Introduction to the Special Issue on Capitalism and Heterodox Economics

The papers in this special issue are born out of the debates within the Association of Heterodox Economics’ (AHE) 2022 Annual Conference that took place. The Theme of that conference was ‘Crises in Capitalism or Crises of capitalism’. The theme stemmed from debates generated already around the Global Financial crisis, on the usefulness of the current economic order and the mainstream neo-liberal approach to economics. This debate was reignited more than a decade later, as the world faced not one, but multiple economic, social, and ecological crises, of which the COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis stands out. The conference sub-themes highlighted these in the areas of labour and precarity, identity and climate change. The conference aimed to bring together scholars globally to advance the discussions on the existing social order and the debates about systemic change. The nature of the AHE meant that the conference was heterogeneous, with participants representing a range of approaches and paradigms. The programme included Marxists, ecological economists, feminist economists, Post-Keynesians, anthropologists, activists and many more.