Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften

Leo Steeds

Visiting Fellow

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

February–July 2025

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»Nature and the Normative Foundations of Economics«

Project outline:

My research project engages with ongoing discussions about the status of nature in social theory through a critical examination of the history of economic thought, with a particular focus on the normative role of appeals to nature in economics. Longstanding debates around the relation between the natural and the social have been renewed in recent years in light of the growing urgency of the environmental crisis. My project explores two interconnected strands. First, it enquires into the epistemological and ethical stakes of contemporary transdisciplinary debates around the relationship between the natural and the social. Second, building on my past research, it examines the foundational role of nature in the seminal work of Adam Smith, tracing how his engagement with nature shaped the early contours of economic thought. Bridging historical analysis and contemporary theoretical concerns, this project seeks to contribute to broader discussions around the relationship between the political and the economic spheres in light of current crises of democracy and environment. (Leo Steeds)

Research partner:

Leo Steeds is a fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften at the invitation of Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, professor of philosophy at Goethe University and director at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften.

Scholarly profile of Leo Steeds

Leo Steeds received his PhD in Politics and International Studies in 2020 from the University of Warwick, where he had previously studied for an MA in International Political Economy. Prior to this, he studied Music at the University of Oxford. His research operates at the intersection of political theory, political economy, and environmental philosophy, mobilizing historical and conceptual analysis to examine the challenges today’s environmental crisis presents to dominant understandings of the relationship between politics and economics. Between 2023 and 2025 he was Research Associate on the Adam Smith 300 project at the University of Glasgow. He has published a number of articles and book chapters on various aspects of his research, and is currently co-editing an edited collection titled New Voices on Adam Smith’s philosophy, politics, and economics, forthcoming with Scottish Universities Press in 2026.

Website:
Please find more information about Leo Steeds here.

Main areas of research:

Political Theory, Political Economy, Environmental Philosophy, History of thought, Adam Smith

Selected publications:

»Adam Smith’s Stadial Theory: Progress, Population, and Environment«, in: Journal of the History of Economic Thought (2025, forthcoming).
»Adam Smith as Ecological Economist«, in: Vitor Schancariol (ed.), Environment and Ecology in the History of Economic Thought, London: Routledge 2024.
»Land as Capital: a Genealogy Through the Birth and Development of Economic Thought«, in: Felix Anderl (ed.), Agrarian Relations: Towards an Epistemology of Land, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield International 2024.
»On Land, Life, and Labour: Abundance and Scarcity in Locke, Smith, and Ricardo«, in: Constellations 31,2 (2023), p. 189-203.
»The Social Ecology of Adam Smith: Reconsidering the Intellectual Foundations of Political Economy«, in: New Political Economy 27,1 (2022), p. 1-14.

Leo Steeds

Scholarly profile of Leo Steeds

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