Political Economy Futures Forum
Research Seminars
The key activities are the PEFF Research Seminars. The seminars build community across the scope of PEFF research and help participants develop excellent research in a collegial environment. We particularly welcome cross-disciplinary contributions from early career researchers and scholars from underrepresented groups. By fostering close connections, the PEFF seminar will, in turn, lead to the development of significant funding bids, especially by developing interdisciplinary capacity to answer targeted thematic funding calls. Responsibility for organizing the seminar rotates across the theme leads. All seminars will run in a hybrid format, to ensure accessibility.
See below for seminar topics & abstracts.
Semester 2, 2025-2026 seminars
1 April 2026 - PGR Session
Wednesday 1 April 2026 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 223 ‖
Paper: Clientelism and Elite Capture: Implications on Inequality
Presenter: Kabir Vaidya
Paper: Saving the Industry or Reforms of Pensions? The Wilson Committee, the Regulation and the Investment Strategy
Presenter: Xin Li
Paper: Associative Responsibility as the Ground for Transnational Justice
Presenter: Hatice Sare Temel
18 March 2026 - Brokerage and Financialisation in Global Development: UNDP’s Strategic Turn to Private Capital
Paper: Brokerage and Financialisation in Global Development: UNDP’s Strategic Turn to Private Capital
Presenter: Ben Hunter
Wednesday 18 March 2026 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 223 ‖
Abstract: This in-progress paper examines the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) evolving role as a broker of private finance within global development. Traditionally focused on policy advice and technical assistance, UNDP has undergone a strategic transformation since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), positioning itself as market-maker for sustainable development investments. Drawing on the social science concept of brokerage as systems of connection and mediation, the paper traces UNDP’s shift from engaging businesses in development partnerships during the 1990s to actively mobilising private capital through initiatives such as the Sustainable Finance Hub and SDG Impact Platform. These mechanisms aim to embed the SDGs into financial decision-making, standardise impact measurement, and provide investor intelligence and matchmaking services. We argue that UNDP has engaged in development brokerage for several decades but that these activities have become increasingly prominent, overt and now financialised, as the organisation responds to a combination of internal and external pressures and incentives by leveraging influence through its ability to mediate across geography, scale and sector. These changes raise critical questions about governance, equity, and the narrowing of policy space for developing countries.
4 March 2026 - The rise and characteristics of China-led international environmental governance initiatives
Paper: The rise and characteristics of China-led international environmental governance initiatives
Presenter: Yixian Sun
Wednesday 4 March 2026 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 223 ‖
Abstract: As China has become a new global power, it has exerted growing influence on global environmental governance. With Beijing’s strong emphasis on ecological civilization and Trump’s retreat from environmental action, the international community has a high expectation of China to lead global environmental governance. To what extent has China become a global environmental leader, and how have Chinese actors pursued leadership roles? We address this knowledge gap by developing a framework on leadership to assess China-led initiatives in global environmental governance. We then introduce the China’s Global Environmental Leadership (CGEL) Database, which systematically tracks China-led international environmental governance initiatives. Using descriptive statistics, we show that China has become increasingly active over the past three decades in leading international environmental governance, initially at the bilateral level, but gradually towards transnational and multilateral levels. The geographic scope of China-led environmental governance initiatives has expanded rapidly with a growing number of initiatives operating at the global level. We also find that China’s leadership activities put strong emphasis on information-sharing, capacity-building, and research and scientific knowledge production. Our social network analysis reveals the central roles of key governmental agencies behind the rise of China-led initiatives, but also a trend of diversification with a growing number of Chinese non-state actors co-leading initiatives with their international partners. Our study advances knowledge on China’s changing role in global environmental governance and provides novel empirical insights into China’s emerging leadership in addressing global ecological crises.
26 February 2026 - Rosa Luxemburg and I - a poetic intervention towards post-capitalist climate imaginaries via adaptation of the past
EVENING SEMINAR
Topic: Rosa Luxemburg and I - a poetic intervention towards post-capitalist climate imaginaries via adaptation of the past
Presenter: Amanda Douge
Thursday 26 February 2026 ‖ 4:00pm - 7:00pm ‖ ARC Studio 2 ‖
Abstract: "Rosa Luxemburg and I is a Brechtian collage of monologue, poetry and prose/poem that argues for the ways in which poetic syntax can activate political agency for the purposes of new political economies and climate revolution. This is posited within an adaptation frame, where the historical figure as spectre supports eco-socialist climate reflections and critiques internalised, multi-vocal, neoliberal capitalist preoccupations. In the tension between these poetic strands, the interdisciplinary creative process illuminates adaptation as a political and social transformational tool towards ecological economic goals.
Historical figure and socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, stands as a compelling vector from which to consider liberation of the contemporary self from the current political economy and both psychological and material anthropogenic infrastructures. Engaging Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, I argue that climate inertia and inaction can be viewed as a series of oppressions within and without of the self that require a pedagogic process of critical consciousness for liberation. I demonstrate how creative writing and arts-based research enquiry, can envelop transdisciplinary concerns, employ emotional methodologies, and initiate new mental ecologies that inspire revolutionary impulses via micro-social performance events. Finally, I contend that arts-practice research affords interdisciplinary endeavours a vital space to contemplate new and different kinds of research, alongside new and different kinds of politics. "
Historical figure and socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, stands as a compelling vector from which to consider liberation of the contemporary self from the current political economy and both psychological and material anthropogenic infrastructures. Engaging Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, I argue that climate inertia and inaction can be viewed as a series of oppressions within and without of the self that require a pedagogic process of critical consciousness for liberation. I demonstrate how creative writing and arts-based research enquiry, can envelop transdisciplinary concerns, employ emotional methodologies, and initiate new mental ecologies that inspire revolutionary impulses via micro-social performance events. Finally, I contend that arts-practice research affords interdisciplinary endeavours a vital space to contemplate new and different kinds of research, alongside new and different kinds of politics. "
18 February 2026 - The role of law in the commodification of land
Topic: The role of law in the commodification of land
Presenter: Flora Vern
Wednesday 18 February 2026 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 223 ‖
Abstract: Individual private ownership became the dominant model of land ownership in Western Europe fairly recently (around the Renaissance) through a series of events ranging from economic opportunity to the chance discovery of Roman law. However, this way of owning was also shaped by the conquest of the Americas and colonisation, which played an immense role in the transformation of the formalism used in property law and of the legal representations of land. Colonisation also played an even more important role, essentially, destroying traditional land tenure systems around the world, imposing the individualistic paradigm it had given birth to and has subsequently spread. I would like to discuss my research on this matter, particularly in light of the commodification of land, which became a tradable asset over the course of this process (on a much larger scale than before), with obvious consequences in terms of governance, development and sustainability. I may want to try and identify the specific points where the legal system enabled the economy, although the interconnection between the two may be too tight to separate them cleanly.
4 February 2026 - Towards a Typology for Understanding Austerity
Paper: Towards a Typology for Understanding Austerity
Presenter: Ruairidh Smith
Wednesday 4 February 2026 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 223 ‖
Abstract: "This paper builds on conventional understandings of austerity, presenting an analysis that moves beyond narrow, fiscal definitions. Recognising the contested nature of the term, the paper maps out diverse theoretical perspectives, ranging from austerity as a response to scarcity to its role as a structural component of capitalism. It traces the historical roots of austerity from Locke, Hume, and Smith to its uneasy relationship with Keynesianism, and its entrenchment within neoliberalism.
The typology developed distinguishes between: (1) austerity defined by scarcity of consumer goods; (2) technical austerity as a macro-fiscal strategy, further divided into austerity during recession and austerity during the ‘boom’; (3) austerity as a political and institutional project linked to neoliberalism; and (4) austerity as a structural and permanent feature of capitalism. By highlighting the varied and often contradictory interpretations of austerity, the paper aims to contribute to heterodox economic debates and inform more effective political responses that challenge its underlying assumptions and distributional consequences.
The paper is part of a wider project that examines the direct impact of austerity on population health, specifically seeking to understand how different approaches to austerity, and countries’ unique experiences of it, lead to differential population health outcomes."
The typology developed distinguishes between: (1) austerity defined by scarcity of consumer goods; (2) technical austerity as a macro-fiscal strategy, further divided into austerity during recession and austerity during the ‘boom’; (3) austerity as a political and institutional project linked to neoliberalism; and (4) austerity as a structural and permanent feature of capitalism. By highlighting the varied and often contradictory interpretations of austerity, the paper aims to contribute to heterodox economic debates and inform more effective political responses that challenge its underlying assumptions and distributional consequences.
The paper is part of a wider project that examines the direct impact of austerity on population health, specifically seeking to understand how different approaches to austerity, and countries’ unique experiences of it, lead to differential population health outcomes."
