Policy & practice seminar: Capitalism across borders

Almost two decades after the global financial crisis, a series of profound economic and structural shifts have raised new questions about global capitalism. Productivity growth has slowed, wage stagnation and income inequality remain persistent challenges, and major forces such as the climate crisis and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence are reshaping the global economy.

What role has globalisation - the movement of goods, capital, corporations, and people across borders- played in the evolution of global inequality?

How resilient is the international financial system, and what risks could give rise to future financial crises?

How has the balance between capital and labour shifted in the contemporary economy?

And what does the transformation of the technology and innovation economy mean for broader trends in inequality? 

Meet the speakers
Vicky Pryce is Chief Economics Adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, and former joint head of the UK Government Economic Service. She was also director-general for economics at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. Before that she was Partner and Chief Economist at the accounting and consulting firm KPMG after senior economic positions in banking and the oil sector. She has published widely and is a regular media commentator on radio and TV. Her recent books include How to be a Successful Economist, Women & Capitalism, Greekonomics; Prisonomics; and It's the Economy, Stupid.

Ann Pettifor is international political economist, author and public speaker. She is the Director of PRIME (Policy Research in Macroeconomics) a network of economists that promote Keynes’s monetary theory and policies, and that focus on the role of the finance sector in the economy. Her latest books include 'The Global Casino: How Wall St Gambles with People and the Planet '(January 2026), 'The Case for a Green New Deal '(2019), and 'The Production of Money' (2017).

David Hope is a Senior Lecturer in Political Economy in the King’s College London Department of Political Economy. He is also a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) International Inequalities Institute (III). His current research areas include: technological change and the knowledge economy; inequality and redistribution; taxing the rich; and varieties of capitalism and growth models. In his professional life before beginning the PhD, he worked as an economist for PwC, Oxera and HM Treasury.

Grace Blakeley is a socialist author and economic commentator. Her most recent book, ”Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom”, was longlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Nonfiction, and won the 2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood prize. She is the former economics commentator for the New Statesman, and a former Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research.

Chair: Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou is Professor of Economy and Society, Founder and Director of the UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies, and Chair of the Global Consortium for Rethinking Capitalism. In 2024/25 he was Research Chair of the Futures of Capitalism programme at The New Institute. His books have been translated into multiple languages and include 'Speculative Communities: Living with Uncertainty in a Financialized World' (University of Chicago Press, 2022) and 'Trading Truth' (forthcoming with MIT Press). His work has been featured in international media including The New Yorker, The Guardian, DIE ZEIT, EL PAÍS, elDiario, London Review of Books Podcast and Bookforum, and has been showcased at venues including Whitechapel Gallery, Deichtorhallen Hamburg and the Locarno Film Festival

This event will be recorded and the video will be uploaded to our YouTube channel. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel to be alerted when the recording is uploaded.

Seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. We cannot guarantee you a seat, but it is very unusual that we have to turn someone away.

• The corridor outside the lecture theatre(s) is sufficiently wide enough (150cm+) to allow wheelchair users to pass.
• There is step free access into the lecture theatre(s).
• The door opening width(s) is/are 75cm+ for the lecture theatre.
• There are designated spaces for wheelchair users within the lecture theatre.
• The designated spaces for wheelchairs users are located at the back.
• There is space for an assistance dog.
• There is a hearing assistance system for the lecture theatre.
  

For more accessiblity info and an access guide please visit Accessable

If you have accessibility needs, please let us know and we will do our best to help.

2026 is the year in which we celebrate UCL’s Bicentenary, marking 200 years since UCL’s establishment as the first University in London.

UCL Political Science and School of Public Policy are celebrating with a programme of seminars that relate to one of UCL’s core research themes: Fairer Futures

This event is co-organised with the UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies. A world-leading centre for critical interdisciplinary research into the past, present, and future of capitalism.

Event venue

Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, UCL, Gower Street, London, United Kingdom

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