The Role of Seminars, Conferences and Workshops in the History of Economics

Abstract

This paper introduces twin special issues of the Revue d’Economie Politique on the role that seminars, workshops and conferences have played in the history of economics in the 20th century. Our goal is to turn what have been a systematic background feature in the history of key concepts, theories, models or practices into a full-fledged object of study. We use seven case studies that we have assembled as well as a host of other examples to explain why tight classifications of seminars, conferences and workshops are hard to come up with. Their names and organization derive from a mix of traditions contexts and contingencies. We trace their historical origins and outline salient features and dimensions worth considering. We then detail two major functions of seminars, conferences and workshops. They can be viewed as construction sites where theories, concepts, but also tools and practices and even political programs are built through bringing in various intellectual and institutional resources. They can also be understood as weapons of dissemination, whereby such theories, tools practices, etc., are sent out, first, to students, then, to colleagues, opponents and institutions. Those processes involve the formation of networks and communities of like-minded scholars, even friends, but also the exclusion of others, and the development of age, institutional, class and gender hierarchies. These are channeled via how workshop and conferences’ rules are set up or what food and drinks are offered for instance. We finally reflect on what may drive the persistence, visibility, or failures of workshops, seminars and conferences: leadership and entrepreneurship.