Semester 1, 2025-2026 seminars
12 December 2025 - Environmental data as a relational mediator of contentious publicness: data flows and environmental data activism in China
Paper: Environmental data as a relational mediator of contentious publicness: data flows and environmental data activism in China
Author: Yu Sun
Friday 12 December 2025 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 225 ‖
Abstract: With the rapid development of digital technologies, big data serves as the new mediator of political interventions and actions, generating new forms of political activism. The tactical use of data technologies in enhancing social justices is seen as data activism. This talk presents how data technologies have been appropriated to develop new action repertoires and enhance public advocacy in the environmental realm by civil society organisations in China. Moving beyond the dualist approach to contentious politics of data, this work draws on the notion of contentious publicness to trace the interrelated material, spatial and temporal relations in data-mediated contentions to capture the relational struggles for environmental justice in the authoritarian context of China.
The paper focuses on a case of data activism initiated to tackle environmental pollution and reduce carbon emissions by The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), an ENGO based in Beijing. Through ethnographic case study, it explores the power relations that shape the material infrastructure and the space for the public to engage in environmental action and the sustainability of their action repertoires. This study sheds light on the material, spatial and temporal dimensions of the activists’ data practices to engage the public in monitoring pollution and carbon emissions.
The paper focuses on a case of data activism initiated to tackle environmental pollution and reduce carbon emissions by The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), an ENGO based in Beijing. Through ethnographic case study, it explores the power relations that shape the material infrastructure and the space for the public to engage in environmental action and the sustainability of their action repertoires. This study sheds light on the material, spatial and temporal dimensions of the activists’ data practices to engage the public in monitoring pollution and carbon emissions.
28 November 2025 - Private Equity, Venture Capital, and the Panama Papers
Paper: Private Equity, Venture Capital, and the Panama Papers
Author: Pia Helbing
Friday 28 November 2025 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 225 ‖
Abstract: The Panama Papers data leaks in 2016 revealed hidden offshore accounts. We exploit this shock to the economic system that turned private information public. Previous research is scare and focuses on public firms showing ambiguous effects. Especially for venture capital (PE) and private equity (PE), operating privately held, offshore accounts could be valuable from a tax avoidance perspective but problematic from an agency perspective. This depends on the overall institutional context as we assume that higher levels of economic freedom reduce the probability of being included in the Panama Papers. We test those intuitions on a comprehensive dataset from Pitchbook of venture capital and private equity deals between 2010-2024 and merge this to the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database.
14 November 2025 - Inventing the Scottish economy
Paper: Inventing the Scottish economy
Author: Jim Tomlinson
Discussants: Graeme Roy and Niall MacKenzie
Friday 14 November 2025 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 225 ‖
Abstract: Work at the intersection of ‘constructivist’ political economy and economic history has, over the last few decades, pinpointed the invention of the notion of the ‘national economy’ as a key feature of the politics and economics of the modern state. (Tooze 1998, 2001, 2016; Mitchell 2013; Schmelzer, 2016; Tomlinson 2017; Clavin 2013; Martin 2022; Shenk 2016). This work argues that the development of macroeconomics and modern economic statistics—including GDP, economic growth, inflation, unemployment, and balance of payments—enabled the economy to be conceptualized as a bounded, measurable entity. Once rendered legible to state management and expert intervention, the economy became foundational to a whole range of new policymaking regimes.
National economies are almost always conceived as sovereign states, with unified fiscal and monetary structures. Not sovereign since 1707, nevertheless in the twentieth century the idea of a Scottish economy developed even within the Union. By 1954 Cairncross, (The Scottish Economy, p.1) was able to assert: ’There is also a sufficient degree of segregation from the rest of the economy, and a sufficient diversity within Scotland, to allow one to speak of a Scottish economy, functioning as a unit and with an independent momentum’. The aim of this paper is to analyse the development of ‘the Scottish economy’, its underpinnings and its distinctiveness.
The underlying assumption is that the construction of a ‘national economy’ in Scotland whilst drawing on some of the same conceptual underpinnings as sovereign states, shows a distinct trajectory. Understanding this trajectory should help us understand some of the contingencies involved the whole idea of a ‘national economy’, and the consequences of its deployment.
31 October 2025 - Neighbourly Influence: Local Economic Policy Diffusion in relation to Community Wealth Building
Paper: Neighbourly Influence: Local Economic Policy Diffusion in relation to Community Wealth Building
Author: Lauren Tuckerman
Friday 31 October 2025 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 225 ‖
Abstract: Understanding how ideas flow both horizontally between local policy documents and vertically national and local helps us to understand the coherence and cohesiveness of policy design. This study explores how geographic proximity (neighbourliness) affects policy diffusion in local economic policymaking, using the specific example of community wealth building (CWB). The study is based on a policy corpora review of local and national economic policy from Ireland and Scotland (2014-2024). Text mining and natural language processing techniques are used to develop a novel dictionary of CWB terms, which is then used to assesses the similarities between geographically proximate local governments’ policies versus their similarity to national policies or local authorities with similar demographic or industrial profiles. Using the specific example of community wealth building this paper contributes to the field of policy diffusion by developing an understanding of horizontal policy diffusion and its relationship with vertical policy diffusion. We provide theoretical and methodological insights into how neighbourliness might create shared framings for problems and solutions to local economic development.
