- Economic Planning in the Anthropocene

With growing ecological concerns and mounting scientific evidence of rapid environmental degradation, governments have created multiple institutions, engaged in a vast array of policies, and supported business initiatives. However, and despite some limited success in specific dimensions, the balance of five decades of activism was unambiguous: governments and businesses failed to transform the economy in order to accommodate ecological limits (Pestre 2020). This failure called for significant revisions in the way policymaking addressed the society–nature metabolism and, more specifically, the approach to institutional design regarding the economy. The return of industrial policies (Criscuolo et al. 2022) and the acknowledgment that climate action should be primarily driven by public policies (Pisany-Ferry et Mahfouz 2023) have echoed a renewed interest in economic planning as a way to engage the ecological bifurcation (Durand et al. 2024; Durand and Keucheyan 2024; Groos and Sorg 2025). This workshop aimed to mark a milestone in that direction. It brought together leading scholars from both sides of the Atlantic and from various disciplinary backgrounds (political economy, sociology, economic history, accounting...) whose research have helped inform the design of ecological planning institutions in the short to medium term. The core of the conference, as outlined in the programme below, favored in-depth engagement with the various communications, including a dedicated moment (assessment roundtables) to take stock of the substance of the exchanges and to clarify the complementarities and tensions between contributions. Two side events took place. On the eve of the conference, a PhD workshop was organized with the support of the EU MSCA-funded EPOG DN (Economic Policies for the Global Bifurcation — Doctoral Network). On the final day, a policy-oriented forum concluded the event.

References

Pestre, Dominique. 2020. “Comment l’environnement a été géré depuis 50 ans. Anatomie d’un échec.” In Faire l’économie de l’environnement, Presses des Mines, 17–36.
Criscuolo, Chiara, Nicolas Gonne, Kohei Kitazawa, and Guy Lalanne. 2022. “Are Industrial Policy Instruments Effective?” OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers.
Pisani Ferry, Jean, and Selma Mahfouz. 2023. “The Economic Implications of Climate Action.” France Stratégie.
Durand, Cédric, Elena Hofferberth, and Matthias Schmelzer. 2024. “Planning beyond Growth. The Case for Economic Democracy within Limits.” Journal of Cleaner Production.
Durand, Cédric, and Razmig Keucheyan. 2024. Comment Bifurquer. Les Principes de la Planification Écologique. Zones / La Découverte.
Groos, Jan, and Christoph Sorg, eds. 2025. Creative Construction: Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press.

Introduction

Link to Introductory Address: Cédric Durand, Introduction (PDF)

Panel I — Infrastructure and Politics of the Market Order

Julia Steinberger — Climate vs. Neoliberalism: causes of inaction and the call for planning
Edward Nik-Khah — The Great Transformation of markets: Lessons from the history of market design

Link to Slideshow: Julia Steinberger (PDF) - Edward Nik-Khah slides (PDF)

Panel II — The Satisfaction of Needs: Calculation and Democracy

Razmig Keucheyan — Needs, institutions, and coalitions: how would democratic ecological planning look like?
Silvia Rief — Between calculation and deliberation: Rethinking needs in planning frameworks

Link to Slideshow: Silvia Rief slides (PDF)

Panel III — The Monitoring of a Sustainable Economy

Julien Lefevre — The Role of Input-Output Analysis in Modeling Sustainability Transitions
Clément Surun — Accounting for national and corporate environmental liabilities: a steering tool towards a sustainable economy

Link to Slideshow: Julien Lefevre slides (PDF) · Clément Surun slides (PDF)

Panel IV — Delineating Planning Capacities

Rosie Collington — State Capacity for Decarbonization: From Investable Transitions to Green Transformations
Cecilia Rikap — Big tech capabilities as planning devices

Link to Slideshow: Cecilia Rikap slides (PDF)

Panel V — Macrofinancial Regimes Towards a Green Transformation

Tom Krebs — Price Controls to Implement Green Transformation Policy
Jakob Hasselbalch — Green economic planning as “directed entanglement”

Link to Slideshow: Tom Krebs slides (PDF) · Jakob Hasselbalch slides (PDF)

Panel VI — The Shaping of the Social Relationship to the Environment by the Developmental State, Past and Present

Cornel Ban — When Marx Met Schumpeter: Planning and Cleantech Dominance in China
Nelo Magalhães — The State, the territory and the infrastructure legacy