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Decolonising and Diversifying the Humanities and Social Sciences: Lessons from the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
Wednesday 19th November 2025
3pm-4pm GMT | 10am-11am EST | 4pm-5pm CET
In this year’s Palgrave Lecture, Matías Vernengo, one of the Editors-in-Chief of the forthcoming fourth edition The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, discusses the process of decolonialising and diversifying the leading reference work in economics.
For a discipline that studies choices made by, and affecting, everyone on the planet, it is peculiar that economics has been so restrictive in terms of what is studied and who is listened to. Of the 96 recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics, just three are women and over 90% come from North America and Western Europe.
So, how does one tackle the task of revising a work like The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, when all previous editions have reflected the limitations of the economics profession, particularly its Eurocentric and gender-biased character?
Matías will talk about how he and his colleagues Esteban Pérez Caldenteya and Jayati Ghosh are directly addressing these issues by focusing on the economic history, institutions, and unique challenges of the Global South.
He discusses how their work aims to expand the list of influential thinkers by including scholars from the Global South and other marginalized groups, while also exploring neglected topics like unpaid labor, subsistence farming, informal economies, and the economic impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations.
He argues that this expanded focus does not necessarily require an entirely new theoretical framework for the periphery, as a form of universalism remains possible by incorporating the distinct historical context of developing countries.
Chair:
Stephen Partridge
Editorial Director for Business, Economics and Finance, Palgrave Macmillan
Speakers:
Matías Vernengo
Professor, Department of Economics, Bucknell University
Esteban Pérez Caldentey
Chief of the Financing, Development Unit, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Jayati Ghosh
Professor, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Wyndham Hacket Pain
Senior Editor, Palgrave Macmillan
This webinar is free to attend, and there will be a Q&A featuring all of our speakers. Register now >>