With this issue the Heterodox Economics Newsletter is...
With this issue the Heterodox Economics Newsletter is returning from it’s ‘summer break’-mode to the usual schedule. This ‘summer-break’ mode comes with a little slow-down that emerges from the slight reduction in publicaton frequency (from three to four weeks). I typically exploit the free-time associated with this slow-down by engaging more strongly in two other things only partially related to heterodox economics, namely handicraft & reflection.
You might argue that the handicraft-part is totally unrelated to heterodox economics, but as it brings a lot of satisfaction to my instinct of workmanship I would argue otherwise. Also, with handicraft you typically get things done. And with ‘done’, I mean really ‘done’, ‘completed’ and ‘finished’. As you might have noticed, this is never the case with academic research: even if we finish a paper-draft or get something published, we will always duly note further research questions and thereby indicate the incompleteness of all our efforts. However, there are no ‘further questions’ after completing the assembly of, say, a kitchen-board or a new bed for your kid, which provides some personal anchoring contra the evil forces of alienation ;-)
The relation to economics is stronger & more obvious in the ‘reflection-part’, which often circles around the question why economics is changing so much more slowly than what would be required for appropriately informing those actors, that actually aim to confront main challenges of the early 21st century (like climate change or ever-increasing economic inequality).
Some contributions especially suitable for informing reflection on this point are included in this issue of the Newsletter: first, you can have a look at the WEA’s most recent book on the financial crisis in retrospect to reflect on how much change economics experienced in the past decade. Second, you could engage with Carlo D’Ippoliti’s book Democratizing the Economics Debate to reflect on why change in economics is actually proceeding so slowly and what this implies for the quality of democratic discourse. Finally, you should probably have a look at the recent issue of the Journal of Economic Methodology, which hosts nice papers by John R. Welch and George Chorafakis that might stimulate your thoughts on possible paradigmatic and philosophical advances, that might contribute to such a change in economics.
So much from my side; hope you have a good time & stay healthy,
Jakob
PS: Some readers might enjoy the fact that the combination of handicraft & reflection truly mimics Aristotle’s classic division between vita activa and vita contemplativa – one of the few instances, where I have managed to align my own modes of living with the wisdom of the classics.