Reconvening Call, 2025 Initatives, book club selection, UNDP Conference, and Summer Residency Plans

thanks for this @Katebee ! I’d love to join. I’m in tbilisi, three hours ahead and between my 5 (your 2) and my 9 (your 6) PM isn’t ideal, but could make it work if planned in between those hours. Looking forward to it!

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Hi Kate and all!

Great idea, would love to reconnect as well. My time zone is Lisbon. I’d also be down for the book club. I’ve been wanting to read Varouf’s Another Now but Doctorow’s seems relevant too.

Also curious why @alberto you think The Dispossesed would not be the best title for a public discussion (other than because probably everyone’s read it). That book got me into both sci-fi AND book clubs :joy:

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Because there is not much left to learn around the economics. There is even an essay by Kallis about it: https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2014.973803

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Kate, I found and downloaded an epub version of P&S. I don’t have any suggestion for the reading. Please tag me when you decide on the book, day, and time. Thank you very much.

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Wow, that Kallis article (@alberto) took me down quite the rabbit hole. I’m still mulling Georgescu-Roegen’s Promethian processes.

re Call:
I’m Arizona time, and could make extreme edges of a day work.

re Book Club:
I find most sci fi treatments of economics unsatisfactory, with the exception of LeGuinn and Robinson (Red Mars, New York 2140). The rest give hints of interesting stuff which ultimately doesn’t make sense, and sets the whole programme backward. That said, I’ve been intrigued by Chamber’s Monk & Robot works and what seems to be a gift economy with accounting, and though it’s very incomplete it’s at least consistent.

What are people looking to get out of a bookclub? We could go the other way and read econ, such as Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, or Graeber’s Debt or Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. I’ve just started Romeo’s The Alternative but haven’t gotten far enough to recommend.

I’ll happily go along with any decision.

re Residency:
I’m excited about the possibility of a 4-day in Barcelona in early or late May. Meetings are important.

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Haha you are the woman for that job!

I beg to differ here. The point is not if sci-fi authors make good economists (which would be somewhat bizarre!), but what they bring to the table of economics debates that no one else does.

That said, we have had a blast back in the day with book clubs on Varoufakis’s Another Now and Robinson’s Ministry for the Future. I also wrote economic analyses of Doctorow’s Makers and Walkaway, plus some random stuff, like musing on where Modern Monetary Theory is found in science fiction.

Hi @inge @amiridina @joaosf @giacomo.pinaffo (please ping Giuseppe) @zazizoma @Nic010 @lucacominassi and all others - the time for the Reconvening Call is Wednesday 12 Feb at 18:00 CET (GMT+01:00) Central European Time

Please DM me with your email if you want an invite (it won’t seem to let me turn this event public :thinking:)

Otherwise the link to the meeting room is here

Draft Agenda:

  • Checkin: What are you noticing regarding Sci Fi Economics as we begin 2025?
  • Update on recent and upcoming events
  • New economic theory discussion - who (or what) are you paying attention to right now) (TBC)
  • Which book for the bookclub (discussion on what is the Sci Fi Economics category - reference this post by @alberto

:vulcan_salute:

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Sent invite to ADH pls : )

Is that Andrew? I don’t have it - can you DM me it?

Great! Thanks for catalysing the re-union @Katebee ! :pray:
Hope to see the Catalunyan retreat happening, happy to help if needed.

And I am fine for next Wed call. Actually, on the very same day, I flag you a really interesting and Sci-Fi Lab inspired initiative (or seems so at least, they were invited in Messina…). https://communitiesforfuture.org/civicrm/mailing/view/?reset=1&id=397&cid=46483&cs=077bff1048eafda03fe4df67bfeb5f2b_1738570821_168

As I was discussing with @alberto, it would be cool to suggest them a more structured sci-fi econ lab, perhaps building up on - and reinforcing what will emerge from those sessions? Just an idea :slight_smile:

Nicolò

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@Nic010 maybe @Katebee can add this point to the agenda and you could take 5 mins too explain your idea?

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Hi everyone,

I had to change it to Thursday same time as we had a few significant clashes. Hope that’s ok!

@Nic010 excited to hear about this project

I should make it, yes. But it’s kind of short notice, are we sure we don’t want to reschedule it one week out?

Ok

Is Wednesday 19th Feb at 18 CET ok for you @zazizoma @alberto

Yes, ATM.

Good for the 19th, I could not have made it tomorrow. See you next week!

N

My next available Wed AM is March 12. But I’ve communicated my May dates, so please let me know how that planning goes.

The registration link for the Call is here registration - please send it to your friends and colleagues if you want to introduce them to Sci Fi Economics

Note: if you’re already in the existing calendar invite you don’t need to sign up

Sorry @zazizoma on the 12th I can’t make it, and then we’re hitting up against the Lab happening in IST. For the next call I’ll do my absolute best ensure you’re there

Hi everyone,

For those who missed the 2025 Convening Call

The recording of the is here, use the passcode: 6y7ux+&W

Don’t miss the chat - it was full of insights and links to other adjacent projects

Thanks to everyone who joined! great fun :dizzy: