Transdisciplinary perspectives

 Finance & Society

The Sorbonne Alliance project "Finance and Society", organised by the universities of Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and ESCP Business School, aims to bring together economists, historians, civilisation specialists, sociologists, linguists and experts in other disciplines in order to pool their expertise on a range of social and financial issues. 

                                                                     Conference: Central Banks and the Common Good

Call for papers

Two decades of successive crises have tested the resilience of economic and financial systems, and eroded the trust that societies place in their monetary institutions. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 ushered in an era of turbulence, the latest manifestation of which is the cost of living crisis in 2022. The return of inflation and the prospect of economic recession lie behind a critical reappraisal of the role and actions of central banks.

This transdisciplinary international conference aims to evaluate and revisit the strategies of US, British and European central banks over several decades in tackling crises, and more recently in the face of the return of inflation.

The challenges faced by these "institutions" as defined by the sociologist Douglass C. North (1990), namely human creations made up of formal and informal constraints with the aim of reducing uncertainty and guiding social interactions are multi-faceted in nature. Monetary policy tools and their impact on price stability, financial stability, employment, social inequalities, environmental issues, the accountability of central banks, the evolution of their roles and adaptation of their working methods, in response to crises, all point to a need to examine the role and power of these institutions in an increasingly decentralised and dematerialised world grappling with deep-seated social and climatic imbalances.

Strategies adopted by the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve form part of a monetary policy framework created against historical and cultural backdrops which lend themselves to transdisciplinary analyses (economic, social, historical, political, discursive etc.).

Group discussions will take the form of round tables and workshops divided along 6 axes. A non-exhaustive list of suggested topics is outlined below.

Axis 1: Communication and credibility of central banks

• Sources of specialized institutional discourse v. communication of central banks aimed at the general public (plain language, multimodality, deciphering of metaphors and narrative techniques, discursive construction of the crisis etc.)
• The use of ritual in central bank communication
• The trust that modern societies place in money, public action and financial institutions

 Axis 2: Central bank figures and the culture of central banking 

• The influence of the origins and background of central bankers on monetary policy and financial regulation (gender, nationality, diversity)
• Decision-makers within central banks as social objects

 Axis 3: Central banks and climate

• The consequences of central banks' action (or inaction) on society and the environment (employment, social inequalities, ecological transition, etc.)
• The greening of monetary policy: driving forces, instruments, compatibility with the institutional framework
• The role of central banks in financing the ecological transition

Axis 4: The "toolbox" of central banks

• Central banks' instrumental innovations in the face of crises (unconventional measures, helicopter money, etc.)
• Scope for institutional action in monetary policy in an ever globalized world

Axis 5: Central bank and digital money

•  The challenges (promises and fears) of the digital euro: the public function of money, economic policy challenges, programmability, scope and circulation, etc.
• Central banks v. private cryptocurrencies
• The territorial advantage of a financial ecosystem in the age of dematerialization

 Axis 6: The institutional framework of central banks

• The relationship of central bankers with the political world, the independence of central banks
• The centralization of unelected power and the question of democratic deficits of central bankers
• Central bankers’ mandates and mission creep

How to submit a paper

Submissions can be written in French or in English. Please send an abstract of about 500 words with 5 keywords and a brief bibliography.

Calendar

First call for papers: March 14, 2023

Deadline for submission of abstracts: May 26, 2023

Notification to authors: June 23, 2023

Deadline for submission of written papers: October 2, 2023

Conference date: January 19, 2024

Organising Committee

Jézabel Couppey-Soubeyran (Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS)

Laurence Harris (Centre for Research on the English-speaking World - CREW)

Scientific Committee

Caroline Bozou (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Gunther Capelle-Blancard (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Jean-Bernard Chatelain (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Jézabel Couppey-Soubeyran (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Fanny Domenec (Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas), Laurence Harris (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle), Frédéric Lebaron (Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay), Christophe Moussu (ESCP Europe), Thomas Renault (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Jean-Baptiste Velut (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

Location

Maison de la Recherche - Sorbonne Nouvelle, 4 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris