Rethinking the Tax Paradigm
The Critical Approaches to Taxation and Society Network (CATS Network) invites scholars, practitioners, and the interested public to participate in its second conference on the topic "Rethinking the Tax Paradigm," to be held from August 27-29, 2025, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and online.
About the Conference
At CATS’ upcoming conference, Rethinking the Tax Paradigm, we explore the intersection of fiscal and monetary paradigms and concrete reforms. From welfare capitalism and import substitution to today’s emphasis on finance, savings, and cheap labor, history has brought global economies into an order that seeks to maintain stable pricing in value chains by suppressing inflation and real wages. Meanwhile, the rapid growth of some economies, such as the BRICS countries, is perceived as a challenge to capital-exporting nations. The result is intensified exploitation of domestic populations to sustain competitiveness and profit margins. Contradictions are growing and discontent is on the rise.
Throughout the conference, we ask how fiscal law and broader policies can address this situation. Can, for instance, modern monetary theory provide an alternative to its austere predecessors, and what conditions would be required for such a shift? What forms of adaptation or “delinking” from international economic paradigms are already underway – and which are possible? Can market economies achieve material equality and maintain it over time, or are elements of a planned economy necessary? Rethinking the Tax Paradigm turns conventional wisdom on its head to approach a future that has yet to be considered.
Program Overview
Preliminary Schedule
The whole conference takes place in room B44 at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. Vasagatan 1 Gothenburg.
DAY 1
13.00: Registration
13.20-13.30: Welcome
13.30-14.30: KEYNOTE I. Clair Quentin, Lecturer at Loughborough University: The fiscal state, global corporate capitalism, and the biophysics of a planet in crisis
14.30-15.00: Fika
15.00-16.00: PANEL I. Tax Law and Dispute Settlement: Transnational integration and expert opinion
- Alice Pirlot, Assistant Professor at Geneva Graduate Institute and Sophia Piotrowski, Postdoctoral researcher at University of Potsdam: Opening the black-box of international tax disputes
- Santtu Raitasuo, Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Turku: Scholarship or Advocacy? The role of Expert Opinions in Tax Disputes
16.00-16.15: Break
16.15-17.45: DIGITAL PANEL. Historical Approaches to Tax Law.
- Steven Dean, Professor at Boston University School of Law: Subpart F and the Cuban Missile Crisis
- Madeline Woker, Assistant Professor in History at Princeton University at University of Sheffield: Power and Taxation in the French Colonial Empire, 1850s-1950s
- Sol Picciotto, Emeritus Professor at Lancaster University, Technocracy, Decolonising International Corporate Taxation
19:00: Dinner at Chalmerska Huset, Södra Hamngatan 11, Gothenburg
DAY 2
09.00-10.00: PANEL III. Fiscal Policy and Authoritarianism.
- Hasan Basri Cifci, Guest Lecturer at Koc University: Revisiting Authoritarianism: Taxation by a Sustainable Leviathan
- Sarajuddin Isar, Radboud Excellence Fellow: Fiscal and Monetary Policy under an Authoritarian Regime: A Critical Review
10.00-10.30: Paus
10.30-12.00: KEYNOTE PANEL. Political Limits to Fiscal Transformation: The Role of Experts and Ideology.
- Elisabeth Lindberg, Guest researcher at Uppsala University: The Politics of Economic Expertise
- Axel Vikström, Postdoctoral Researcher at Lund University: The Mediated Representation of the Super-Rich.
12.00-13.00: Lunch
13.00-14.00: KEYNOTE II. Elinor Odeberg, Chief Economist at Arena Idé: Expensive Times: Progressive Strategies on How to Combat Inflation.
14.00-14.30: Fika
14.30-16.00: PANEL IV. Methodological Questions of Tax Law.
• Victoria Lindgren, Lecturer at Umeå University: Constituting Entangled Subjects: Gender, Neoliberalism, and the Historical Development of the Swedish Tax Subject
• Signe Wesenberg-Lund, Chief Consultant at the Danish Tax Agency: The Challenges of Legal Tax Research
• Anette Ala-Lahti, Lecturer at Tempere University: Towards a theory of sustainable international tax systems
• Ezgi Arik Önal, Doctoral researcher at Leiden University: Methodological Challenges of International Tax Law
16.00-16.15: Paus
16.15-17.45: KEYNOTE PANEL II. Modern Monetary Theory and Economic Democracy.
