IFAA Cape Town

ALT STREAM 1 From Climate Crisis to Climate Action This stream challenges orthodox, neoliberal approaches to climate action, finance and policy, specifically from an African and Global South perspective. This entails discussing structural aspects of the climate crisis including energy generation, climate finance, migration, food systems, and development. The stream has a particular focus on energy policy and alternative models of development and decarbonisation. Sessions will also show the link between climate breakdown and prevailing economic theory. Keywords: Just Energy Transition, JETP, Decarbonisation, Privatisation, ‘Green Growth’, Ecological Crisis

ALT STREAM 2 Intersectional Feminism: The Struggle for Equality This stream explores the intersections between feminism and economics, highlighting how mainstream economic theory, praxis, and policies impact women’s economic development and well-being. Particularly focusing on African experiences, this stream discusses issues such as the care burden, societal norms, labour force participation, and agency, and emphasises the link between the decolonial project and equality. The sessions will emphasise the superiority of a feminist approach to economics as opposed to the current narrow orthodox approach. Keywords: Feminism, Care Economy, Decolonisation, Labour force participation, ‘Smart Economics’

ALT STREAM 3 The Global Financial Architecture and Heterodox Macroeconomics This stream brings into focus the complicated position of African economies in the global financial system. The inherent inequities of the current global financial architecture have implications for the pace of industrialisation, innovation, structural transformation, and development goals across the continent. Sessions will analyse decolonisation, regional collaboration, sovereignty, and inclusive economic dynamism within the broader context of global power imbalances. Alternatives to the current system will be discussed by critiquing broader neoliberal processes and the underlying economic theory that informs neoliberalism. Keywords: Neoliberalism, Financialisation, Debt Distress, BRICS, Power, Austerity, Inflation, Unemployment

ALT STREAM 4 New, Alternative, Hidden and Emergent Forms of Work and Knowledge This stream will critically engage theories of structural transformation and the implications for understanding labour markets and labour issues in Africa. Important sub-themes in this stream are racial capitalism, digitalisation, worker agency, social policy, care work, and livelihoods. The stream draws on a social reproduction lens which sees work as both productive and reproductive, paid and unpaid. This stream thus confronts the conceptualisation of labour in mainstream economics and in prevailing policy discourse, arguing for a deeper understanding and appreciation of labour issues. Keywords: Structural Transformation, Just Transition, Digital Transition, Precarity, Labour Power

ALT Rethinking Economics for Africa Festival 2023 Thursday - Friday 7 - 8 September 2023 Wits University, Johannesburg [Organising partner logos]