Eleni Papagiannaki

Dr Eleni Papagiannaki

Small Group Project 2026-27

Planning with Machines: Historical Technologies, Futures of Calculation, and the Political Economy of Planning

With Vinit Ravishankar & Dominique Arsenault & Sascha Gander & James Macumber

This project investigates how empirical and historical planning experiments are shaped and constrained by the technologies available for economic calculation, coordination, and control. Rather than treating planning as a purely theoretical or institutional problem (Groos& Sorg Eds. 2025), the project examines planning as it was actually practised, mediated by concrete technologies such as early input–output (I-O) tables, statistical systems, cybernetic models, analogue and early digital computing, and logistics architectures developed in both civilian and crisis contexts.

More information

Areas of interest

Economics Political Economy Labour Labour Economics Work

Cohort

FG12

Biography

Eleni or Elena is a Lecturer in Economics at Edinburgh Napier University and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW, London). Her research focuses on the political economy of labour, labour economics, developing economic indicators measuring national economies, focusing on technical change and the future of work, and socioeconomic class in capitalist economies. She contributes to the Good Work Monitor project with researchers at IFOW and has authored various articles, chapters, technical reports, while also bringing her research to the public through her Edinburgh Fringe show AI and Economics Walk Into the Fringe within the series of The Provocateurs. She is also engaging in other public engagement initiatives (The Edinburgh Skeptics Society, Scotland's Economic Festival etc.)

Biographical details correct as of 13.09.26