Issue 175 January 26, 2015 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory
We have received news that the University of Greenwich has revised its way of teaching economics in response to the ongoing economic crisis: new programmes have been issued, which focus on the history of economic thought, economic history as well as political economy, and pluralism has been established as a main guideline of all economics teaching. This undertaking is significant, since it is (one of?) the first large-scale curricular adjustment(s) in the wake of the crisis.
In the last issue of this Newsletter I provided a short report of my personal ASSA-experience. In retrospect, I have learned that I also missed something significant: Student activists from Adbusters and associates used the ASSA-event as a leverage to kick off, their campaign on "kicking over" mainstream economic theory, which was also covered in a nice piece by the Washington Post.
Another interesting item that dropped in these days was this interview with Thomas Piketty in the Potemkin Review, where Piketty responds to a series of important and interesting questions and thereby tries to clarify some issues, which have been addressed regularly in the discussions on his best-selling book.
All the Best,
Jakob
© public domain
8-10 July, 2015 | Lille, France
The Lille Center for European Research on Administration, Politics and Society (CERAPS, CNRS/Université Lille 2), together with Lille 2 University, Science Po Lille and the European Social Sciences and Humanities Research Institute (MESHS) will host the 10th International Interpretive Policy Analysis (IPA) conference under the title"Policies and their publics: discourses, actors and power" in Lille (France) from 8 July 2015 to 10 July 2015.
Conference theme: POLICIES AND THEIR PUBLICS: DISCOURSES, ACTORS AND POWER
Anti-austerity protests in Southern Europe, the Occupy Movement in North America and Europe, to say nothing about the Vinegar Movement against the costs of hosting the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, are recent examples of spectacular contestations against government programmes which are paradoxically justified as being in the public interest. In a somewhat different vein, the widespread promotion of participatory democracy, at all levels of government, has spurred heated scholarly discussions regarding the 'democracy of the publics' (Manin, 1995). As such, the tenth IPA conference is devoted to studying public policies through their publics. The latter can best be understood as beneficiaries, recipients, and targets of public policies but also as stakeholders or participants in policy-making. In other words, publics are products as well as policy actors insofar as they inform public judgment (Dewey, 1927).
Therefore, policy-making, whether it is local, national or international has to be embedded in the diversity of its publics. Its analysis requires studying publics’ contribution to policy-making and, simultaneously, how publics are constructed in the process. Citizens, users, clientele, interest groups, experts, spin doctors, think tanks, media, political parties, top ranking civil servants, street level bureaucrats… all of these groups or entities can be understood as the publics of policies.
Analysing policies through their publics allows us to reflect on a) policy legitimisation; b) policy categories and identities; c) public participation in policy-making. In this respect, the discursive dimension – at the heart of the IPA’s agenda – is highly relevant.
a) How do politicians, officials and experts liaise with the public(s) at various stages of policy-making? How is the public being spoken for (for instance through opinion polls or statistics)? How is it given a voice?
b) How are publics constructed and bounded by policies? To what extent are groups and identities shaped in the policy-making process (problem definition, policy narratives, interaction with street-level bureaucrats and so on)?
c) To what extent do policies divide the public between supporters and dissenters? How are publics expressing themselves, whether they are invited to or not? How effective are these discourses?
All in all, in order to reflect on the linkage between argumentation, decision and action whilst taking the status of speakers seriously, argumentative tools, devices and regimes as well as power struggles are to be taken into account.
Keynote speakers and round-table
We are delighted to announce the following confirmed keynote speakers :
More information is available at the conference website.
Panel on "Think-tanks and their role during Global Financial Crisis and Great Recession"
The 'Global Financial Crisis' and the subsequent 'Great Recession' were drastic shocks to the economic and political systems of, above all, the European and North American capitalist welfare democracies. The political elites in these countries and also the elites of supranational bodies such as EU, IWF and World Bank { were under considerable pressure to develop and implement policies that would, first, prevent the repetition of such crises and would, second, deal with their fallouts in the form of budget deficits, currency instability and economic meltdowns. At least, political elites were under pressure to be seen, by the electorate, as taking action to ameliorate the consequences of the 'New Hard Times' and prevent future crises.
This panel invites papers which analyse the role of think-tanks, broadly understood, as producers of policy (discourses) directed at political elites and at the electorate in the crisis following the events of 2007. Themes that papers could address are wide-ranging, but may include analysis of whether think-tanks actually contributed to crisis-related policy debates and decisions (e.g. regarding the systematic creation of `green jobs', the re-regulation of the finance sector or steps towards an economic and fiscal union), whether think-tanks played a role in shaping new or defending 'old' understandings of 'economics', the role of think tanks in pushing austerity measures or fighting against them, or whether the Global Financial Crisis and the Great Recession have contributed to a change in the 'civic epistemologies' (Jassanof) in any of the affected polities.
Dieter Plehwe (WZB) and Hartwig Pautz (hartwig.pautz@uws.ac.uk) are responsible for this panel. The deadline for abstracts is the third of February.
Link to the panel CfP is available here.
2-4 July, 2015 | Southampton Solent University
Conference Theme: Growth, Cycles and Sustainability
The conference theme concerns growth. How to create it, sustain it and can we avoid the ups and downs of it. Is it good anyway given our environmental challenges, and if growth actually happens will it be even or increase inequality further. Finally, when will it end again in crisis?
Please send us abstracts, whether related to the conference theme or any other heterodox topic area, by 31 January 2015. Refereed and non-refereed options will be available for your paper (details to follow). If you wish to organise any panels of papers for the conference on particular themes, please express your interest to us by the 12 December 2014.
Please send all communications to:
nick.potts@solent.ac.uk and simon.mouatt@solent.ac.uk
Further detail on conference fees, accommodation options to follow in due course. This information will be available at the conference website.
10-13 September, 2015 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
While economic development depends on investment and technology, it is now widely accepted that appropriate political, legal, economic and other social institutions have also to be in place. But there is less agreement on what those institutions (broadly defined as systems of established social rules) may be, especially at different stages of the process of economic development. There are also ongoing debates about whether globalization is leading to institutional convergence, or whether national institutional diversity can be maintained.
We invite you to participate in the Second WINIR Conference that will bring together scholars from multiple disciplines and theoretical approaches to help develop the ongoing conversation about these and other vital institutional issues.
The conference will be held in the Hotel Windsor Atlantica, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It will start on the afternoon of 10 September and end on the evening of 12 September with a gala dinner. There will be an optional tour on 13 September.
Abstract submissions from any discipline (300 words max.) are welcome. All submissions must be explicitly about institutions (or organisations) and/or institutional thought. Submissions should be made online at www.winir.org.
Abstracts will be evaluated by the WINIR Scientific Quality Committee: Peter Boettke (George Mason, economics), Simon Deakin (Cambridge, law), Geoff Hodgson (Hertfordshire, economics), Timur Kuran (Duke, economics), Uskali Mäki (Helsinki, philosophy), Katharina Pistor (Columbia, law), Sven Steinmo (EUI, politics), Wolfgang Streeck (Max Planck Institute Cologne, sociology).
Abstract submission deadline is extended to 22 February.
Detailed information about the conference and registration is available here.
9-13 September, 2015 | Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey
"Mainstream economics is in disarray"– so much the economics discipline agrees on. It failed to foresee the recent World Financial Crisis and now proposes an economic policy that any proponent of economics as a serious science must be deterred from.
Though science and common sense would suggest that this moment would belong to those, such as the heterodox and the pluralists, who have long criticized mainstream economics and the monistic approach to the discipline, neither ‘empirical anomalies’ nor deductive weaknesses have ever caused paradigmatic shifts or made economics more pluralistic. Mainstream economics is simply too solidly entrenched politically and alternatives such as Marxian, Post Keynesian or Social economics, are too little understood. The minor axiomatic variations within mainstream economics are mistaken for the much greater axiomatic and heuristic variations between mainstream and competing paradigms.
