Spring School "Political economy of production and labour"

16 Mar 2026, 10:00 → 20 Mar 2026, 18:30 Europe/Rome

Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi, sala Altana (Firenze)

Spring School "Political economy of production and labour"

The SpringSchool is funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) through the MERITA, the network for talent project*.

The school aims to combine methods and theories from political economy and labour studies for the study of changes in the economy and employment in today's world and will offer tools to understand the governance of value chains, industrial policies, and labour markets, set against the backdrop of world political and economic systems instability and environmental and social sustainability concerns. It will employ an interdisciplinary approach, combining perspectives from international political economy, labour economics, industrial relations, gender studies, political ecology, and the sociology of work.

Organized over five days, each day will address a specific theme, featuring lectures by senior scholars and presentations by experts on case studies. PhD students may have the opportunity to present and discuss their research projects with lecturers and participants.

For any further question or information request please contact the official email address of the School: eclabour.springschool@sns.it 

* MERITA, the network for talent project is the result of a collaboration between five Italian academic institutions: the Scuola Normale Superiore, the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, the Collegio Superiore dell’Università di Bologna, the Scuola Galileiana di Studi Superiori dell’Università di Padova and the Scuola Superiore di Studi Avanzati della Sapienza Università di Roma.

Monday, 16 March

1 Welcome and presentation of the School and of the participants

2 Political economy beyond economics

Speaker: Mario Pianta (Scuola Normale Superiore)

3 Political economy and social blocs

Speaker: Bruno Amable (University of Geneva)

4 Mechanisms of income inequality

Speaker: Michele Raitano (Sapienza Università di Roma)

5 Wealth inequality and policies

Speaker: Salvatore Morelli (Università Roma Tre)

Tuesday, 17 March

6 Economics from a South perspective (online)

Speaker: Jayati Ghosh (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

7 Technology, demand and employment

Speaker: Marco Vivarelli (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

8 Labour markets and wages

Speaker: Lia Pacelli (Università di Torino)

9 Industrial policy, sustainability and politics

Speaker: Antonio Andreoni (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)

10 Data and methodologies

Speakers present information on databases, methodologies and research trajectories

Wednesday, 18 March

11 Labour relations in the global economy

Speaker: Sarosh Kuruvilla (Cornell University)

12 Labour and comparative political economy

Speaker: Vincenzo Maccarrone (Scuola Normale Superiore)

13 Doing research in the interest of workers: challenges and limitations

Speaker: Maurizio Atzeni (Queen Mary University of London)

14 Frontline research: Labour and unions in global production systems

Speakers: Clelia Li Vigni (Scuola Normale Superiore), Dario Di Conzo, Lorenzo Lodi, Nicolò Deiana

Thursday, 19 March

15 Understanding power resources in labour relations

Speaker: Guglielmo Meardi (Scuola Normale Superiore)

16 Presentations by participants, thematic discussion groups, meetings with speakers

17 The purple economy: gender, care and labour (online)

Speaker: İpek İlkkaracan (Istanbul Technical University)

Friday, 20 March

18 Labour in the digital age

Speaker: Armanda Cetrulo (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna)

19 Labour in the digital age

Speaker: Valeria Cirillo (Università di Bari)

20 Labour in the digital age

Speaker: Dario Guarascio (Sapienza Università di Roma)

21 Labour in the digital age

Speaker: Sarrah Kassem (Scuola Normale Superiore)

22 Labour activism

Speaker: Donatella Della Porta (Scuola Normale Superiore)

23 The macro level: macroeconomic and labour policies

Speaker: Francesco Saraceno (Sciences Po, Paris)

24 The local level: economic and labour policies in the (small) global city of Florence with local policy makers and civil society