We are rethinking the conditions for genuine, widespread, and sustainable prosperity.
The Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative forges collaborations across fields to reframe the study of political and economic life. Hard questions are our starting point.
Learn more about the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI).
The Latest at BESI
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BESI in the news
BESI Director Paul Pierson and BESI Climate lead Jonas Meckling recently offered insights in the New…
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Susan Helper: “Industrial Strategy: Theory And Practice”
Recorded on April 19, this video features a talk by Susan Helper, Carlton Professor of Economics…
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Has US Antitrust Reached A Turning Point? A Panel Discussion
The Biden administration has taken some bold moves to rein in big tech and to challenge…
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Nick Romeo: “The Alternative: How To Build A Just Economy”
Recorded on March 19, 2024, this video features a talk by Nick Romeo, New Yorker journalist…
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Moving The Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do For The Poor
Recorded on March 12, this panel focused on the book Moving the Needle: What Tight Labor Markets…
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Brett Christophers: “The Price Is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save The Planet”
Recorded on March 12, 2024, this video features a lecture by Brett Christophers, Professor of Human…
Events Hosted by BESI
November 21, 2024
4pm – 5:30pm
8th floor, Social Sciences Building The American election will close out a year of momentous elections around the world. Almost two decades on from the financial crisis of 2007 that helped unleash a wave of authoritarian, populist, and nativist movements in democracies around the world, our panel of UC Berkeley faculty will consider what new social and political forces have […]Upcoming Events
Making Sense of the Elections of 2024
Marion Fourcade | The Ordinal Society
December 5, 2024
4-5:30pm
8th floor, Social Sciences Building
BESI is excited to host a talk by Marion Fourcade, Professor of Sociology at Berkeley, celebrating the publication of her book, The Ordinal Society, co-authored with Kieran Healy. Nearly every aspect of our lives is measured, ranked, and processed into discrete, standardized units of digital information. Fourcade and Healy argue that technologies of information management, […]
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Brian Judge | Democracy in Default: Finance and the Rise of Neoliberalism in America
December 10, 2024
4-5:30pm
8th floor, Social Sciences Building
Join us as Brian Judge (Policy Fellow at the Center for Human-Compatible AI, UC Berkeley) discusses his new book and its bold reappraisal of financialization and the origins of neoliberalism. Judge argues that neoliberalism springs from the product of a crisis in liberalism itself. Liberalism disavows the problem of distributive conflict, leaving it vulnerable when conflicts […]
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Emphasis (DE) in
Political Economy
BESI is proud to support the Designated Emphasis (DE) in Political Economy, through which doctoral students in various disciplines can expand their training in political economy and take classes across UC Berkeley departments.