Professor Mark Pennington

Biography

Mark Pennington has been Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy in the Department of Political Economy since January 2012 and was Head of Department between 2016 and 2020. Prior to joining King’s he taught for 12 years in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Mark is currently Director of the Centre for the Study of Governance and Society

Research

Mark’s work takes place at the intersection of philosophy, politics and economics with a particular focus on exploring problems of limited knowledge or bounded rationality and their relationship to ‘ideal’ and ‘non-ideal’ theorising in economics and political theory. This approach was exemplified in his 2011 book Robust Political Economy: classical liberalism and the future of public policy (Edward Elgar). Mark has written widely on these topics including analyses of the classical liberal tradition, environmental governance, social capital, and the relationship between markets and democratic citizenship. Most recently he has been working on a major project exploring the ‘Ideal of Self Governance’ as understood by Elinor and Vincent Ostrom. In 2021 he will be starting a new three year research grant on the ‘Political Economy of Knowledge and Ignorance’ involving two book projects – ‘Free Markets and Green Ideals’, and ‘Foucault and the Road to Freedom: power-knowledge and political economy’.

Teaching

Undergraduate: Ethics, Economics and Environmental Protection

Post-graduate: Key Concepts in Contemporary Political Economy