IAFFE 2021 Sustaining Life: Challenges of Multidimensional Crises

Sustaining life requires inclusive and resilient economic and political systems and the sustainability of our environment.  Feminist economics continues to offer a vital set of intellectual perspectives and methodologies with which to analyze these issues. Our economic and political systems are failing to address human needs and ecological fragility, particularly with the growing rise of illiberal democracies. Our societies face pressures to divide along lines of race, religion, nationality, gender, and sexual identity.  Borders are increasingly shutting people out and walls are being built. Globally, women face threats to their jobs, their livelihoods and their bodily integrity. The global pandemic has exacerbated all of these challenges.  Against this backdrop, new economic visions and tools are needed and feminist approaches are essential. Feminist economics has long looked beyond the simplifications that are embedded in the categories, methods, and models of mainstream economics and welcomes insights from other disciplines. Our approaches look at activities within the socially constructed categories of households, firms, communities, and the state; we consider economic activity both inside and outside markets; and we seek a more integrated understanding of human well-being in which productive and reproductive activities are valued. The IAFFE 2021 Conference will provide a forum for scholarship and inquiry that recognizes the methodological pluralism of our field. We define our field broadly and welcome research that brings a feminist lens to topics both micro and macro, local and global. We invite you to join us for this virtual conference, hosted by the Quito Local Committee.