The 2nd World Keynes Conference will address these issues. It encourages the presentation of theoretical alternatives in the following areas or others they believe are related to the issues outlined above:
The Conference also welcomes inquiries into the dominance of mainstream economics:
in contesting mainstream variations:
and in focusing on institutional arrangements in the economic field:
Although the conference bears the name of John Maynard Keynes, approaches inspired by other economists such as David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, Michal Kalecki, Hyman Minsky, Joan Robinson, Piero Sraffa, Karl Polanyi or Wynne Godley are welcome – the approach taken is one of in- not ex-clusion.
Finally, it should be mentioned that papers from all theoretical perspectives are welcome:
Abstract Submissions
To submit a proposal please send an abstract of about 400 words for a paper and/or a proposal of about 600 words for a session, together with the abstracts of the session papers, no later than March 31, 2015. Please include the title of the session or the paper, the authors’ names and institutional affiliations, and contact information in the form of an e-mail address for the corresponding author.
Submissions of Abstract Proposals and Conference Registration should be made through the Conference Webpage or sent to: Prof. Arne Heise at arne.heise@wiso.uni-hamburg.de. The subject line should read "WKC Denizli 2015".
Keynote Speakers (to be confirmed)
Organising Committee
Important Dates
More information is available here.
Conference Theme: Historical Approaches in Economics: from Continental Europe to the Americas
Latin American economic thought is rich in historical approaches, most of them inspired on ideas coming from continental Europe, especially France and Germany. Such is the case of the early 19 century protectionists in the Americas, specialists on monetary theory during the early 20 century – like Guillermo Subercaseaux, or later figures related to the development program of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), including Raúl Prebisch, Celso Furtado and José Antonio Ocampo. Interestingly, there is also a remarkable interest in Economic History among Latin American economists and historians, which makes of “historical approaches in economics”, an interesting topic to explore within the context of this regional conference.
Although academic interest in Latin American history of economic thought has been increasing during the recent past, the field still remains largely unexplored. The 5 Latin American Conference of the History of Economic Thought – ESHET Chile 2015 – will aim at further exploring this and other subjects.
Possible themes include:
Submision & Registration
Abstract proposals for papers and sessions (400 words) should be sent in English. Full versions of the accepted papers will be requested by October 30, in either English, Portuguese or Spanish. There will be a limited number of grants up to $500 (USD), preferably (but not exclusively) for Young Scholars coming from Latin American countries and engaging the main theme of the conference. ESHET will also sponsor a limited number of grants for scholars coming from Europe. In order to be considered for these grants, authors should submit the full versions of their papers by September 30, 2015.
Please email eshetchile2015@uai.cl for submitting your abstracts for either papers or complete sessions.
Travel Grants & Young Scholars
There will be a limited number of grants up to $500 (USD), preferably (but not exclusively) for Young Scholars coming from Latin American countries and engaging the main theme of the conference. ESHET will also sponsor a limited number of grants for scholars coming from Europe. In order to be considered for these grants, authors should submit the full versions of their papers by September 30, 2015.
More information about keynote speakers, committees, program and accommodation possibilities is available on the conference website.
4-5 December, 2015 | Valencia, Spain
All interested researchers are invited to submit papers for the 9th Conference of the Iberian Association of the History of Economic Thought, which will take place in Valencia on December 4-5, 2015.
As in previous editions, we will accept proposals on any topic within the scope of the history of economic thought, and specifically about themes and authors from outside the Iberian geographical framework. We also encourage groups of researchers to organize thematic sessions with three or four communications. The contributions of PhD students and young scholars are particularly welcome. The proposals of papers, accompanied by an abstract of about 200 words, and the initiatives to suggest thematic sessions should be sent before Friday, April 3, 2015 to the address below, preferably by e-mail. The final selection of proposals will be in charge of the Scientific Committee.
The acceptance of the proposals will be confirmed before April 30, 2015. All information about accommodation, registration, and general program will be provided from May 2015. Proposals for papers and any request for information should be sent to: Pablo.Cervera@uv.es
3–5 January, 2016 | ASSA Annual Meetings, San Francisco, CA, USA
The Association for Evolutionary Economics invites proposals for individual papers and complete panels on the theme of “Inside Institutions.” We need to examine and interrogate institutions from within because institutions are not economic actors with a unitary set of interests. They are created and recreated by groups of people whose interests are sometimes harmonious and sometimes in conflict. Organizations, in particular, are critical sites for complex economic activity. Research on other forms of institutions is also welcome.
This conference theme is designed to explore these questions in order to promote the ongoing theoretical and empirical development of institutional economics, and to serve as a theoretical foundation that engages with other traditions in heterodox economics and related disciplines. Sessions are open to papers from economists and non-economists. Papers may be theoretical, empirical, or employ various research methods. Examples of possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following:
All proposals for papers and panels reflecting the traditional and analytical perspectives represented by the Association for Evolutionary Economics will be given serious consideration. However, preference will be given to those proposals that address the theme of “Inside Institutions.”
Joint Sessions
AFEE will participate in joint sessions with the Association for Social Economics (ASE), the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE), and the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE). If you think your paper is relevant to ASE or IAFFE or URPE, let me know on your submission sheet. I will work with ASE, IAFFE, and URPE to develop these joint sessions. In all cases, a presenter must be a member of one of the associations, and preferably of both.
Full Sessions
I will accept submissions for full sessions (4 – 5 papers and discussants), using the procedure below. If I cannot accept the whole session “as is”, I may be able to place one or two papers on the program. I may also assign a 5 paper to a session with 4 papers. In your submission, please indicate whether the session must be taken “as is”, that is, a Yes or No for the entire session.
Important Dates
Submission Procedures
Proposals for papers, panel discussions, and full sessions of multiple papers must be electronically submitted as a MS Word file to the Program Chair, Deb Figart, at Deb.Figart@stockton.edu
The instructions for submissions are is available here.
Conference Proceedings
Papers presented at the AFEE San Francisco meeting are eligible for publication in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Economic Issues. To be considered for publication, the text of your paper cannot exceed 2,850 words, with no more than four pages (total) of double-spaced endnotes, references, tables, and figures. The deadline for submission to the JEI is December 15, 2015. JEI submission details will be provided to authors whose proposals are accepted for the conference. All criteria for the submission of papers, including deadlines, will be strictly enforced by the JEI editor, Christopher Brown. At least one of the authors of any paper must be a member of AFEE. Papers should be sent by email attachment to jei@astate.edu.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Deb Figart (Program Chair), email: Deb.Figart@stockton.edu
Special Issue on Meritorics and Paternalism
It is one of the fundamental assumptions of neoclassical economics that all individual preferences are equally justified and valuable, be they for bibles or for knuckledusters. While this assumption is central to justify social choice theory, welfare economics and other strains of mainstream economics, it is challenged by a large number of real-world observations, be it the public support for cultural amenities or obligatory schooling.
Two concepts have been put forward in the last decades that question the value-neutrality of preferences. In 1957, Richard Musgrave introduced the concept of “merit goods” – goods which should be demanded to a stronger degree than they actually are. While Musgrave’s concept clearly had more opponents than supporters among economists, another attempt was started by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in 2009. In their book “nudge”, they introduced “libertarian paternalism”, the idea that certain choices should be supported to a stronger degree than others. Although this concept received a rather friendly reception among scholars, it is yet less clear than ever to which degree the fundamentals of neoclassical economics need to be revised.
The Forum for Social Economics wants to contribute to this question and invites contributors who may approach the evaluation of preferences from an empirical and/ or from a theoretical angle.
Key Themes
This open, international special issue will explore the justification to interfere in individual decisions, both from empirical and theoretical perspectives. Utilitarian or deontological approaches towards the moral justification of interventions will be as valuable as case studies, for example from cultural or educational economics. The following questions may serve as a guideline of useful contributions for the issue:
Submissions
Innovative and clearly written manuscripts are subject to the Forum’s double-blind review process. The maximum length of original research articles is between 6,500 and 8,500 words. The length for shorter papers such as review articles is no longer than 4,000 words. An abstract of 150 words should accompany the manuscript. The main document must not disclose the identity of the author. For additional guidelines and procedures please see our Instructions to Authors at the publisher’s website www.tandfonline.com
Submissions should be directed through the on-line submission system here.
