Athens: Economy & Democracy Conference (in honour of P. Millett) 8–9 July 2022

Organisers: Daniel Jew (National University of Singapore), Sitta von Reden (Freiburg), Robin Osborne (Cambridge)  

This conference marks the retirement of Paul Millett, one of the most prominent of Finley’s students in economic history. We seek to focus on the city illuminated by Paul’s work: to attempt to understand the operation of the Athenian economy in detail, and to investigate its relationship to the structures, institutions and practices of democracy.

Planned lines of inquiry include women, work and leisure; religion and the economy; archaeology and democracy; slavery; behavioural economics; costs of living; lending and borrowing; trade and markets; luxury goods; wealth distribution; and property and aristocratic power.

Speakers: Claire Taylor (Wisconsin-Madison), Emily Greenwood (Yale), Emily Mackil (Berkeley), Jon Hesk (St Andrews), Jonathan Hall (Chicago), Mark Lawall (Manitoba), Moritz Hinsch (Humboldt), Noémie Villacèque (Reims), Paulin Ismard (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Ralph Anderson (St Andrews).

All welcome. If you wish to attend, please contact Daniel Jew (danieljew@nus.edu.sg). We regret that no accommodation can be provided beyond that for speakers.

Please see notice below for further details:

Athens: Economy and Democracy Conference

Cambridge, UK, 8 - 9 July 2022

Faculty of Classics & Downing College, Cambridge

Much recent work has been critical of the framework for understanding the ancient economy suggested by Finley in The Ancient Economy. But even work critical of Finley has tended to look at the economy of the ancient Greek world on the polis-wide or larger scale, at times illustrated by more individual case studies.

This conference marks the retirement of Paul Millett, one of the most prominent of Finley’s students in economic history. We seek to return the spotlight to the city illuminated by Paul’s work: to attempt to understand the operation of the Athenian economy in detail, and to investigate its relationship to the structures, institutions and practices of democracy.

The conference aims to present papers concerned with the full range of Athenian economic activity: from the level of the city and the public economy, to that of the economic life of particular groups among the population (inclusive of deme and local networks), down to the level of the family and of individual lives.

Planned lines of inquiry include women, work and leisure; religion and the economy; archaeology and democracy; slavery; behavioural economics; costs of living; lending and borrowing; trade and markets; luxury goods; wealth distribution; and property and aristocratic power.

Speakers: Claire Taylor (Wisconsin-Madison), Emily Greenwood (Yale), Emily Mackil (Berkeley), Jon Hesk (St Andrews), Jonathan Hall (Chicago), Mark Lawall (Manitoba), Moritz Hinsch (Humboldt), Noémie Villacèque (Reims), Paulin Ismard (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Ralph Anderson (St Andrews).