The Center for Economy and Society is a multidisciplinary research and teaching initiative dedicated to reinvigorating debates about politics, economics, and culture and identifying new possibilities for change. CES aims to provide a pluralistic space in which scholars and practitioners with different approaches to the political economy of liberal democracy can productively work out their disagreements, discover common ground, and build new frameworks for governance.
The center’s intellectual programming includes a series of convenings to generate new conversations and research agendas for academics, policy makers, and public intellectuals. Past convenings have focused on supply-side progressivism and postwar economic grand narratives. The center also hosts regular roundtable dinners in DC to bring together academics, policymakers, and journalists for informal conversations on a range of issues in both domestic and international political economy.
In 2024, CES launched its undergraduate major in Moral and Political Economy. The interdisciplinary major will focus on training students to think about economic problems in their political, social, and moral contexts. The major is composed of a year-long course called Social Theories of the Economy, a research lab, a reading seminar, micro- and macro-economics, six courses in a “focus track” of a student’s choice, and a mandatory senior thesis.
The Center for Economy and Society is one of a number of inter-related initiatives being funded by the Hewlett Foundation and Omidyar Network. The grants—which together total more the $40 million and are also funding work at Harvard and Howard universities, MIT, and the Santa Fe Institute—will support the establishment of academic centers dedicated to reimagining the relationships among markets, governments, and citizens.
Current and Forthcoming CES Projects:
- Political Ideologies of Silicon Valley
- Green Industrial Policy
- AI and the Economy
- Polarization and the Professions