KLI Colloquia are invited research talks of about an hour followed by 30 min discussion. The talks are held in English, open to the public, and offered in hybrid format.
Fall-Winter 2025-2026 KLI Colloquium Series
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5881861923?omn=85945744831
Meeting ID: 588 186 1923
25 Sept 2025 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
A Dynamic Canvas Model of Butterfly and Moth Color Patterns
Richard Gawne (Nevada State Museum)
14 Oct 2025 (Tues) 3-4:30 PM CET
Vienna, the Laboratory of Modernity
Richard Cockett (The Economist)
23 Oct 2025 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
How Darwinian is Darwinian Enough? The Case of Evolution and the Origins of Life
Ludo Schoenmakers (KLI)
6 Nov (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Common Knowledge Considered as Cause and Effect of Behavioral Modernity
Ronald Planer (University of Wollongong)
20 Nov (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Rates of Evolution, Time Scaling, and the Decoupling of Micro- and Macroevolution
Thomas Hansen (University of Oslo)
4 Dec (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Chance, Necessity, and the Evolution of Evolvability
Cristina Villegas (KLI)
8 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Embodied Rationality: Normative and Evolutionary Foundations
Enrico Petracca (KLI)
15 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
On Experimental Models of Developmental Plasticity and Evolutionary Novelty
Patricia Beldade (Lisbon University)
29 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET
Jan Baedke (Ruhr University Bochum)
Event Details
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https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvd-2orjwrGdP7Ll_NV46KhWLoR2l7t1u7
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Topic description / abstract
The subject of the presentation is the discussion of evolutionary political economy as a distinct research programme. Evolutionary political economy follows two central goals: (1) to investigate and understand the endogenous dynamics of capitalist development in space and time, with its social-ecological implications, and (2) to shape the future of societal evolution on behalf of (1). Two distinct but interrelated processes shape political economic evolution simultaneously. There is a rather continuous process of variational change and growth, representing the more quickly dynamics of the circular flow, and a slower process of development carrying the contradictory motive forces of change which are tending towards disruptive transformation. The evolution of political economy unfolds as a stepwise sequence thereby. Traditionally, evolutionary economics has focused more on the former variational process by introducing e.g. population dynamics and related concepts into theories and models. The second transformational process is far more underrepresented in the literature, giving the occasion to develop an extended research programme, simply called evolutionary political economy. Theoretically, this work builds upon Marx, Schumpeter, Veblen and Georgescu-Roegen, understood as core thinkers of transformation with regard to the spatio-temporality of capitalist development. Otherwise, evolutionary political economy takes use of disaggregated simulation methods to communicate its ideas and findings to a larger community. In particular, the application of agent-based macroeconomic models is discussed, in exposing the interrelated dynamics of variation and transformation.
Biographical note
Manuel Scholz-Wäckerle is a senior lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) at the Department of Socioeconomics. He obtained a doctorate in the social and economic sciences from the Technical University of Vienna in 2010. His main research areas involve evolutionary political economy, institutional economics, social-ecological transformation and agent-based modelling (micro-meso-macro).