For further information on this Special Issue, please contact the Special Issue Editor:
Dr. Dr. Stefan Mann, email: Stefan.mann@agroscope.admin.ch
Submission Dates:
Publication of Special Issue scheduled for the end of 2016.
21-25 March, 2015 | Oxford University, UK
Rebalancing the Global Economy, Reforming Economics
For the past decade, participants from the world's leading academic and research institutions, international organizations such as UNEP, UNESCO and the ILO, major international NGOs, and members of domestic and foreign government agencies have joined us for three days of lectures, debate, and innovation. In addition to campaigners, academics, and institutional leadership, we welcome writers, journalists, university students, and supporters.
Ground-breaking research is introduced and world-class speakers present their work, often publishing not only in the conference proceedings, but also in the Green Economics Institute's books, academic journals, and membership magazine.
More information about the conference
The 10th Anniversary Green Economics Conference is an incubator for intellectual debate and innovative responses to critical global issues. Current events and urgent issues such as fracking, social and environmental justice, women's empowerment, inequality, environmental and economic collapse, human rights, and cutting edge research on climate change and biodiversity loss are examined. Early-bird discounts are available at the moment - receive a 10% discount on participation fees if you register by January 31st. Timeslots for speakers are widely sought, so book your place today.
The Green Economics Institute stands at the forefront of debate, developing and informing a green perspective on current events. Every year, ideas exchanged at this conference have been key to the transformation of economic, social and environmental policy around the globe. We invite you to join us this year, and participate in this global transformation: the reformation of economics. Those interested in speaking, sitting on a panel, or submitting papers for the proceedings, please contact our team: greeneconomicsevents1@yahoo.co.uk
For Registration, please click here.
3-5 January, 2016 | ASSA Annual Meetings, San Francisco, US
The History of Economics Society (HES) will sponsor four sessions at the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) meetings, January 3 - 5, 2016 in San Francisco. The ASSA offers historians of economic thought an opportunity to present high-quality historical research to an audience of professional economists. Given this, preference will be given to proposals that are most likely to interest the broader community. Proposals are invited for entire sessions, rather than single papers.
Please submit session proposals, including abstracts for the proposed papers (approximately 200 words), to me at johnsonm@uwosh.edu.
The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2016.
6-7 June, 2015 | Harvard University
This two-day conference will bring together researchers working on the history of post-World War II social science. It will provide a forum for the latest research on the cross-disciplinary history of the post-war social sciences, including but not limited to anthropology, economics, psychology, political science, and sociology as well as related fields like area studies, communication studies, history, international relations, law and linguistics. We are especially eager to receive submissions that treat themes, topics, and events that span the history of individual disciplines.
The conference aims to build upon the recent emergence of work and conversation on cross-disciplinary themes in the postwar history of the social sciences. A number of monographs, edited collections, special journal issues, and gatherings at the École normale supérieure de Cachan, Duke University, the London School of Economics, New York University, the University of Toronto and elsewhere testify to a growing interest in the developments spanning the social sciences in the early, late, and post-Cold War periods. Most history of social science scholarship, however, remains focused on the 19th and early 20th centuries, and attuned to the histories of individual disciplines. Though each of the major social science fields now has a community of disciplinary historians, research explicitly concerned with cross-disciplinary topics remains comparatively rare. The purpose of the conference is to further encourage the limited but fruitful cross-disciplinary conversations of recent years.
Submissions are welcome in areas such as:
The two-day conference, hosted by Pforzheimer House at Harvard University and the Department of the History of Science, will be organized as a series of one-hour, single-paper sessions attended by all participants. Ample time will be set aside for intellectual exchange between presenters and attendees, as all participants are expected to read pre-circulated papers in advance.
Proposals should contain roughly 1000 words, indicating the originality of the paper. The deadline for receipt of abstracts is 28 February 2015. Proposals will be evaluated by mid March and final notification will be given in late March. Completed papers will be expected by 15 May 2015.
The organizing committee consists of Jamie Cohen-Cole (George Washington University), Philippe Fontaine (ENS Cachan), Andrew Jewett (Harvard University), and Jeff Pooley (Muhlenberg College).
All proposals and requests for information should be sent to: pooley@muhlenberg.edu
More information is available at hisress.org.
25-28 August 2015 | Prague, CZ
This is a CfP for a joint session proposal by RN 06 (CPERN) and RN 12 (Environment and Society) for the ESA conference in Prague, 25-28 August 2015. Please see the panel theme below, the focus is on critical theoretical perspectives on the Green Economy; the session is convened by Les Levidow and Matthias Gross. If you would like to submit a paper abstract for this panel, please do so through the ESA online submission form (more information here). Deadline is 1 February 2015. Please indicate that your submission is for this joint session.
For any questions regarding the theme of the Call, please contact Les Levidow directly (l.levidow@open.ac.uk).
Panel Theme: "The 'Green Economy': theoretical perspectives"
The 'green economy' agenda was widely promoted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in preparing the Rio+20 conference in 2012. As UNEP’s overall definition: The green economy seeks economic growth with ‘significant decoupling from environmental impacts’. A green economy ‘creates jobs and economic progress, while at the same time avoiding considerable downside risks such as the effects of climate change, greater water scarcity and the loss of ecosystem services’. The new focus on a green economy reflects the ‘growing recognition that achieving sustainability rests almost entirely on getting the economy right’. Better economic decisions depend on correctly valuing nature: ‘A green economy values and invests in natural capital’ (UNEP, 2011a). Ecosystem services should be correctly valued so that economic activity more wisely manages them to benefit the poor (UNEP, 2011b). ‘We recognize that the active participation of the private sector can contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, including through the important tool of public-private partnerships’ (UN, 2012).
The ‘green economy’ and/or ‘natural capital’ concepts have been taken up in diverse ways by states, business and NGOs, at global as well as national levels. Those initiatives warrant critical analysis by integrating various social science perspectives, e.g. environmental sociology, critical political economy, geography (e.g. neoliberalising nature), etc. Some critical analyses have already been published in journals and edited collections.
This session invites analyses addressing questions such as the following:
Other steams and topics as well as general information about ESA conference is available here.
Research in Political Economy (RPE) analyses society in a manner consistent with the importance of the role of class. International in scope, the annual volumes deal primarily with economic and political issues and the unity between them. The series presents definitive volumes that bring together significant, international, and rigorous scholarship where both theoretical and empirical works are included.
The series is edited by Paul Zarembka and published by Emerald. It has played an important role in developing the scientific Marxist agenda since 1977. This series provides an intelligent forum for serious radical scholarship that is absent from most mainstream publications.
Research in Political Economy can accept papers up to 20,000 words and thus, in addition to usual journal length papers, is also appropriate for work which is not book length, yet is substantial. While published papers must be appropriate for developing class analysis of society, they need not be explicitly Marxist. All papers are subject to double-blind peer review and enjoy a quick turnaround from submission to acceptance.
RPE is indexed by Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Scopus is becoming an essential database to be included in and is regarded by scholars, institutions and librarians as the most important quality stamp for academic journals after Thomson Reuters (ISI). Scopus data influences institutional and regional journal ranking lists.
Link to the book series is available here.
17-19 September, 2015 | Genova, Italy
The conference will consist of the contributions of the 22 European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) research areas as well as of a particular general theme selected for this year. The 2015 conference theme will focus on reforming the financial system in order to divert resources from speculative activities, cause of growing inequalities and instability, to productive investments able to foster smart, sustainable and inclusive societies.