17 October 2025 - From Meagre to Mugabe: The Actual and Perceived Impact of the Land Reform Act 2003
Paper: From Meagre to Mugabe: The Actual and Perceived Impact of the Land Reform Act 2003
Author: Jack Jones
Discussants: Flora Vern and Max Wiszniewski (Revive)
Friday 17 October 2025 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 224 ‖
Abstract: At the core of this paper, is a curious paradox: Scotland is simultaneously recognized as a pioneer of progressive, innovative land reform and as the country with the most concentrated patterns of private landownership in all of Europe. Despite 25 years of targeted reforms, the concentration of private land ownership has increased, and the crisis of Scottish landownership has deepened. And yet, the Scottish Land Reform Agenda, is widely celebrated internationally (and in the rest of the UK) as an example of a progressive, innovative approach to land reform. This chapter seeks to wrestle with this paradox by examining the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (considered by many as a watershed moment in Scottish land reform) and locating precisely where it fits into the wider context of debates around land reform. To do so, it begins with the academic literature on land reform more broadly, chiefly influenced by Bernstein’s influential ‘longer view’. Then, it moves to consider developments in Scotland, analysing the influence of neoliberalism on land reform, law, and community development in Scotland, before situating the rise of the LRSA 2003 within this wider context. Finally, it analyses the CRtB provisions in this legislation and questions whether they constitute a departure from the norms of neoliberal land reform outlined by Bernstein. Throughout the course of its analysis, this chapter seeks to foreground the specific role of law and legality in the wider context of Scottish land reform.
10 October 2025 - PGR Session
Friday 10 October 2025 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 225 ‖
First Paper: The Politics of Equivalence: Hong Kong as the Conduit between EU Influence and China’s Market Governance
Author: Xueqi Wang
Abstract: "This project examines Hong Kong’s role as an institutional conduit between China and the European Union (EU) in financial market connectivity. It argues that Hong Kong’s intermediary position is not a natural outcome of market forces, but a politically engineered and legally embedded structure that reflects the divergent logics of China’s state capitalism and the EU’s market-oriented legal governance.
China’s state capitalist model embeds finance within broader political objectives such as stability, control over capital flows, and the prioritisation of the real economy. These political foundations constrain direct capital-market liberalisation. Under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework, Hong Kong has been deliberately positioned as a politically acceptable intermediary that enables controlled internationalisation of Chinese markets while preserving central oversight. Its market architecture reflects a hybrid model: common law institutions and internationally recognisable regulatory standards coexist with mechanisms specifically designed to channel and restrict access to mainland markets, such as Stock Connect and Bond Connect.
This dual structure allows Hong Kong to perform a transmission function, providing a designed interface through which China engages with global capital markets in a limited and controlled manner. At the same time, the EU relies on Hong Kong as a regulatory gateway to sustain market linkages with the mainland. By analysing case studies under the EU equivalence regime—namely, trading venue access and the recognition of central counterparties—the project demonstrates how Hong Kong mediates between EU influence and China’s regulatory accommodation. In doing so, it highlights the political foundations and institutional architectures that shape financial connectivity across jurisdictions."
China’s state capitalist model embeds finance within broader political objectives such as stability, control over capital flows, and the prioritisation of the real economy. These political foundations constrain direct capital-market liberalisation. Under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework, Hong Kong has been deliberately positioned as a politically acceptable intermediary that enables controlled internationalisation of Chinese markets while preserving central oversight. Its market architecture reflects a hybrid model: common law institutions and internationally recognisable regulatory standards coexist with mechanisms specifically designed to channel and restrict access to mainland markets, such as Stock Connect and Bond Connect.
This dual structure allows Hong Kong to perform a transmission function, providing a designed interface through which China engages with global capital markets in a limited and controlled manner. At the same time, the EU relies on Hong Kong as a regulatory gateway to sustain market linkages with the mainland. By analysing case studies under the EU equivalence regime—namely, trading venue access and the recognition of central counterparties—the project demonstrates how Hong Kong mediates between EU influence and China’s regulatory accommodation. In doing so, it highlights the political foundations and institutional architectures that shape financial connectivity across jurisdictions."
