Leontief Centre. International Centre for Social and Economic Research

2026-03-22 :: The 24th Annual Conference of the Leontief Readings Series, "Development and Inequality: Global and Local Contexts," was held in St. Petersburg.

The 24th Annual Conference of the Leontief Readings Series, "Development and Inequality: Global and Local Contexts," was held in St. Petersburg on March 20-21. More than 100 participants from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tomsk, Rostov-on-Don, Vologda, Veliky Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, and Novosibirsk participated. The conference was organized by the Leontief Center, with expert support from the Leontief Center.

Thirty-nine leading Russian economists, sociologists, geographers, political scientists, and cultural scholars, as well as young scholars studying economic development, institutional, and organizational change both in the global context and in the local environment of cities and regions, presented their papers.

The first day of the conference was devoted to the topic "Development Economics and Historical Dynamics." Presentations were given by L.G. Grigoriev, S.A. Afontsev, Ya.M. Mirkin, V.L. Tambovtsev, P.A. Orekhovsky, and other renowned scholars. The first day concluded with a special report by D.Ya. Travin, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Ye.T. Gaidar.

The second day’s program, entitled "Genius Loci and Zeitgeist: Local Factors of Development and Inequality," included a presentation of the interim results of the Leontief Center’s research project "Genius Loci and Zeitgeist," and also included a discussion of innovative territorial development in a broader context. Following the conclusion of the main program, an expert discussion, "Barriers to Innovative Development in Innovative Regions and Cities (using the Tomsk Region as an example)," was held as an associated event.

A collection of conference papers will be published in 2026.