*Special Issue* – *Review of Political Economy*

*65 years after Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities: new
directions in the Sraffian approach*

Guest Editor: Santiago José Gahn

Internal Editor: Sylvio Kappes

The year 2025 marks the 65th anniversary of the publication of the
book *Production
of Commodities by Means of Commodities* by *Piero Sraffa (1960)*. Not all
economists are capable of transforming their name into a legacy, into a
school. Piero Sraffa belongs to this select group. Exiled from fascism, he
built his entire academic career at Cambridge University, where, from a
profound analysis of the classical authors, he constructed a powerful
critique of the dominant marginalist theory. But Sraffa's legacy has
evolved into something much more powerful over the years, where some of his
disciples have extended his criticism of marginalist theory, applied his
ideas to international trade, and constructed alternative theories of
economic growth.

65 years after Sraffa's publication, we believe it is necessary to launch a
special issue that calls for reflection on his life, his political
thoughts, his friendships, his lessons at Cambridge and his archive; his
intellectual legacy, and that of his followers, and the impact on economic
theory today; as well as possible guidelines for extending Sraffa's thought
to other fields in the future. In recent years, Sraffa's legacy has had a
boom that was born mainly in the periphery or the "global south", in
particular in Argentina, Brazil and India. Recently, many authors have
taken Sraffa's basic outlines and combined them with Latin American
structuralist thinking in an attempt to explain the limits to growth and
income distribution; they have developed and extended mathematical models
of economic growth such as the Sraffian supermultiplier; they have
presented the main limitations to Real Exchange Rate-led strategies, among
other topics. Sraffa's legacy is alive and growing.

As a way of paying tribute to *Production of Commodities by Means of
Commodities* (Sraffa, 1960) *Review of Political Economy (ROPE)* is
preparing a special issue. This special issue intends to collect scientific
articles that present or reinforce new lines of research within a Sraffian
(or classical-Keynesian) perspective.

This special issue welcomes articles on a number of topics, including:

a. Sraffa's personal history, his relationship with Gramsci and his
political thought.

b. Issues related to Sraffa's intellectual development, such as: extensions
of *PCMC*, critique of mainstream theory, analysis of Sraffa’s archive.

c. Sraffa’s intellectual legacy: the direct impact on their followers such
as Garegnani and Pasinetti, among others.

d. New directions in the Sraffian approach: extensions of the sraffian
supermultiplier model, endogenous money, international trade, imperialism
and unequal exchange, the method in economics, impact of economic policies
on gender, race or climate change. Articles that can extend Sraffian school
to Anthropology and Sociology are also welcome.

Of course, all these topics can never cover the vast universe of the impact
of Sraffa's intellectual legacy, but all articles that relate to Sraffa's
thought are welcome, including critical ones as well. Finally, this special
issue will attempt to have a gender balance.

*If interested in submitting a paper, please send a short abstract by
September 15th, 2023 to both Santiago J. Gahn ([log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>) and Sylvio Kappes ([log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>). Decisions will be made by September 25th, 2023.
If selected, the complete paper must be sent by May 1st, 2024.*



*Deadline for submitting abstracts: 15th September 2023Deadline for
submitting papers: 1st May 2024*

*References*
Sraffa, P. (1960). *Production of Commodities: Prelude to a Critique of
Economic Theory.* Cambridge University Press.


-- 
Santiago José Gahn
Assistant Professor in Political Economy
Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro
mail: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
g-mail: [log in to unmask]