Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Stefano Ponte

Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Stefano Ponte

Governing economic life: A journey through regulation, markets and hybrids

How do the food and drinks we consume, the clothes we wear, the things we use come to us? How is value created, (re)distributed, appropriated and destroyed from farm to cup, ocean to plate, factory to wardrobe? What governs exchange at various stages as these products move from production to retail and from consumption to waste or recycling? What ‘qualities’ are valued, undermined and fetishized in these processes? Can alternative modes of consumption minimize externalities and address unsustainable practices?

In his inaugural lecture, Stefano Ponte will draw from 20 years of work in a variety of agro-food sectors to explore trajectories and limitations of public, private and hybrid forms of governance, such as regulation, buyer power, sustainability certification and celebrity activism. He will also formulate a future agenda for research in this field at the cross-section of International Political Economy, Economic Geography and Economic Sociology.

Stefano Ponte is Professor of International Political Economy at the Department of Business and Politics [link], Copenhagen Business School (CBS). He is also the Academic Co-Director of the CBS Sustainability Platform. Stefano joined CBS from the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia and an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago.

He has published widely on governance in global value chains, convention theory, sustainability standards and certifications, and the role of celebrities in new forms of ‘ethical’ consumption. Among other books, he has co-authored Brand Aid: Shopping Well to Save the World (University of Minnesota Press, with Lisa Ann Richey) and Trading Down: Africa, Value Chains and the Global Economy (Temple University Press, with Peter Gibbon).


Program:

15:00-15:15 Welcome and Introduction by Dean of Research Alan Irwin
15:15-16:15 Lecture by Professor Stefano Ponte
16:15- Reception in the foyer outside the lecture room, hosted by the Department of Business and Politics