Winter School

Economy & Society Winter School, 2024

IIM Kozhikode

9:00 am, August 30, 2025 -
5:00 pm, August 30, 2025

Applications: Closed

Overview

The New Political Economy Initiative at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode hosted the first edition of the Economy & Society Winter School as part of its ‘Social Structures of the Economy’ Research Cluster from Monday, December 9, to Saturday, December 21 this year.

The student cohort was chosen through an online call for applications followed by interviews of shortlisted candidates. The Winter School covered both the foundations and the frontiers of economic sociology from American, Latin American, and European traditions including interactive lectures on methods. This was a full-time residential school with faculty  coming from India and abroad.

Eligibility

Applicants can range from advanced undergraduates (those who have completed three years of undergraduate education or are in the fourth year of their studies) to Master’s and PhD scholars looking to gain exposure in the fields of economic sociology and other allied areas such as social structures of accumulation (SSA). We also welcome applications from journalists, independent researchers and young lecturers. For the 2024 iteration, we only have 30 seats and we are looking for candidates from the Global South only. Please see this list for clarification on which countries are part of the Global South.

Important dates

Application opens – 30th June, 2024
Application deadline – 4th August, 2024 at 10 pm IST
Application review – 5th August to 1st October, 2024
Interviews – 2nd-3rd October, 2024
Communication of results to the applicants – 10th October, 2024*

Curriculum

This winter school will featured a series of lectures and interactive tutorials that introduced students to both fundamental and frontiers themes within the field of economic sociology. Some of the topics covered across the two weeks were –

  • Introduction to economy and society as a field
  • Methods and debates that illuminate the understanding of economy and economic phenomena
  • Embeddedness
    • Network (Economic Exchange as Social Exchange)
    • Relational (Cultural meaning and Market Transactions)
    • Neo-Polanyian (The Institutional Foundations of Market Society)
  • Performativity/Economic Expertise
  • New Monetary Circuits
  • Varieties of Capitalism
  • Development & Growth
  • Indian Capitalism
  • Racial Capitalism
  • Caste and Capital
  • Caste & Entrepreneurship
  • Economic Sociology of Informal Work
  • Economic Sociology of Migration
  • The Development of Labor under Contemporary Capitalism
  • Organisation of work beyond the state regulation; Markets as social structures
  • Translating transactions: Markets as epistemic and moral spheres
  • Complexity and dynamism of agricultural markets, regional capitalism and economic life in India
  • Financialization
  • The political economy of international organisations and foreign aid
  • Neoliberalism and Post-Neoliberalism
  • Technology, Platforms and Algorithm
  • Political economy of natural resources and changing views about the relation between nature and society
  • Relationship between nature and society
  • Capitalism and nature
  • Unpacking commodification of nature
  • Methodological questions at the intersection of nature, economy, and society
  • Institutional dynamics and everyday life of public systems and bureaucracies
  • Problem solving sociology

Although the lectures and discussion sessions dominated the 13-day schedule, these combined with a basic but essential project component made  for a requirement for the certification of successful completion. Towards this end, there was ample time for informal collaboration with peers and instructors. This combined with the residential nature of the winter school, we hope that students engaged with their peers and resources persons.

Faculty members

  • Patrick Heller, Brown University
  • Monica Prasad, John Hopkins University
  • André Vereta-Nahoum, University of Sao Paulo
  • Carol Upadhya, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru
  • Priya Sangameswaran, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata
  • Simone Polillo, University of Virginia
  • Anush Kapadia, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
  • Nitsan Chorev, Brown University
  • Rina Agarwala, John Hopkins University
  • Sebastian Schwecke, Max Weber Stiftung – India
  • Mariana Luzzi, San Martin University, Argentina
  • Harish Damodaran, Indian Express
  • Mekhala Krishnamurthy, Ashoka University
  • Mufsin Puthan Purayil, O.P. Jindal Global University
  • Omkumar Krishnan, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode

Organising Committee for 2024 edition

  • Anush Kapadia
  • Sonal Raghuvanshi
  • Simone Polillo
  • Rowena Robinson
  • Tony Kurian
  • Omkumar Krishnan

ESWS 2024 Cohort

  1. Carla Airoldi
  2. Rafael Dellacqua
  3. Tales Mançano
  4. Alejandra Solar Ortega
  5. Rahul Maganti
  6. Balaji G.B.
  7. Jaseemul Frahan KP
  8. Arun M Balaji
  9. Iman Banerjee
  10. Anindya Basak
  11. Tilak Bhardwaj
  12. Madhav Chadha
  13. Anjali Chauhan
  14. Debanka De
  15. Ankita Dutta
  16. Thangsiandong Guite
  17. Nanditha IR
  18. Sai Darshan Kumar
  19. Lasang Lepcha
  20. Madhuvadhani M
  21. Abhishek Mali
  22. Satya Oza
  23. Vedant Patil
  24. Tathagat Singh
  25. Jasdeep Singh Madhiratta
  26. Rishiraj Sinha
  27. Swetarani Tripathy

Study Resources

Lecture content and reading material from ESWS 2024 have been released as a series here.