Hi, Kanchana N Ruwanpura

Professor of Human Geography!

The Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) has awarded you the 2023 Clarence L. Ayres Scholar Award.

What is the AFEE?

– Within the paradigm of economics, there are many schools of thought: from the Austrians to the Marxists. One strand of (heterodox) economics is the institutional thought that draws on Veblen’s work but also that of Karl Polanyi and infuses feminist economics. AFEE is the academic body that brings together institutional economists.

Why did you get this award?

– This award is given for outstanding scholarship for academics outside of the USA. My most recent book takes a feminist and labour perspective to unpack historical and institutional conditions that have facilitated Sri Lankan apparels transition to be on the vanguard of ethical production – and record the centrality of labour agency (collective and individual) in the success of the country’s apparel industry. I draw on labour geography, feminist economics, and institutionalist thought to inform my theoretical and conceptual framings around political economy of development and draw on anthropological methods around ethnography to conduct my research. More details can be found here: https://www. gu.se/en/news/garments-without-guilt-new-book-on-global-labour-justice-and-ethical-codes-in-sri-lankan-apparels

In what way does this award encourage you in your work?

– It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise to win this award. Although I was initially trained in (heterodox) economics, I have since then moved onto the discipline of human geography and development studies in terms of career and work. However, I have continued my intellectual conversations and engagement with feminist economics and institutionalist thought, even as I also speak across disciplines to human geography, development studies, anthropology, and South Asian studies. So, it is so thrilling when my academic peers from my initial discipline of training still find value in my scholarship (and I follow the steps of Yanis Varoufakis a decade later: wow!), – and thought me worthy of the Clarence Ayres award for institutionalist thought. It is a validation of the importance of inter-disciplinary conversations within the social sciences.