The Third Conference on Albert Hirschman’s Legacy “A Passion for the Possible” has been held in Berlin, at the School of Economics and Law, on October 24 th – 25 th . The hosting place, in a Berlin district full of memories of Jewish intellectuals that lived in it before Nazism, was particularly fit for such a meeting, as prof. Marianne Egger suggested in opening the Conference. The latter unfolded according to the following program.

Third Conference on Albert Hirschman’s Legacy
A Passion for the Possible

Sponsored by A Colorni-Hirschman International Institute, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Social Science Institute (Humboldt University), and supported by Dahrendorf Forum at the Hertie School

Introduction
Welcome address by the President of the Berlin School of Economics and Law, Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby
Marianne Egger
Luca Meldolesi
Claus Offe

World outlook
Chair: HellmutWollman
Ilene Grabel: The current economic and political world outlook through a Hirschmanian lens
Inge Kaul: “Exit” and “Voice” in the provision of global public goods today
Kim Burnett: Building an analytical framework to understand the possibilities for sustainable and equitable global political economy
Elena Saraceno: Understanding downward social mobility in developed economies
Baruch Knei-Paz: "The time is out of joint" – economics, culture and politics in an age of contradictions

Possibilism
Chair: Ilene Grabel
Osvaldo Feinstein: Passion for the possible and the possibility frontier
Fonna Forman: Albert Hirschman and the “intermediary”: connecting top-down and bottom-up
Adriana Mica et al.: Possibilities and anti-possibilities: sociological approach and examples
Leslye Obiora: Discipline for passion: a passion for the possible in transforming leadership
Nicoletta Stame: Possibilism, change and unintended consequences

Development, international
Chair: Osvaldo Feinstein
André Guiot-Isaacs: Albert O. Hirschman and dependency theorists: on the search for the possible
John Heath: Journeys Toward Progress?: Land Reform in Colombia--from Hirschman's state-led model to the World
Bank's market-assisted model
Antonio Andreoni: Possibilities in constraints: from linkages to micro-Marxism and beyond
Raffaele Trapasso: Higher education institutions as drivers of economic development
Anna de Caro: European youth between skills and non-formal learning

Development, local
Chair: Marianne Egger
Matthias Tomenendal, Hans-Rudriger Lange and Christian Raffer: Possibilism at firm and cluster level: how institutional logics affect regional economic resilience in Lusatia in the face of decarbonization
Sandro Balducci: Trespassing and possibilism: two keywords to orientate in the current crisis
Tito Bianchi: Blueprint development planning is alive and well
Laura Tagle: Involving public servants in collective learning from evaluations

On Hirschman biography
Chair: Marta Petrusewicz
Christian Fleck: Hirschman's early politicization
LucieTesnière: My great grand-parents forged Albert’s identity card

Entrepreneurship and innovation

Chair: Vinni Marino
Hans-Rudriger Lange and MatthiasTomenendal: “AkteurszentrierterStrukturwandel” in Lusatia – a Hirschmanian approach to socio-economic transformations? Observations and questions from development practice and embedded research.
Gennaro di Cello: High Tech coming from the South
Francesco Messina: Possibilismas a keystone in consulting
Heinz Hinrich Schmidt: The “Exit Voice Loyalty Neglect Silence”(EVLNS) options as a “frame in use” for the Human Resources – or: How to master manifold paradoxical requirements and tensions in crafting organizational change
Paolo Manfredi: Connections: Addressing Italy’s innovation gap as a territorial issue

On “Exit”, “The Passions” and the Hiding Hand
Chair: Shalini Randeria
Samantha Ashenden and Andreas Hess: The acceleration of Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Catalonia and Scotland
Christiane Eisenberg: Commerce and doux commerce in 18th century Britain: commercial sport as business and entertainment
Christine Lutringer: Transnational gender activism in the European Union : a reconfiguration of "Exit", "Voice", and "Loyalty"?
Marek Skovajsa: Reactionary and progressive rhetoric in postcommunist transformations
Helmut Anheier: The principle of the Hiding Hand revisited

On social cooperation and inclusion
Chair: Erwin Seyfried
Erwin Seyfried: From negotiating the total institution to social cooperation – conceptual ideas, sources, and impacts of social cooperatives in Germany
Felicitas Kresimon: Experiences of integration between Social Cooperatives and further relevant organizations. Promoteconnections, transform and innovate systems in favor of inclusion
Vinni Marino: The cooperative movement in Italy; size, entity, economic values
Peter Stadler: From experimental actions to economic professionalism: supporting social cooperatives to compete in the market
Alessandro La Grassa: The Management of assets confiscated from Mafias: paths and evolutions in social cooperatives experience
Tommaso di Nardo: Social cooperation, inclusion, and the re-use of assets confiscated from the Mafias: The case of NCO in Campania

Closing remarks
Nicoletta Stame: A series of books in the Albert Hirschman Legacy
- E. Colorni: Critical thinking in action. New York, Bordighera Press, 2019
- E. Colorni: The discovery of the possible. New York, Bordighera Press, 2020
- A. Hirschman: How to complicate economics, New York, Peter Lang, 2020
- Beautiful pages by Judith Tendler, Roma, IDE, 2018
- A Colorni-Hirschman International Institute: For a Better World, First Conference on Hirschman’s Legacy, IDE,2018
- A Colorni-Hirschman International Institute: A Bias for Hope, Second Conference on Hirschman’s Legacy, IDE, 2019
Luca Meldolesi: Hirschman, Colorni and Europe

The Conference was attended by around 60 people, coming from as many countries as Germany, Italy, United States, Israel, Checz Republic, Poland, Ireland, UK, Switzerland, Austria, Colombia, Argentina, Spain.
As you can see from the program above, the participants debated the influence of Hirschman’s ideas according to different angles.
From an attempt at utilizing Hirschman’s lens to deal with hot topics of current concern (global goods, inequalities, international shifting relationships etc.) to a reflection on the recurrence of the 30 years from the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the role that Colorni and Hirschman attributed to Europe in their vision of universal federalism. From a reconsideration of Hirschman’s thought on development in the light of possibilism to the presentation of a series of initiatives by possibilist practitioners in the field of the firm, social cooperation, consultancy, territorial development.
Actually, a hallmark of this Conference on “A Passion for the Possible” has been the convergence of academic and practical experiences, the later ones mainly presented by German and Italian participants.

A book with excerpts from the Conference is in preparation already.