Background and Scope of the 2015 Conference Theme:
In recent decades, most industrialized economies have been characterized by a massive transfer of resources from the productive sector to the financial and speculation sector, the latter being considerably increased at the expense of the resources of the real economy. This re-allocative process, well known as the financialization of the economy, is responsible for growing financial instability, characterized by financial bubbles, followed by recurrent crises of increasing intensity and culminated in the so called Great Recession of 2008-09. By this very process, in most advanced economies, there has been a dramatic increase in economic and social inequality, in the capital income share over total household income, in rich households, and in income and consumption volatility. Thus, a large and growing share of the population has been exposed to social and economic vulnerability. The European Commission “Europe 2020” action plan outlines the strategy for "a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth", where the financial system should undergo a deep change in its functioning and incentive structure so to redress financial resources from short-term speculative investments, which create credit-fuelled assets bubbles and bursts, to productive and green long-term investments, e.g. housing renovation, transport infrastructure, renewable energy sources so to reduce carbon emissions and improve both long-term financial and environmental sustainability.
The conference aims to provide an unique opportunity for exchanging ideas and results in both theoretical and empirical research about the role of the financial system in determining the Great Recession and its potential capacity, once duly reformed, to stimulate a smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
Topics related to the 2015 Conference Theme:
The conference will welcome contributions in particular on the following topics: Financialization and inequality; Financial innovation, Systemic risk and financial regulation; Debt and asset bubbles; Deleveraging and business cycles; Functional finance and fiscal policy; Financing innovation and growth; Financing eco-efficiency investments and sustainable development; Carbon finance and green quantitative easing; A solid financing and crediting sector; Separation of crediting the real economy from speculation; SME crediting; Microfinance in developed countries; The future of money; ….
Unorthodox methodological approaches will be appreciated, e.g. institutional and evolutionary economics perspectives, agent-based modeling and simulation, flow-of-fund analyses and stock-flow consistent modelling, network analysis, statistical equilibrium techniques, data mining techniques.
Important dates:
Abstract Submission must be done here.
Local Organizing Committee:
Silvano Cincotti (co-chair), Marco Raberto (co-chair), Gideon Fadiran, Giovanni Lombardo, Andrea Mazzocchetti, Reynold Nathanael, Linda Ponta
Download the full CfP here (pdf).
3-5 January, 2016 | ASSA Annual Meetings, San Francisco, US
Theme: Financialisation, Ethics, and Sustainable Development
The events in 2007-2008 have brought financialisation, that is “the increasing importance of financial markets, financial motives, financial institutions, and financial elites in the operation of the economy and its governing institutions” (Epstein 2001) to the attention of millions of people. Today some key questions are still unanswered. Will the actors, institutions, and policies of financial markets that led to the financial crisis and the related Global Crisis be tamed once and for all? Or have we entered a new age of capitalism, where financial motives and financial actors define not only the regime of accumulation and the ascendency of ‘shareholder value’ as a mode of business governance, but dominate everyday life, from housing and pensions to the culture of individualism and market competition? Furthermore, what is the proper function of financial goals and financial institutions in the achievement of sustainable development? What role do ethics play in shaping these goals and institutions?
For the ASE sessions at the 2016 Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) meetings, we welcome proposals for papers on all aspects of social economics, especially those dealing with the nature and consequences of financialisation on our society and the natural environment. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
To submit a paper or a session, please go to the proposal submission area of the ASE website (under Conferences > ASSA > Proposal submissions). Proposals should include a 250-word abstract, all authors’ names and institutional affiliations, and contact information for the corresponding author including email address. Proposals for complete sessions are also welcome. Submission deadline is 1 May 2015.
Individuals whose papers are accepted for presentation must either be or become members of the Association for Social Economics by July 1, 2015, in order for the paper to be included in the program. Membership information can be found at www.socialeconomics.org.
All papers presented at the ASSA meetings are eligible for the Warren Samuels Prize, awarded to the best paper that advances the goals of social economics and has widespread appeal. Papers can also be considered for a special issue of the Forum for Social Economics. Details of these opportunities will be sent to authors of accepted papers.
7-8 May 2015 | Roskilde University, Denmark
Organised by the Global Dynamics research cluster on ‘Structural Adjustment comes to Europe’
The recent austerity packages and labour market reforms in Europe have fuelled a range of protest actions and incidents of social unrest. While most of these movements and protests are still organised at local, regional or national levels, they are increasingly targeting policies that have to a large degree been shaped by politics at the EU level. There is however now also a range of emerging transnational campaigns and initiatives against EU austerity. These overlapping, transnational and also contradictory dynamics require a rethinking of established approaches for understanding social movements, and the formation and articulation of social struggles in the European social terrain.
The objective of this workshop is to reflect upon existing perspectives for studying social movements in the European Union and beyond, and to discuss new avenues for investigating the scope, mode and content of social protests in the context of EU austerity. Core questions could include e.g.
To facilitate in-depth engagement, the workshop will be organised in two parts, on consecutive days: a PhD workshop where young researchers will have the opportunity to present their work and receive feedback from peers and faculty; and a research workshop with established researchers from a range of perspectives. The workshop is explicitly pluralist, discussion and disagreement will be core components of the programme. Confirmed key speakers include Cristina Flesher Fominaya (University of Aberdeen), Maria Kousis (University of Crete) and David Bailey (Birmingham University).
The organisers invite paper abstracts of ca 300 words by 28 February 2015 to socialmovementconferenceruc@gmail.com . Please indicate whether you are a PhD researcher. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in the first week of March. Conference contributions should be submitted by 30 April. There is a limited amount of travel and accommodation grants available for participants. Please indicate in your submission whether you require funding to attend the workshop.
Please note – in conjunction with this event, there will also be a meeting between anti-austerity activists and scholars on 8/9 May, jointly organised by Transform! and the research cluster. The aim is to discuss the strengths and weakness of transnational anti-austerity protests, and talk about strategies for the coming year. Workshop participants are welcome to join, the programme for this will be circulated in due time.
The Faculty of Economics at the Ruhr-University Bochum is offering the first BISSglobal event on "Sustainability and Governance" in 2015.
Sustainable management is a global topic. In what way can economic growth and environmental protection be reconciled? Is ‘green’ growth even possible?
In what way should institutions be designed in order to enable sustainable business? What types of management tools are available to the state?
These and many other questions are of greater policy relevance and will be examined in this Summer School. BISSglobal is aimed at advanced undergraduate students with good understanding of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. A basic comprehension of Mathematics for Economists would also be useful.
Program:
More information is available on the conference website.
28 February - 1 March, 2015 | Ruskin College, Oxford, UK
The Critical Labour Studies symposium aims to bring together researchers and activists to discuss key features of work and employment from a radical and labour-focused perspective. It attempts to provide links between the activities of trade unionists, activists, universities, and researchers, allowing a broad and critical debate to emerge.
Programoverview
Location: Ruskin College, Ruskin Hall, Oxford, OX3 9BZ. A detailed description of location and map is available here.
Registration: £90 (£40 Unwaged/Students). Includes lunches/refreshments.Please register before coming due to space restrictions.
Email: critical_labour_studies@yahoo.com
More information (and full program) is available at the CLS website.
19 February, 2015 | Hrzán Palace Loretánská 9, Prague, Czech Republic
Theme:"Investment in Central and Eastern Europe: Past developments, structural changes, future expectations and new perspectives"
This high-level event co-organised by the Government Office of the Czech Republic and the ETUI is taking place in the framework of a new ETUI project on foreign direct investment in selected CEE and southern European countries with focus on post crisis trends and sectoral patterns. The event will be opened by Bohuslav Sobotka, Prime Minister of the Czech republic and there will be speeches by Jan Mládek, Minister for Trade and Industry and Martin Tlapa, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy.
In view of publishing a book on this subject by the ETUI an expert workshop will take place right after the conference.
Full program and more information is available here and here (pdf).
The HPPE seminar (Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Economics) at LSE's Economic History Department has now published its programme for Lent Term 2015 (see below).
The seminar runs since 2012 and is organised by PhD students at the Economic History Department. It brings together scholars from different disciplines to discuss the evolution of economic thinking and embraces topics from Ancient Greece to contemporary Africa.