- Peo Hansen, Professor at Linköping University: Explaining Modern Monetary Theory
- David Ciepley, Fellow at University of Virginia: The multi-layered relations between states and corporations—constitutive, mimetic, and instrumental—and their implications for taxation.
19:00: Dinner at Sjöbaren, Haga Nygata 25, Gothenburg
DAY 3
09.00-10.30: PANEL V. Concrete Proposals for Tax Law Reform.
• Lauri Finér, Doctoral researcher at University of Helsinki: Tackling tax avoidance – reforming capital income taxation in the EU
• Joana Pedroso, Lecturer at Gothenburg University: From Necessity to Innovation: What Brazil Can Teach Us About Taxation and Circular Economy
• Cristina Trenta, Professor at Linnaeus University: Rethinking the Gender Equality Paradigm in EU VAT- Tensions between Access, VAT, and Consumption
10.30-11.00: Fika. Short discussion about the next conference.
11.00-12.00: PANEL VI. Fiscal citizenship and social inclusion.
• Lotta Björklund Larsen, Research Fellow at University of Exeter Business School, “Fiscal Citizenship” from an Interdisciplinary Perspective: Opportunities and risks of researching across disciplines
• Ricardo García Anton, Assistant Professor at Tillburg University, and Roberto Ramos Obando, Doctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute: From Statelessness to Taxpayer Status: Pathways to Inclusion through Tax Law
12.00: Concluding remarks
Call for Abstracts
The conference welcomes submissions for abstracts in any of the sessions mentioned above.
Abstracts no longer than 300 words should be submitted via the registration form together with the applicant’s short bio note and affiliation no later than the 1st of May 2025. Selected participants will be notified in the beginning of June.
Deadline for registration to the conference is the 15th of May.
Conference fee and travel reimbursements
There is no conference fee.
Unfortunately, we’re not able to cover the travel costs of this year’s participants other than selected speakers.
Conference format
This year’s conference will be in hybrid format. We believe in the power of meeting physically. But not all who wish to join the conference are able to attend physically. Therefore, it will be possible to attend digitally as well as physically via zoom.
About the CATS network
The CATS network started in 2024 with its inaugural conference Taxation Without Borders (16-18th of October 2024). The network was started by the tax law scholars Hedvig Lärka, Alice Grudd and Patrik Emblad. Its purpose is to provide a forum for interdisciplinary, international and critical research on taxation and political economy.
If you want to receive information about upcoming conferences, events and information about the CATS network, please sign up on https://lnkd.in/dHVH4wf8
Participation and Registration
The CATS Network aims to foster a collaborative environment for innovative thinking, interdisciplinary research and problem-solving. The conference is open to scholars from different research fields, practitioners, policymakers, and the general public interested in the evolving landscape of taxation and societal impact.
For registration and abstract submission details, please visit the CATS Network website or contact the organizing committee at patrik.emblad@law.gu.se
Please observe that the number of participants is limited.
Support and Funding
This conference is made possible with the support of the Foundation for Economic Research in West Sweden. Thanks to its support we’re able to establish the CATS Network as a pioneering force in tax law research and social critique.
Join us in August 2025 at the University of Gothenburg for an engaging and transformative exploration of taxation's role in contemporary and future societal challenges.
Find your way to Handelshögskolan
From the airport
Airport bus to "Centralstationen", get off at "Korsvägen". Tram no 2 towards "Högsbotorp", get off at "Handelshögskolan".
From the train station
Tram no 2 towards "Högsbotorp", get off at "Handelshögskolan"
Tram no 3 and 6, get off at "Hagakyrkan". Three minute walk from the School.
Bus 25, 761 and Rosa Express, get off at "Pilgatan", right next to the School.
We also advise you to use the Travel planner to find your way from all corners within the greater Gothenburg area.
City map
If you are traveling by foot or car we advise you to use google maps to find your way to Vasagatan 1.
How to find the conference rooms:
The school of Business, Economics and Law is divided into separate buildings (A-E and J) according to the illustration below:
Welcome!
Hedvig Lärka, Alice Grudd and Patrik Emblad