Seminar: "Planning and Autonomous Control: Reappraising the Cases for Economic Planning in Socialism" by Sergey Steblev
Event details
- Start: 10 Feb 2026 15:00
The REAL-Postgrowth project (Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal) is excited to announce that our doctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB, Sergey Steblev will present a public talk as part of our monthly public seminar series.
Seminar: "Planning and Autonomous Control: Reappraising the Cases for Economic Planning in Socialism"
Speaker: Sergey Steblev, ICTA-UAB doctoral researcher
- Date: Tuesday, Februay 10th, 2026
- Time: 15 -16h (CET)
- Venue: Online ONLY -https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87576320847?pwd=PWrhOEQMydnX27TZMNH7KwdLLpmNYY
If non-market socialists want to overcome commodity production, does it mean that a socialist economy must be “planned”? What is the difference between planning and non-planning? In this talk, I will define economic planning more precisely; show why ""the market"" is not the only alternative to planning; and discuss what and why should be planned in a socialist economic system. The essence of planning is determination of production (or investment) rates by future needs ascertained a priori. Non-market socialism does not logically presuppose planning, because the system can be coordinated via autonomous control: economic mechanisms that can function without either a priori decided needs or commodity exchange and are based on local feedback. However, socialism still needs to plan some production and investment, should it be interested in three goals: the avoidance of slow, wasteful, and turbulent regulation; the negotiation of structural change; the pursuit of aggregate-level socio-environmental goals. Non-market socialism can use autonomous control as its minimal basis and complement it with planning.
Sergey Steblev is a doctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB and is part of the REAL - A Post Growth Deal project. His current research examines how socialism for the twenty first century can work, as well as conflictual dynamics of radical eco-social reforms in the context of capitalism.