The seminar inquires how the theory and practice of economics changes with the historical and philosophical context. The seminar aims to provide scholars at any stage of their career with an opportunity to discuss their work with a critical audience. For further information, please contact the convenors.
Program details:
For updates to the programme please visit the HPEE seminar website.
The bi-weekly seminar takes place on Wednesdays from 1-2.30pm in room CLM.2.04.
The convenors of HPPE are Maxine Montaigne (m.c.Montaigne@lse.ac.uk ) and Tobias Vogelgsang (t.vogelgsang@lse.ac.uk).
22-24 January 2015 | Université Paris-Sud, Faculté Jean Monnet, Sceaux (near Paris), France
Venue: Faculté Jean Monnet, Salle Georges Vedel, 54 Bd. Desgranges, 92330 Sceaux, France
The object of the conference is the controversies between Hayek and Hayekians on one side and Keynes and Keynesians on the other side. These controversies are numerous and various since the ideas of Keynes and Hayek have varied. E.g. the money of the Treatise is not the money of the chapter 13 of the General Theory and the money of Prices and Production or Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle is not the money of Denationalisation of Money and that the ideas of Keynesians and Hayekians are even more numerous.
Therefore the scope of the conference is a priori very large. The scientific committee will study every proposition that may refer to the debate Hayek-Keynes: these propositions may refer to theory and methodology, to history, to economic policies, to the 30's, to the problems of the present crisis...
The committee includes Post-Keynenesian and Hayekian colleagues. It will select 12 propositions coming from Keynesians and 12 coming from Hayekians and will group them by subject in order to organize debates between the two schools. We remind that Keynes and Hayek, albeit very opposite in ideas, had very cordial relationships. We hope it will be the same for Keynesians and Hayekians during the conference
More information is available here and here.
For registration send a mail to sonia.suihli@u-psud.fr or Colloques.jean-monnet@u-psud.fr
University of Greenwich and Kingston University are jointly organizing a series of lectures in advanced macroeconomics based on a political economy approach combining institutionalist, Keynesian and Marxist traditions. The lecture series builds on the research expertise of staff in political economy at both universities, and is designed originally for our PhD students; however we welcome PhD students from other universities or Masters students, who wish to explore more advanced topics.
The lectures assume knowledge of core concepts in macroeconomics at the Masters level. Each day has two lectures. A brief description of each lecture and an indicative reading list can be found in the link to each lecture below. The location of the lectures alternate between the two universities.
25 March 10:00-14:00, Queen Anne Building Room 63, University of Greenwich
Prof Ozlem Onaran, University of Greenwich, Post-Keynesian /Kaleckian demand-led growth models: the effect of distribution on growth
Prof Mehmet Ugur, University of Greenwich, Institutionalist/Schumpeterian growth theories
22 Apr 10:00-14:00, Room JG1006, Kingston University
Prof Engelbert Stockhammer, Kingston University, Labour markets and unemployment in Post Keynesian macroeconomics
Dr Devrim Yilmaz, Kingston University, Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models: a critical introduction
29 Apr 10:00-14:00 Queen Anne Building Room 20, University of Greenwich
Dr Tomas Rotta, University of Greenwich, Marxist Theory Today
Dr Jeff Powell, University of Greenwich, Marxist theory of financialization
27 May 10:00-14:00 Queen Anne Building Room 75, University of Greenwich
Dr Maria Nikolaidi, University of Greenwich, Post-Keynesian stock-flow consistent modelling: theory and methodology
Dr Yannis Dafermos, University of West of England, Building a stock-flow consistent model in practice (lab session at ITLab-QA274)
10 June 10:00-14:00, Room JG1006, Kingston University
Prof Steve Keen, Kingston University, Modelling Financial Instability
Dr Iren Levina, Kingston University, Financialisation of Households
17 Jun 10:00-14:00 Queen Anne Building Room 139, University of Greenwich
Dr Cem Oyvat, University of Greenwich, Inequality and Growth in the developing world
Dr Ewa Karwowski, Kingston University, Finance, financialisation and development
More information about the PhD lecture series is available here.
30 January, 2015 | University of Utrecht, Netherlands
Venue: Belle van Zuylenzaal in the Senate building of the University of Utrecht , Domplein 29, 3512 JE Utrecht
Organizers: Descartes Centre Utrecht, the University School of Economics and the Tjalling Koopmans Institute.
Afternoon seminar organized on the occasion of the thesis defense of Andrej Svorenčík: "Experimental Turn: A History of Experimental Economics"
Program
For information please contact Harro Maas: H.B.J.B.Maas@uu.nl or henricus.maas@unil.ch
Job Position: Professor for Comparative Institutional Analysis (W2)
The Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF) is a lively university in continuous development, in which cross-disciplinary teamwork plays a prominent role. We work, teach and research for more justice, sustainability and diversity in educational processes and systems, in economy and society, in culture and in the natural environment.
The following position is vacant at the International Institute for Management and Economic Education (IIM) of the Europa-Universität Flensburg:
We invite applications by candidates from economics, management sciences, sociology and political science who follow a research program which in its core is directed at the comparative analysis of institutions between countries and macroregions. Especially welcome are interdisciplinary research programs, such as “varieties of capitalism“ or related approaches, as well as approaches focussing on the dynamics of social and economic systems, including their crises and crisis dynamics.
An academic closeness to area studies as well as research with a regional focus is desirable. A concentration on varieties of peripheral capitalisms (e.g. Brazil, Turkey, Eastern Europe) or on one of the regional emphases already existing at the institute would be advantageous.
The successful applicant has the ability to perform interdisciplinary work in the field of the social sciences (including economics). Especially, she or he should be able to connect with management sciences in both research and teaching.
We are looking to appoint an internationally oriented person with appropriate experience in research and teaching. Excellent publications, integration into an international network and experience with research projects funded by third parties are especially relevant.
You will be expected to teach in our management and European studies programs as well as in other interdisciplinary programs. Teaching in English will be required. Applicants who are not German native speakers will be expected to learn German in the near future. The university plans to establish an additional area studies focus within the management programs of the IIM. If this is realized, the successful applicant will be in charge of the organisation of this new focus.
Documented expertise in the didactics of university teaching and the willingness to get involved in the academic self-administration of the university are desirable. Furthermore, the successful applicant should be willing to participate in the network for interdisciplinary research on Europe which the EUF is establishing in the moment.
Required is a university degree at Master level, a qualified Ph.D. in one of the academic fields mentioned earlier and additional scientific research, which may be documented by a habilitation, the successful evaluation of a junior professorship or equivalent scientific achievements as well as additional publications in areas relevant for this vacancy. §§ 61-63 of the University Law of the state of Schleswig-Holstein apply.
The Europa-Universität Flensburg is an equal opportunity employer and promotes a diversity of biographies and competencies through its employment policy. We explicitly welcome applicants with a migratory background. Applicants with a legal status as a severely handicapped person will be preferred if they fulfill the requirements stated herein. The Europa-Universität Flensburg intends to achieve a balanced gender ratio at all levels of employment and especially invites women with the qualifications relevant for this vacancy to apply. Female applicants will be preferred if equally qualified.
For additional information please contact Prof. Dr. Stephan Panther (panther@uni-flensburg.de). Please direct applications including the standard documents like copies of educational certificates and a CV including research and teaching biography to the President of Europa-Universität Flensburg, Herrn Prof. Dr. Werner Reinhart, persönlich/vertraulich, Kennziffer 011523, Postfach 29 54, 24919 Flensburg. Closing date for applications: 12.02.2015
We explicitly do not require any photographs of the applicant and ask you not to send any.
There are two Positions at the National University in San Diego (US)
Job Position: Sociology Faculty Position, Open Rank
The Department of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Sciences at National University in San Diego, CA invites applications for a FULLTIME Sociology position at OPEN RANK (Assistant/Associate/Professor) determined by experience. Initial full-time appointment with benefits is for two years, renewable for longer-term contracts. The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. in sociology, university-level teaching experience, and evidence of an active research agenda. While areas of specialization are open, we have particular interest in science/technology/medicine, sustainability/environment, and/or globalization.
