Special Issue – Review of Political Economy65 years after Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities: new directions in the Sraffian approachGuest 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]) and Sylvio Kappes ([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 2023
Deadline for submitting papers: 1st May 2024ReferencesSraffa, P. (1960). Production of Commodities: Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory. Cambridge University Press.