Sascha Gander

Small Group Project 2026-27

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

With Eleni Papagiannaki & Vinit Ravishankar & Dominique Arsenault & 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.

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Areas of interest

Political Economy Marxian Economics Value Theory Labour Democratic Planning

Cohort

FG12

Biography

Sascha Gander is a doctoral researcher in political economy at the University of Duisburg-Essen, currently in the final year of his PhD, supported throughout his graduate studies by scholarships from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. His research centers on the transformation problem between labour values and production prices, engaging foundational questions in Marxian value theory and their implications for economic calculation. His work contributes directly to contemporary debates on whether labour time can function as a conscious quantitative regulator in a democratically planned economy without relying on market-mediated price signals. Sascha combines theoretical training, including advanced quantitative tools, with active engagement in international planning debates, as a member of the International Network for Democratic Economic Planning (INDEP) and translator of Creative Construction (Groos & Sorg, 2025) for the German publisher Brumaire.

Biographical details correct as of 13.09.26