Call for Papers: Special Issue: International Journal of Pluralism In Economics Education Pluralism with Purpose: Applying a Pluralist Approach to Informing Policy

Understanding economic phenomena by using pluralism in teaching and research is an intensely debated problem, but we believe that an increased focus on applied pluralist approaches is now required (e.g., to operationalise the OECD’s New Approaches to Economic Challenges programme). We need both a shared understanding of the meaning of a pluralist approach to understanding economic phenomena, including feasible applied methods from relevant disciplines, and a means of choosing one or more amongst them.

Pluralism is, however, more than applications, it is also about culture, institutions and relationships, including those between economists and amongst other social scientists. So for instance the OECD discusses the need for ‘appropriate changes in the structure of the organisation to avoid one-size-fits-all and move beyond a silo-approach to policy, to enhance inter-disciplinarity and to safe-guard against groupthink’. This also applies to heterodox economists as they are clearly not automatically pluralist in practice or outlook. Pluralism is not about replacing one dogma with another one.

This Call for Papers welcomes a dialogue with mainstream economists, both academics and practitioners, to build bridges and break down walls within the economics discipline and between economics and other disciplines. We are looking particularly for papers focusing on the application of pluralist approaches in terms of methods, but also in terms of the institutions and behavior necessary to solidify pluralism.

This Call for Papers invites contributions in the following areas:

a.What is an applied pluralist approach? When can it be said to be scientific?
b.What can economics learn from the natural and social sciences?
c.What is the scope for application i.e., how do we define the economy or economic phenomena?
d.What are the methods and procedures for applying a pluralist approach to understanding economic phenomena? How to decide the methods or combination of methods fit for purpose? How must theories, methods and evidence interact?
e.How can pluralism be supported within the policy making process and within government institutions?
f.How does pluralism as a modus vivendi relate to a modus operandi in terms of institutions, behaviour, methods, etc.

Important Dates

Abstracts Due: April 1, 2017
Notification of abstract acceptance: April 30, 2017
Submission of papers: August 30, 2017
Notification of paper acceptance: October 1, 2017
Submission of final papers January 1, 2018

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online. Please read our information on submitting articles.

If you have any queries concerning this special issue, please email the Guest Editors at: Henry Leveson-Gower <>
Ioana Negru < >