Event Recap

BESI and UC Berkeley Sociology earlier this month hosted a conference in celebration and tribute to the work of Neil Fligstein, who recently retired from his long-time position at UC Berkeley.

Chandler's take makes the case for a progressive agenda that would reshape society for the better.

Can we automate economic decision making? More importantly, should we?

Recorded on April 19, this video features a talk by Susan Helper, Carlton Professor of Economics at Case Western Reserve University and former Senior Advisor for Industrial Strategy in the Biden Administration. Professor Helper reflects on her experience designing and implementing strategies for supply chains such as electric vehicles, personal protective equipment, and clean energy.

Gramkow presents a Structuralist economic model that combines three dimensions of sustainable development.

The Biden administration has taken some bold moves to rein in big tech and to challenge market concentration more broadly. Who is winning this battle and why? What are the possibilities for and constraints on a fundamental shift in market power in America? Watch the video of a BESI panel bringing together scholars who study the history, theory, and practice of antitrust with advocates directly engaged in policy debates today.

Recorded on March 19, 2024, this video features a talk by Nick Romeo, New Yorker journalist and lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, focused on his book, The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy. The discussant was Sarang Shah, PhD student in the UC Berkeley Department of Political Science. The talk was moderated by Steven Vogel, Il Han New Professor of Asian Studies and Professor of Political Science and Political Economy.

Recorded on March 12, this panel focused on the book Moving the Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do for the Poor, by Katherine S. Newman, UC System Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, and Elisabeth S. Jacobs, Deputy Director, WorkRise and Associate Vice President, Executive Office of Research, Urban Institute.

Recorded on March 12, 2024, this video features a lecture by Brett Christophers, Professor of Human Geography at Uppsala University’s Institute for Housing and Urban Research. The talk was delivered as part of the BESI Climate Seminar, presented by the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI).

On February 6, 2024, BESI was honored to host a lecture by Professor Beth Rabinowitz, Associate Professor, Political Science, Rutgers University – Camden, discussing her book, Defensive Nationalism: Explaining the Rise of Populism and Fascism in the 21st Century.

On December 5, 2023, BESI co-sponsored a panel focused on Impunity and Capitalism: the Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2022), by Trevor Jackson, Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley. Professor Jackson was joined by Anat Admati, the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and William H. Janeway, Affiliated Member of the Economics Faculty at Cambridge University.  The panel was moderated by David Singh Grewal, Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law.

Watch a recap of a talk by Simon Johnson, Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management. Johnson discussed his recent co-authored book, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, based on a thousand years of history and contemporary evidence.