To apply, please send as attachments a current CV, cover letter, and three letters of recommendation to Dr. Margaret Greer (mgreer@nu.edu).
Application deadline: February 28, 2014. Applications considered until position is filled. National University is a private, non-profit university accredited by WASC and an equal opportunity employer.
Job Position: Full Time Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Position, Open Rank
The Department of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Sciences at National University seeks applicants for a full-time, OPEN RANK faculty position in Interdisciplinary Studies to oversee our growing Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program located in Porterville, CA. Initial full-time appointment with benefits is for two years, renewable for longer-term contracts. Preference for strong interdisciplinary training and background in any one of the following disciplines: Anthropology, Global Studies, History, Political Science, or Sociology. Successful applicant will have a completed PhD by July 2015, a documented record of successful teaching and an active research agenda.
For full consideration, applicants should submit electronically a CV, cover letter, and contact info for three professional references to Dr. Thomas Green (tgreen@nu.edu) by February 28, 2015.
The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a European political party, which brings together Socialist, Social Democratic, Democratic and Labour Parties of the European Union. There are 32 full member parties from the 28 EU member and Norway. In addition, there are eleven associate and ten observer parties. Our office is based in Brussels.
The European Union must carry the universal principles of democracy, peace and respect for human rights, including women’s and children’s rights. In a globalised and ever changing world, with conflicts and growing inequalities, Europe must be a global player. We must build strong alliances to respond to common challenges. We want Europe to have a strong voice and the proper tools to lead in promoting peace, democracy, and shared prosperity throughout the world. Trade and investment is needed to help the development of societies and economies worldwide.
The fight against global imbalances, inequality and poverty is one of the main areas of attention of the Party of European Socialists. We are an advocate for policy coherence for development and for making the Millennium Development Goals and the UN post 2015 agenda a success. We support fair and balanced international trade partnerships through which development is promoted. However, more attention should be given to the quality of jobs, decent work and a fair distribution of revenue. Together with international partners such as the Progressive Alliance and SOLIDAR we are engaged in a decent jobs campaign to raise awareness through common initiatives and conferences. During 2015 the European Union and the United States of America will be negotiating a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The Agreement shall be composed of three key components: (a) market access, (b) regulatory issues and Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), and (c) rules. All three components will be negotiated in parallel.
In the framework of the TTIP debate, the Party of European Socialists and European and international partners will organize several events, conferences and exchanges on best practices in order to prepare common positions and underline the urgency. the PES will elaborate a coordinated strategy with member parties and organisations, taking into account the FEPS research programme on TTIP, which has been launched with SOLIDAR, Policy Network, Renner Institute and Jean Jaurès Foundation.
The Project Adviser on Development and Trade will support the ministerial meetings on Trade and Development and the meetings of the PES development network. And will support relations with international partners of the PES such as the Global Progressive Forum (GPF), the Progressive Alliance (PA), Socialist International (SI) and SOLIDAR. The position has a policy as well as an organisational component.
The PES aims to actively set the European agenda with clear social democratic ideas, investing in effective cooperation with our member parties, the S&D group in the European Parliament, EU Commissioners from our political family, FEPS and other partners. And to be a relevant political and visible actor on the European level as well as on the national International level.
Job description:
Your profile:
The project will initially run during one year, but may be extended.
For more information or if you would like to apply, please contact PES Deputy Secretary General Marije Laffeber on marije.laffeber@pes.eu.
Job Position: two-year visiting lectureship in "International Political Economy"
The Department of Political and Social Science at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona invites applications for a two-year visiting lectureship in “International Political Economy” starting in September of 2015. There is the possibility of conversion into a tenure-track contract.
Applicants should hold a PhD in Political Sciences and preferably has a background in the area of the European Union Studies. Next to that candidates should have a track record in international political economy research, covering areas such as policy-making, public policies, etc. Candidates must demonstrate their expertise through publications in peer reviewed literature.
Teaching duties may include courses at both undergraduate and/or graduate level (160 hours per year). The gross salary is 29.199€ per year.
The successful candidate is expected to become integrated in any of our ongoing comparative research projects (for more information see here).
Our department combines research in political science, demography, sociology, criminology and industrial relations. It offers degrees at both the undergraduate and doctoral level. The Centre for Higher Education Development ranks it among the best departments in Political Science in Europe.
Applicants should send a reference letter and CV, including a description of their teaching and research experience, to:
The deadline for applications is 16 March 2015.
Three positions at the University of Utrecht (NL).
Job Position: Associate Professor of History and Methodology of Economics
Job description
U.S.E. is looking for an Associate Professor of History and Methodology of Economics. Economics has a history which is rooted in different social sciences. U.S.E. therefore considers it important that its educational curriculum is inspired by research on the history and methodology of economics, the historical role played by economists and their current day practices. Given the emphasis on current day practices, the proposed candidateis expected to engage with the history of economic thought in order to shed light on the present. Research should preferably focus on the analysis of economics as a science, on the tools which are at the disposal of the discipline, and on the self-perception of economists.
As an Associate Professor of history and methodology of economics, you are expected to:
While all teaching is in English, non-Dutch speakers are nevertheless strongly encouraged to learn Dutch.
Qualifications
The successful candidate is expected to:
Offer
U.S.E. offers a challenging job in an attractive international working environment. In accordance with U.S.E.’s policy: a temporary appointment for two years. Tenure will be offered after two years, when meeting the performance criteria on research and teaching.
Salary depends on qualifications and experience and ranges from € 4,517 (scale 13) to € 6,039 (Scale 14) gross per month, excluding holiday and end-of-year allowance. A favourable tax regime may apply to applicants from abroad. In addition, Utrecht University offers excellent secondary conditions, including an attractive pension scheme and (partly paid) parental leave.
Further information can be obtained – in strict confidence – from Prof Dr Janneke Plantenga: J.Plantenga@uu.nl or +31(0)30-253 8364.
Apply
Please submit your application by 8 February, 2015. Interviews will be scheduled in March 2015.
The application should include:
Application form is available here.
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Postdoc position ''Making the European financial system sustainable''
Job description
At the Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) we have a vacancy for a post-doctoral researcher who will be one of the main researchers in the research program “Sustainable finance”. This research program has been set up as a joint project of U.S.E. and the Sustainable Finance Lab (SFL), an independent, Utrecht University based think-tank. The program focuses on the narrow issue of financial sector stability and resilience as well as on a broader set of questions regarding the role of the financial sector in promoting economic growth and well-being and in providing conditions for social and ecological sustainability. Unavoidably, the programme has a multidisciplinary character. The current position has a profile aiming at the financial stability issue. A second position with a profile based on the broader set of institutional and ecological sustainability questions will be opened next year.
Qualifications
We are looking for an excellent and enthusiastic researcher who is able to combine academic and broader societal perspectives. Candidates should hold a PhD in economics or a related discipline. Being able and interested to (co-)operate in a multidisciplinary research group is an important selection criterion. Good communication skills and excellent command of spoken and written English are required. Candidates will spend 70-75 percent of their time on academic research. In addition, they will organize and coordinate activities aimed at a larger non-academic audience, write position (policy) papers and support the writing of new grant proposals. Non-Dutch speakers are expected to learn Dutch within the first year of the contract period, facilitated by U.S.E.
Offer
U.S.E. offers a temporary appointment in an international working environment for one year with an extension for two more years conditional on good performance. The salary ranges from scale 11-0 € 3,259 (year one) to scale 11-3 € 3,491 (year three) gross per month, excluding holiday and end-of-year allowance. A favourable tax regime may apply for foreign applicants. In addition, Utrecht University offers excellent secondary conditions, including attractive retirement scheme and (partly paid) parental leave.
The researcher will be positioned in the chair group of Finance of the Utrecht University School of Economics. He/she is expected to be a pivotal element between U.S.E. and the SFL as well as researchers from other disciplines like Law, Governance, Social Sciences and Innovation Studies who are all active in the UU-wide Institutions research theme.