Second Paper: Do Female Councillors Change Spending Priorities? Evidence from UK Local Elections
Author: Zhou Zhou
Abstract: This paper examines whether female councillors influence local government spending priorities in England. Using electoral data on over 100,000 candidates merged with financial accounts of 211 local authorities between 2010 and 2019, I measure female representation as the share of elected councillors who are women. To address endogeneity, I exploit the alphabetical ordering of candidates on ballots, which generates quasi-random variation in electoral success and thus in female representation. The results show that greater female representation increases spending on care-related services, with small offsetting reductions in infrastructure and traditional services. These effects are concentrated in councils where women hold more than 30% of seats, consistent with a critical mass mechanism. The findings provide new causal evidence that descriptive representation affects substantive policy outcomes and underscore the role of institutional design in shaping both gender equality and public finance.
Third Paper: Justice and Governance in Water Reuse: A Critical Perspective
Author: Klaudia Szabelka
Abstract: This paper critically explores environmental justice in water reuse governance, focusing on how legal and institutional frameworks distribute benefits, burdens, and decision-making power. Drawing on my doctoral research, I argue that the European Union’s Regulation (EU) 2020/741 on water reuse reflects a technocratic and risk-based form of governance that prioritizes safety and efficiency, but sidelines questions of equity, participation, and recognition. The paper develops a critical theoretical framework that integrates distributive, procedural, recognition, restorative, and cosmopolitan justice with governance theories of governmentality and assemblage, as well as insights from Critical Environmental Justice (CEJ). This approach interrogates not only whether water reuse is safe and efficient, but also who benefits, who decides, and whose knowledge counts.
Empirically, the research applies this framework to EU water reuse policy and its implementation in agricultural contexts, examining how governance practices may empower or marginalize different actors, from smallholder farmers to migrant labourers. By situating water reuse within the broader political economy of climate adaptation and resource governance, the paper demonstrates how environmental justice struggles are shaped by legal architectures, power relations, and global inequality. This contribution aims to broaden debates on the political economy of environmental infrastructures, showing how justice-oriented analysis can illuminate the hidden distributive and procedural dynamics of climate adaptation policies.
Empirically, the research applies this framework to EU water reuse policy and its implementation in agricultural contexts, examining how governance practices may empower or marginalize different actors, from smallholder farmers to migrant labourers. By situating water reuse within the broader political economy of climate adaptation and resource governance, the paper demonstrates how environmental justice struggles are shaped by legal architectures, power relations, and global inequality. This contribution aims to broaden debates on the political economy of environmental infrastructures, showing how justice-oriented analysis can illuminate the hidden distributive and procedural dynamics of climate adaptation policies.
26 September 2025 - Artificial Intelligence and Illegal Markets
Paper: Artificial Intelligence and Illegal Markets
Discussant: Dr Alessio Azzutti (School of Law)
Friday 26 September 2025 ‖ 11:30am - 12:30pm ‖ ARC 225 ‖
Abstract: "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping our present and future society. In the context of illegal markets, its adoption has introduced a growing diversity of economic actors—both human and non-human—and enabled novel market practices and behaviours. These changes have fostered new socio-economic and socio-technical interactions in the production, exchange, and consumption of goods and services—including those enabled by or otherwise associated with AI. Yet despite these developments, a comprehensive conceptual framework that accounts for the complex and multifaceted ways AI shapes the architecture and characteristics of illegal markets remains lacking.
This chapter addresses this gap through an interdisciplinary lens, enriching socio-economic research with insights from law and AI studies. It embeds the concepts of ‘AI lifecycle’ and ‘AI value chain’ within a revised theoretical foundation for the study of illegal markets, aiming to inspire future inquiry. Building on this, it examines how AI adoption (i) shifts and blurs the boundaries between legal and illegal markets—proposing a new conceptual framework for understanding AI involvement—and (ii) reconfigures points of tension and ‘interfaces’ where these markets overlap or even converge. The chapter concludes by identifying key challenges for scholars investigating AI-related—including AI-driven—illegal markets, and by emphasizing the urgent need for further research in this rapidly evolving field."
This chapter addresses this gap through an interdisciplinary lens, enriching socio-economic research with insights from law and AI studies. It embeds the concepts of ‘AI lifecycle’ and ‘AI value chain’ within a revised theoretical foundation for the study of illegal markets, aiming to inspire future inquiry. Building on this, it examines how AI adoption (i) shifts and blurs the boundaries between legal and illegal markets—proposing a new conceptual framework for understanding AI involvement—and (ii) reconfigures points of tension and ‘interfaces’ where these markets overlap or even converge. The chapter concludes by identifying key challenges for scholars investigating AI-related—including AI-driven—illegal markets, and by emphasizing the urgent need for further research in this rapidly evolving field."