World of Transitions: Is Another World Possible?

Monash University, 4-5 February 2027

The claim that the global political economy is in crisis is by now a truism. As the prevailing order collapses, key dimensions of the global economy face existential challenges, from a disintegrating global trade regime, to a financial system increasingly detached from fundamentals, to global value chains being reordered in the name of national security. These take place in the context of, and are fuelled by, broader geopolitical transitions, marked by a fracturing US hegemony, the rise of China, and the emergence of an apolar world order where no single actor is willing or able to construct a coherent global economic order. All the while, the climate crisis deepens, as efforts to accelerate energy transitions unfold alongside the persistence – and in some cases expansion – of carbon-intensive development, with implications for food and livelihood security particularly in the Global South. In the race for technological supremacy, the rapid growth and extension of generative artificial intelligence into all corners of life is upending political-economic and ecological dynamics on a global scale, from capital-labour relations, to metabolic rift. While much has been written about these crises, less attention has been paid to pathways out of them, to actually-existing practices forging the way, and to potential alternative orders that might emerge. If we truly are in a world of transitions, what are we transitioning to, and what are the pathways and practices, actors and forces that might take us there?

The 17^th Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) Workshop invites scholars of International Political Economy (IPE) and International Business (IB) to make submissions interrogating these questions and themes. In keeping with AIPEN’s open essence, we also invite submissions related to any area of IPE and IB broadly understood, including policy-related research, reflecting the diversity of the study of political economy in Australia and beyond.

We are also excited to announce that Professor Eric Helleiner (University of Waterloo) will deliver a keynote titled “Crisis? What Crisis? Interpreting the Global Political Economy in Flux”, examining how scholars can capture the distinctiveness of this moment of flux in a manner compatible with the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of political economy as a field.

The 17^th AIPEN Workshop will take place at Monash University, Melbourne on 4-5 February 2027. It will be preceded by a half-day HDR and ECR Masterclass on 3 February 2027, covering research and publication strategies, career pathways and networking opportunities.

Abstracts, panel and roundtable proposals of 200 words and contact details should be sent to tom.chodor@monash.edu by 1 November 2026, with the subject line “AIPEN 2027 Proposal”.

If you would like to attend the HDR/ECR Masterclass, please indicate this as part of your submission, including a statement about your HDR/ECR status.

Limited travel and accommodation bursaries will be available to enable HDR and ECR attendance. If you are seeking funding, please note this when you submit your abstract and include a statement of financial need/other sources of funding available to support travel, and a draft budget.

Organisers: Tom Chodor, Nathan Fioritti, Antonia Settle (Department of Politics and International Relations), Dimitar Anguelov, Xiao Han, Svenja Keele (Department of Human Geography), Nick Frank, Paul Kafadellis, Jagjit Plahe (Department of Management), Monash University.