The SFL is an independent think-tank which is located within U.S.E. Its mission is “to develop and discuss specific ideas for a stable and resilient financial sector which contributes to an economic system that supports human well-being while respecting ecological boundaries”. Over the last four years, SFL has had a strong input and impact on the Dutch academic and political discussion on the role and performance of the financial sector. It aims at broadening its scope to the link between the financial system and overall economic sustainability and at becoming more international in its impact.
Additional information
Further information can be obtained – under strict confidentiality – from: Prof. Dr. Clemens Kool, Chair of Finance and Financial Markets: c.j.m.kool@uu.nl or 31 (0)302539813 or Dr. R. van Tilburg, director Sustainable Finance Lab: r.van.tilburg@uu.nl
Apply
Please apply before 15 January 2015. Interviews will be scheduled in the period February 1-14, 2015.
The application should include:
Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) is part of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance and is located on the International Campus Utrecht University. U.S.E. promotes high quality economics research and teaching with special attention to a multidisciplinary economics approach. This approach implies a strong awareness of the complex socio-economic reality: human behaviour is not always rational and markets are not always in equilibrium. Institutions are important for understanding economic dynamics and so are the dimensions of time and space. U.S.E. maintains an excellent international network of academic relationships and is continuously working to extend this network. It teaches its curricula fully in English.
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Job Position: Professor of Economics, in particular Finance and Financial markets
Job description
The chair of Economics, in particular Finance and Financial Markets is one of the pivotal chairs at the Utrecht University School of Economics. A candidate will not only engage in original and innovative top research and excellent teaching, but will successfully show academic leadership within U.S.E. In that capacity, he/she will contribute to the further development and recognition of the U.S.E. profile internally and externally. This includes the further development of research and teaching in Finance and Financial Markets from a multidisciplinary perspective, successful acquisition of external funding and investing in strong relations with external parties to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to society. To strengthen synergy and performance, cooperation with other researchers at U.S.E. as well as Utrecht University at large is strongly encouraged.
See full description of the chair: Download 2014 chair finance and financial markets.docx
Requirements
Candidates are expected to hold a doctorate in economics or business and to have a strong track record in research, demonstrated, among other, by publications in international peer-reviewed journals or books edited by internationally recognized publishers. Candidates are expected to have interest in and (proven) experience with a multidisciplinary approach to the field of finance and financial markets. Candidates should have a record of achievement in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and administration, and demonstrable skills in the acquisition of external funding. Good communicating skills and excellent command of spoken and written English are required. While all teaching is in English, non-Dutch applicants are nevertheless expected to learn Dutch.
Conditions of employment
U.S.E. offers in principle a fulltime permanent position in an attractive international working environment . Salary depends on qualifications and experience and ranges from € 5,003 to € 8,795. (scale H2, H1 of the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month, excluding holiday and end-of-year allowance. A favourable tax regime may apply to applicants from abroad. In addition, Utrecht University offers excellent secondary conditions, including an attractive retirement scheme.
Organisation
As one of the leading research universities in the Netherlands, Utrecht University has great ambitions for its teaching quality and study success rates. This also applies to its clear research profiles which are centred around four themes: Sustainability, Life Sciences, Dynamics of Youth and Institutions. Utrecht University plays a prominent role in our society and contributes to finding answers to topical and future societal issues.
Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) is part of the Law, Economics and Governance Faculty of Utrecht University. U.S.E. aims at world-standard economic teaching and research while encouraging multidisciplinary approaches. U.S.E. stands for the real world perspective. Therefor in its research and teaching, U.S.E. crosses disciplinary borders by collaborating actively with other departments and by participating in the university’s broad research themes, particularly ‘Institutions’, ‘Dynamics of Youth’ and ‘Sustainability’. USE maintains an excellent international network of academic relationships and is continuously working to extend this network. U.S.E. is also an important contributor to the Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship and the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative. Moreover, U.S.E. hosts the independence think-tank “Sustainable Finance Lab”.
Additional information
For more information – in strict confidence – please contact Prof Dr J. Plantenga, Head of Department: J.Plantenga@uu.nl or +31(0)30-253 8364 or Prof Dr Wolter Hassink, Director of Tjalling C. Koopmans Institute: W.H.J.Hassink@uu.nl or +31(0)30-253 7952.
Application form is available here.
Any article in the history of economics or economic thought published in English in the calendar year preceding the next Annual Meeting of the Society is eligible (e.g. calendar year 2014 for Annual Meeting in June 2015). It is recognized however, that despite official publication dates, many publications are shipped after year end. In such cases, relevant articles that are in 'proof' form, with accompanying evidence of the journal and its year of publication, may be accepted at the discretion of the Chair of the committee.
The Committee considers all nominated articles as well as all articles published in the Society's journal: Journal for the History of Economic Thought. The committee may not ask editors of journals for their nominations as editors, but editors may nominate in a personal capacity. Nomination of an article by its author is welcome.
To nominate an article for the award, please contact the chair of the committee, Vivienne Brown, Open University (UK) v.w.brown@open.ac.uk .
Submission deadline 31 January 2015
More about the Best Article Prize information is available here.
We would like to remind you that the 1 March 2015 deadline for submitting entries to the EAEPE-Kapp and EAEPE-Myrdal prize competitions is now approaching.
EAEPE-Kapp Prize: Awarded annually for thebest paper published in a scholarly journal on a theme broadly in accord with the EAEPE Theoretical Perspectives, consisting of a minimum of 5000 words and normally not exceeding 12000 words, no older than 2 years (e.g. no older than 1 January 2013 for the 2015 competition).
Amount: 1000€.
EAEPE-Myrdal Prize: Awarded every other year for the best published monograph (i.e. a book and excluding multi-authored collections of essays) on a theme broadly in accord with the EAEPE theoretical perspectives. Submissions should be monographsno older than 3 years (e.g. no older than 1 January 2012 for the 2015 competiton).
Amount: 2000€.
Submission: Entries should be sent to the EAEPE Prize Competition Coordinator via jean-christophe.graz@unil.ch (PDF accepted for articles for the EAEPE Kapp prize.)
The ESHET Council is inviting nominations for the Awards that will be announced at the next annual Conference in Rome, Italy, 14-16 May 2015.
Nominations should be sent as soon as possible, but not later than January 31, 2015 to the Chair of the relevant panel:
Please note also the following points.
The final decision on each of the prizes will be made by the Council of ESHET in Rome.
The winner of the Clarence E. Ayres Scholar Award 2015 (presented by AFEE) is Merijn Knibbe.
Below you will find a comment by the recipient on the current relevance of the economics of Clarence Ayres.
"Clarence Ayres: the economist whom Piketty and Mankiw should have read"
Rachel Connelly & Jean Kimmel: If You're Happy and You Know It: How Do Mothers and Fathers in the US Really Feel about Caring for Their Children?
Seema Vyas, Jessie Mbwambo & Lori Heise: Women's Paid Work and Intimate Partner Violence: Insights from Tanzania
Marit Rønsen & Ragni Hege Kitterød: Gender-Equalizing Family Policies and Mothers' Entry into Paid Work: Recent Evidence From Norway
Mats Hammarstedt, Ali M. Ahmed & Lina Andersson: Sexual Prejudice and Labor Market Outcomes for Gays and Lesbians: Evidence from Sweden
Aniruddha Mitra, James T. Bang & Arnab Biswas: Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Is it Equality of Opportunity or Equality of Outcomes?
