European Society for the History of Economic Thought

European Society for the History of Economic Thought
Name	European Society for the History of Economic Thought
Founded	1989
Type	Learned society
Headquarters	London
Region served	Europe
Leader title	President

Contents

European Society for the History of Economic Thought is a learned society that promotes research and teaching on the history of economic thought across Europe. It connects scholars associated with institutions such as London School of Economics, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Universität Mannheim while engaging researchers linked to archives like the British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. The society interacts with international organizations including the History of Economics Society, the American Economic Association, and the International Economic History Association.

History

The society was founded in the late 20th century by historians and economists influenced by figures from University College London, Trinity College Dublin, Humboldt University of Berlin, and Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Early meetings featured scholars who had studied the works of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx, and Alfred Marshall and who were active in journals associated with Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Routledge. During the 1990s the society expanded membership through collaborations with departments at Università Bocconi, Helsinki University, Universiteit van Amsterdam, and Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Key early conferences addressed intersections with collections at the Wellcome Library, the Vatican Library, and the Austrian National Library.

The society’s stated aims include fostering scholarship on figures such as François Quesnay, Jeanne-Émile Gossen, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Vilfredo Pareto, promoting archival research in repositories like the Library of Congress and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, and encouraging comparative studies involving institutions such as University of Vienna and École normale supérieure. Objectives encompass organizing symposia that bring together authors publishing with Palgrave Macmillan, MIT Press, and Harvard University Press, supporting postgraduate work tied to research centres like the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the European University Institute, and advocating for open access initiatives in concert with groups like SPARC and the Directory of Open Access Journals.

Membership consists of academics from departments at Sorbonne University, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Universidad de Barcelona, Charles University, and University of Warsaw, as well as archivists from Royal Irish Academy and curators from the National Library of Scotland. Governance is handled by an elected council including representatives who have held positions at London School of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Università degli Studi di Milano, and Universidade de Lisboa. Presidents and officers have included scholars affiliated with Princeton University, Yale University, University of Chicago, and Columbia University during visiting appointments. Election procedures follow statutes analogous to those used by Royal Historical Society and British Academy.

Annual and biennial meetings rotate among host institutions such as University of Padua, University of Freiburg, Trinity College Dublin, Pompeu Fabra University, and University of Glasgow. The society has organized panels at international gatherings like World Economic History Congress, European Social Science History Conference, and the International History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science and Technology conferences, often featuring keynote speakers who have written on Jean-Baptiste Say, Thomas Malthus, Nicolas Barbon, Charles Babbage, and John Stuart Mill. Special workshops have been co-hosted with libraries such as the Bodleian Library and museums such as the Science Museum, London to examine primary materials related to Isabella d’Este-era economic patronage and industrial collections tied to Manchester Museum.

The society supports publication of monographs and edited volumes with presses including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Bloomsbury Academic, and Routledge. It sponsors a bulletin and collaborates on special issues with journals like History of Political Economy, European Review of Economic History, Economic History Review, and Journal of the History of Economic Thought. Awards recognize scholarship on topics connected to figures such as Eugen Böhm von Bawerk, Knud Wicksell, Edgeworth (Francis Ysidro), and Vilfredo Pareto, and include prizes for early career researchers modeled after prizes given by Royal Economic Society and British Academy grants.

Regional partnerships link the society with centres at Central European University, European University Institute, Institute of Advanced Study, Paris, and Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Institutional collaborations have involved archives like the Dutch National Archives, the German Historical Institute, and the Spanish National Research Council, and funding agencies including Horizon 2020, the European Research Council, and national foundations such as the Leverhulme Trust and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Cooperative programs have produced joint conferences with the International Institute of Social History and curriculum exchanges involving Pavol Jozef Šafárik University.

Scholarly reception of the society’s activities is reflected in citations across literature dealing with Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman, and in historiographical debates that engage work published by Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. The society’s conferences and publications have influenced archival digitization projects at the British Library, interpretive exhibitions at the Museum of London, and curricular reforms at universities such as University of Edinburgh and University College Dublin. Critics and commentators from journals like History of Political Economy and Economic History Review have debated its priorities while national academies such as the Royal Society and the Academia Europaea have acknowledged its contributions.