Adaptive Political Economy: Toward a New Paradigm

Like the proverbial tale of the drunkard who searched for keys under the lamppost because there is
light, political economists, too, I contend, have been searching for keys under the lamppost.  When
confronting big, important, complex phenomenon - such as modernization, financial crashes, and disruptive
technology - political economists tend to either ignore these problems, fragment them into separate bits, or
reduce them to simplistic processes with one or two variables that can fit within mechanical models and
Western-centric normative biases. In economic and institutional development, this conventional paradigm has
led to dead ends, distorting conclusions, and failed public policies. I propose a paradigm shift in the way we
think about and study big social questions: I call this adaptive political economy.  Instead of "dumbing down"
complex social realities to fit mechanical models, my approach designs new concepts, methods, and theories
to illuminate the distinctive properties of complex social realities, for example, two-way as opposed to linear
causality and uncertainty rather than risk. To demonstrate, I present a co-evolutionary theory of development
that applies across diverse contexts in Europe, China, and Nigeria.

About the speaker:

Yuen Yuen Ang is the Alfred Chandler Chair Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins
University. A multi-disciplinary scholar of development and innovation, specializing in China, Ang's
work has been recognized for both its intellectual and public impact. She is the author of
two acclaimed books, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016) and China's Gilded Age (2020),
both featured in The Economist and described as "game-changing." She is the inaugural recipient of
the Theda Skocpol Prize for “impactful contributions to the study of comparative politics," awarded by
the American Political Science Association, in addition to book awards across multiple social
sciences: the Peter Katzenstein Prize (political economy), Viviana Zelizer Prize (economic sociology),
Douglass North Award (institutional economics), Alice Amsden Award (socio-economics), and
Barrington Moore Prize (honorable mention, historical sociology). Apolitical, the UK platform for public
servants, named her among the world's 100 Most Influential Academics in Government. Foreign
Affairs, the premier outlet on US foreign policy, named her writing among the "Best of Books" and
"Best of Print."  She has advised multilateral organizations such as the United Nations and UNDP and
national development agencies on adaptive governance, anti-corruption, and China's role in global
development. Ang has been profiled in American, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, and European
outlets, including podcast interviews at Freakonomics Radio and The Ezra Klein Show.