Welcome to the website for the Journal of Australian Political Economy!
Since 1977, the Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE) has disseminated political economic alternatives to orthodox economics, exploring critiques of contemporary capitalism and fostering debates about the interactions between capital, labour, ecology and the state in the Australian context.
In addition to presenting high-quality, peer-reviewed articles on a range of political economic issues, a prime concern for the journal is to reach as wide an audience as possible. In turn, all current and previous JAPE articles are freely accessible on this site. In addition, materials relating to the annual E.L. 'Ted' Wheelwright Memorial Lecture, forthcoming conferences and links to other Australian and international political economic organisations are also available. A regularly-updated blog incorporating real-time commentary from JAPE contributors on contemporary issues has now also been activated. Please check-back regularly for future news and updates.
Latest News
JAPE Winter 2018 Issue Now Available!
In the context of stagnating wages and persistent economic inequality in Australia, the latest issue of JAPE is a special issue devoted to exploring a number of themes around these issues.
To view the issue, please click here.
To view an article concerning the special issue in the Sydney Morning Herald, please click here.
Wheelwright Lecture 2018
Professor Alfredo Saad Filho (SOAS, University of London) will deliver the eleventh annual E.L. 'Ted' Wheelwright Lecture at the University of Sydney. Professor Saad Filho will be speaking on the topic of 'The Crisis of Neoliberalism and the Rising Tide of Authoritarianism'. A synopsis for the lecture is as follows:
Global neoliberalism is in crisis: the deepest economic collapse since the Great Depression has been followed by a ‘Great Stagnation’ with no end in sight. At the same time, democracies around the world are succumbing to a wave of authoritarianism without precedent in the postwar era. This lecture reviews the causes, severity and implications of the twin crises of neoliberalism, examines the prospects for the end of neoliberalism, and suggests strategies to support democracy and progressive economic policies.
Location: Eastern Avenue Auditorium, University of Sydney
Date and time: 30 August, 2018: 6:00 – 7:30pm (drinks and bookstall in the Foyer beforehand from 5:15).
Entrance: Free
Registration is available here.
Recording of the 2017 Wheelwright Lecture
On Thursday 26 October, Professor Katherine Gibson delivered the 10th Annual E.L. 'Ted' Wheelwright Memorial Lecture at the University of Sydney on 'Manufacturing the Future: Cultures of Production for the Anthropocene'.
For more details of the lecture, please click here.
For a video recording of the lecture, please click here.
Recording of the 2016 Annual E.L. 'Ted' Wheelwright Memorial Lecture
Professor David F. Ruccio delivered the 9th Annual E.L. 'Ted' Wheelwright Memorial Lecture at the University of Sydney on 'Utopia and the Critique of Political Economy':
'It's the twofold critique of political economy - the critique of capitalism and of mainstream economic theory - that needs to be recaptured and rethought, since it is particularly relevant to the debate about the causes and consequences of the crash of 2007-08 and the ongoing crises of capitalism in the world today.'
To view a recording of Professor Ruccio's lecture, please click here.
To read a revised version of the lecture, please click here.
To view or listen to previous years' lectures, please click here.
'Food for Thought': The Journal of Australian Political Economy
Emeritus Professor and coordinating editor of JAPE, Frank Stilwell, reflects on the processes of editing the journal and its enduring significance to the pursuit of progressive political economic reform. This overview will be of interest to well-established and early-career scholars alike
To view the post, please click here.
2014 Wheelwright Lecture Video and Audio Now Available
The 2014 E.L. 'Ted' Wheelwright Memorial Lecture was held on Wednesday 3 September at the University of Sydney. This year’s lecture was delivered by Professor Leo Panitch, on the topic of 'Whose Crisis? Capital, Labour and the State Today'. Leo's talk stimulated debate and discussion well into the night - ably supported by the pizza and drinks provided by the Political Economy Society.
With around 440 people attending, the lecture was a fantastic success. Thank you to everyone who worked to make the evening such a memorable one.
A video of Leo's lecture is available here. In addition, audio of the lecture can be heard here.
A version of Leo's lecture was also included as an article in JAPE 74. To view the article, please click here.
For details and footage of previous years' lectures, please click here.
JAPE Annual Research Award for 'Young Scholars'
JAPE is offering an annual award to a student or recent graduate wishing to undertake a short period of research in political economy. The award has a value of $2000.
Applicants may be of any age but must be in at least their third year of undergraduate study in political economy or a related social science subject. They may have already completed their degree. Students who are completing an honours thesis and would like the experience of doing further research during part of the following year (or the year after) would be particularly welcome to apply. Developing part of their thesis into a publishable article [e.g. for the Journal of Australian Political Economy] would be a suitable project for the purpose of this Award.
A period of at least a month full-time or two months part-time would be spent in a University undertaking the proposed project. This could be the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney, for example, but other places could be possible if the conditions below are met. The person receiving the Award would not have any employment relationship with the university.
Would you like to apply? If so, you should supply: [1] your curriculum vita, including your academic record; [2] an indication of the research topic or writing project on which you propose to work, supported by an explanatory statement of 300-500 words; [3] an indication of proposed time and place where the project would be undertaken; and [4] a brief statement from an academic indicating her/his willingness to provide some guidance or supervision during the period of research.
Applications needed to be submitted to Frank Stilwell [frank.stilwell@sydney.edu.au] by the last day of November.
A committee, comprising members of the JAPE editorial committee, will then select the successful applicant. The criteria for selection will include: [1] evidence of the applicant’s capacity to undertake high quality work in political economy; [2] the nature of the proposed project, including its political economic significance; and [3] an assessment of the likelihood of the project’s successful completion.
The successful applicant will be notified by mid-December.
ABC Radio National's Hindsight recently aired a program looking back at the Political Economy dispute at Sydney University. The dispute in the 1970s and '80s involved some of Australia's most high profile contemporary political figures and paved the way for the establishment of an independent Department of Political Economy at the University.
To listen to the program, please click here
ABC Hindsight Program Looks Back on the Political Economy Dispute
Professor Adam David Morton Inaugural Lecture
Professor Adam Davis Morton's Inaugural Lecture, 'For a Political Economy of Space and Place', is now available to view online.
Under capitalism, how does the state organise space in our everyday lives through the streets we walk, the monuments we visit, and the places where we meet?
This lecture contributes to our understanding of spatial political economy by analysing the different functions of space within capitalism. With a focus on the linkage between architecture and modernity, the simple diffusion of modernist architecture from a Euro-American context to the rest of the world is rejected. Instead, the lecture will make a case for understanding local appropriations, transformations and resistances in making multiple modernities. It will do so by focusing on three theoretical departure points, drawing from Antonio Gramsci, Walter Benjamin, and Henri Lefebvre, to reveal modernism’s translation through space and place in the context of peripheral geographies.
Drawing on current debates about modernity in Latin America, the lecture demonstrates how a spatial political economy can help understand modernity within capitalism through the ordering of state space.
To view the lecture, please click here.
To read a revised copy of the lecture, please click here.