THE GROUNDS OF PLANNING: RATIONALITY, PSEUDORATIONALITY, AND CRITIQUE

With keynotes by John O’Neill (University of Manchester) and Aaron Benanav (Cornell University)
and contributions by Rabea Berfelde, Jacob Blumenfeld, Lillian Cicerchia, Solveig Degen, Jan Groos, Max Grünberg, Jakob Heyer, Christian Schmidt, Sandra Sieron and Gabriel Wollner

Topic

What does it mean to plan an economy rationally—and what counts as „rational“? This workshop revisits key moments in the theoretical development of economic planning, from the classic disputes between Hayek, Mises, and Neurath to contemporary debates over ecological rationality and algorithmic coordination. Across four panels and a keynote, we’ll examine how different standards of rationality have been used to justify—or discredit—forms of planning. The aim is not only to reanimate past debates, but to ask how planning might be rethought today given the distinct logic of ecological constraints, technological infrastructures, and political demands for democratic coordination.

This two-day workshop brings together scholars working at the intersection of philosophy, political economy, and critical theory to reflect on the contested rationality of economic planning. How has the concept of planning been shaped by debates over knowledge, value, nature, and technology? What models of rationality—formal, substantive, instrumental—have guided or distorted our visions of a planned economy? And what might planning mean in the face of ecological limits, algorithmic governance, and authoritarian capitalism? The event is organized around four key discussions, framed by classic and contemporary texts, and features two keynotes by John O’Neill and Aaron Benanav.

Discussions will be held in English.

Program

Thursday, December 4: Past Debates on Planning

13:00–14:45 | Rationality or Pseudorationality
Jacob Blumenfeld / Christian Schmidt / Lillian Cicerchia

Text basis for discussion:
1913 Otto Neurath, “Lost Wanderers of Descartes”
1925 Otto Neurath, “Socialist Utility Calculation and Capitalist Profit Calculation”

14:45-15:15 | Break

15:15–17:00 | Knowledge and the Limits of Planning
Rabea Berfelde / Gabriel Wollner / Jakob Heyer

Text basis for discussion:
1945 Friedrich Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”

17:00-17:30 | Break

17:30 –19:00 | Keynote John O’Neill, „Rationality in the Socialist Calculation Debate“

Friday, December 5: Present Debates on Planning

10-11:15 | Keynote Aaron Benanav, „Rational Choice in a Multidimensional World”

11:15-11:30 | Break

11:30 –13:00 | Planning Nature
Solveig Degen / Jan Groos

13:00 –14:15 | Lunch

14:15–15:45 | Algorithmic Planning
Max Grünberg / Sandra Sieron

15:45 – 16:00 | Closing
Christian Schmidt, Jacob Blumenfeld, Rabea Berfelde
John O’Neill

John O’Neill is a philosopher and political economist whose main interests lie in the nature of markets, ecology, and values. Currently, he is the director of the Political Economy Institute at the University of Manchester where he holds the Hallsworth Chair in Political Economy. Before coming to Manchester John O‘Neill was professor of philosophy at Lancaster University. He has also held posts at the University of Sussex and the University of Wales. His books include The Market: Ethics, Knowledge and Politics (Routledge, 1998), Ecology, Policy and Politics: Human Well-Being and the Natural World (Routledge, 2002), Markets, Deliberation and Environment (Routledge, 2007), Environmental Values (co-authored with Alan Holland and Andrew Light, Routledge, 2008). He is the author of numerous articles on the socialist calculation debate, ecological economics and democratic planning, such as “Who won the socialist calculation debate?” (1996); “Ecological economics and the politics of knowledge: the debate between Hayek and Neurath” (2004); “Horkheimer and Neurath: Restarting a disrupted debate” (with Thomas Uebel, 2004); “Knowledge, planning, and markets: A missing chapter in the socialist calculation debates” (2006); “From socialist calculation to political ecology” (2019); and “Pluralism, Ecology and Planning” (2024).

Aaron Benanav is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. As a historian, sociologist, and economic and social theorist, Benanav’s research spans a variety of topics, including automation and the future of work, unemployment and underemployment, histories of social and economic development, critical theory, and alternative economic systems. His first book, Automation and the Future of Work, was published by Verso in 2020 and has been translated into ten languages. Currently, Benanav is working on two new book projects. One project delves into the history and future of economic planning and democracy, while the other explores the global history of unemployment since 1940. In 2023-26, Benanav served as a core member of a University of Chicago Neubauer Collegium research team on the topic: “Economic Planning and Democratic Politics: History, Theory, and Practice.” In 2024-25, he was a residential fellow at the New Institute in Hamburg. Benanav serves on the editorial boards of both New Left Review and International Labor and Working-Class History. Before he joined Cornell University, Benanav was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University. Prior to that, he held a postdoctoral position at Humboldt University in Berlin and was a member of the Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago.