Lexington Books series on polycentricity studies: Call for proposals

There is little question that polycentricity theory has enabled entangled political economy (EPE) researchers to inquire meaningfully into the nature and consequences of economic, political, and social interactions. In its modern form the concept of polycentricity owes much to the theoretical innovations of Michael Polanyi, and followed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, allowing for the explicit consideration of multiple sites of human action and decision-making (a useful survey of the literature, for those interested, can be found here).

From an EPE perspective polycentricity serves a few key purposes. Conceptually, an emphasis upon polycentricity presents a vision of socio-political order inhabited by entangled agents whose modes of conduct both influenced, and are influenced by, a mix of institutions, practices, and rules. From an analytical perspective, polycentricity serves as a tool to better understand how and why a vast assortment of individual and collective actors engage one another, and the broader implications of this. The polycentric orientation in EPE also bears significant normative properties, insofar as the maintenance of polycentric governance is seen to frustrate the monocentric tendencies of centralizing political power.

Scholarly inquiry within the EPE domain, with its deep appreciation of the versatility and usefulness of polycentricity theory, has been aptly supported by opportunities to publish books through reputable academic publishing houses, such as Lexington Books. The Polycentricity: Studies in Institutional Diversity and Voluntary Governance series explores the varieties of social institutions, processes, and patterns of governance that emerge through individuals’ coordination, cooperation, and competition in governance systems based on freedom of choice, freedom of exchange, and freedom of association. The Lexington Books polycentricity book series should be of great interest for academics specializing in EPE, presenting a unique opportunity to present detailed research as to how our entangled, and polycentric, world is implicated in social order and material progress.

There have been three books already published under the polycentricity series, including my Freedom in Contention: Social Movements and Liberal Political Economy (being the subject of a previous EPERN blog post). Darcy Allen, Chris Berg, and Aaron Lane’s Cryptodemocracy: How Blockchain Can Radically Expand Democratic Choice assesses the contribution of technological innovation (specifically, distributed public ledgers) to democratic theory and practice. David Ellerman’s The Uses of Diversity: Essays in Polycentricity considers the application of polycentric experimentalism in a variety of governance, institutional, and operational settings. Each of these works considers the implications of EPE in various ways, and the aims and objectives of the series provide ample scope for submitted proposals that specifically address EPE theory and analysis using a polycentric lens.

The latest publicity flyer for the book series can be found here. For further information, and book proposals for consideration, please contact the series editors Lenore Ealy (lte@ufm.edu) or Paul Dragos Aligica (paligica@yahoo.com).