Robert Rudolf & Sung-Jin Kang: Lags and Leads in Life Satisfaction in Korea: When Gender Matters
Dainn Wie & Hyoungjong Kim: Between Calm and Passion: The Cooling-Off Period and Divorce Decisions in Korea
Bipasha Baruah: Creating Opportunities for Women in the Renewable Energy Sector: Findings from India
BOOK REVIEWS
Jane Humphries: Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Marilyn Power: Challenging Knowledge, Sex and Power: Gender, Work and Engineering
Diane Perrons: Gender and Well-Being: The Role of Institutions
Carmen Sarasúa: Travail féminin: Retour à l'ordre! L'offensive contre le travail des femmes durant la crise économique des années 1930 [Women's work: Back to order! The offensive against women's work during the economic crisis of the 1930s]
Thomas I. Palley: Symposium introduction: Global Crisis and the Need for Paradigm Change
Garry Jacobs: The need for a new paradigm in economics
Amitava Krishna Dutt: Uncertainty, power, institutions, and crisis: implications for economic analysis and the future of capitalism
Stuart Holland: After Ricardo – after Marx – after Keynes: comparative advantage, mutual advantage and implications for global governance
Thomas I. Palley: The theory of global imbalances: mainstream economics vs structural Keynesianism
Augusto Santos Silva: Global crisis: a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to paradigm change
Adriana Moreira Amado and Maria de Lourdes Rollemberg Mollo: The ‘developmentalism’ debate in Brazil: some economic and political issues
Fernando Ferrari Filho and Pedro Cezar Dutra Fonseca: Which developmentalism? A Keynesian–Institutionalist proposal
Ricardo Azevedo Araujo, Joanílio Rodolpho Teixeira and Cristiane Soares: Export-led growth vs growth-led exports: what matters for the Brazilian growth experience after trade liberalization?
Reviewed by Angel Asensio: Book review: Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, London 2014) 696 pp.
Reviewed by Philip Pilkington: Book review: Mariana Mazzucato, The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs Private Sector Myths (Anthem Press, London, Delhi and New York 2013) 266 pp.
Béatrice Boulu-Reshef: Toward a Personal Identity Argument to Combine Potentially Conflicting Social Identities
Giuseppina Autiero: Social and Personal Identities: Their Influence on Scholastic Effort
David Cooper, W.D. McCausland & Ioannis Theodossiou: Is unemployment and low income harmful to health? Evidence from Britain
Natalya Shelkova: Low-Wage Labor Markets and the Power of Suggestion
Alexander Antony Dunlap: The Expanding Techniques of Progress: Agricultural Biotechnology and UN-REDD+
Jamie Morgan & Brendan Sheehan: The Concept of Trust and the Political Economy of John Maynard Keynes, Illustrated Using Central Bank Forward Guidance and the Democratic Dilemma in Europe
By Robert Costanza, John H Cumberland, Herman Daly, Robert Goodland, Richard B Norgaard, Ida Kubiszewski and Carol Franco | 2014, CRC Press
From Empty-World Economics to Full-World Economics
Ecological economics explores new ways of thinking about how we manage our lives and our planet to achieve a sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future. Ecological economics extends and integrates the study and management of both "nature's household" and "humankind's household"—An Introduction to Ecological Economics, Second Edition, the first update and expansion of this classic text in 15 years, describes new approaches to achieving a sustainable and desirable human presence on Earth. Written by the top experts in the field, it addresses the necessity for an innovative approach to integrated environmental, social, and economic analysis and management, and describes policies aimed at achieving our shared goals.
Demands a Departure from Business as Usual
The book begins with a description of prevailing interdependent environmental, economic, and social issues and their underlying causes, and offers guidance on designing policies and instruments capable of adequately coping with these problems. It documents the historical development of the disciplines of economics and ecology, and explores how they have evolved so differently from a shared conceptual base. Structured into four sections, it also presents various ideas and models in their proper chronological context, details the fundamental principles of ecological economics, and outlines prospects for the future.
What’s New in the Second Edition:
An Introduction to Ecological Economics, Second Edition can be used in an introductory undergraduate or graduate course; requires no prior knowledge of mathematics, economics, or ecology; provides a unified understanding of natural and human-dominated ecosystems; and reintegrates the market economy within society and the rest of nature.
Link to the book is available here.
By Richard D. Wolff |2015, Democracy at Work
The crisis that erupted in 2007 continues to inflict immense and uneven costs on modern society. "Recovery" becomes yet another luxury that bypasses the vast majorities in capitalist nations. The articles and essays gathered in Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown 2010-2014 explore the specifics of the deepening crisis as they became clear, caught the public’s attention, or defined a particular historic moment. The organization of the essays, at once topical but also chronological, seeks to enable readers to grasp the crisis as a moving, evolving stage in capitalism’s history. See attached Table of Contents. The book serves all interested readers and also makes a great companion to any introductory or advanced course covering economics or the study of contemporary capitalism.
Link to the e-Book is available here.
Edited by Susan J. Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber | 2015, Brill
Since the late-1990s much of Latin America has experienced an uneven and contradictory turn to the Left in the electoral arena. At the same time, there has been a rejuvenation of Marxist critiques of political economy. Drawing on the expertise of Latin American, North American, and European scholars, this volume offers cutting-edge theoretical explorations of trends in the region, as well as in-depth case studies of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela. Essays in the volume focus on changes to class formation in Latin America and offer new insights into the state-form, exploring the complex relationship between state and market in contexts of late capitalist development, particularly in countries endowed with incredible natural resource wealth.
Contributors are: Dario Azzellini, Emilia Castorina, Mariano Féliz, Juan Grigera, Nicolas Grinberg, Gabriel Hetland, Claudio Katz, Thomas Purcell, Ben Selwyn, Susan J. Spronk, Guido Starosta, Leandro Vergara-Camus, and Jeffery R. Webber.
Link to the book is available here.
Edited by Susan McHargue Dadres, Mona S. Hersh-Cochran, and David J. Molina | 2015, University Libraries
Adam Smith published in 1759 and established the ethical foundation for (1776) as well as the important role played by custom and fashion in shaping behaviors and outcomes. Kendall P. Cochran believed in Smith’s emphasis on value-driven analysis and seeking solutions to major problems of the day. Cochran believed that economists moved too far in the direction of analysis free of words like ought and should and devoted his career to establishing that economics is a moral science.
A recent study by two Harvard professors, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, (2010), asserted that healthy economic growth and high levels of government debt are incompatible. These conclusions are associated with the austerity movement, which calls for policymakers to reduce government spending in order to reduce the government’s debt and improve long-term growth prospects. The austerity movement has been used to justify the sharp decline in public sector employment that has restrained job growth since the recession of 2007.
In 2013, a graduate student named Thomas Herndon discovered an error in the calculations of Reinhart and Rogoff, publishing his findings in a paper co-authored by his professors, called "Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogoff." These findings call the entire austerity movement into question, causing many to reconsider the current obsession with reducing the government debt during a time of economic stagnation. Cochran would have held a celebration to toast Herndon and his professors for their work, not only for the sake of technical accuracy, but also because the policy prescriptions associated with the austerity movement are misguided and harmful to the unemployed and underemployed during times of economic hardship.
Cochran’s articles are significant at this time because he is able to argue persuasively that economists have a moral obligation to provide policy recommendations that are consistent with a social agenda of fairness and opportunity. While many agree with Adam Smith that individuals are motivated by self-interest, it does not follow that any action or policy that promotes an individual’s self-interest is therefore worthwhile or beneficial from society’s perspective. If a person is handsomely rewarded for placing a bomb in the city center, does the potential gain for that individual justify the harm to society? Cochran makes an eloquent case that economists must identify instances in which government policy can and should be used to protect and promote society’s well-being.
Link to the book is available here (free pdf).
By Ángel Rodriguez, Jorge Turmo Arnal and Oscar Vara Crespo | 2014, Pickering & Chatto Book Series
The global financial crisis of 2008 was largely unpredicted. If economic theory has a role to play in predicting future catastrophes then the methods we rely on need to change. The authors of this study propose a new theory of economics based on more detailed understanding of how and why people behave as they do within their environment. This anthropological approach uses the strengths of many existing economic theories, including Keynesian and Austrian economics, to present a new framework for anticipating and averting the financial crises of the future.
Link to the book is available here.
By Jan Rehmann | 2015, Brill
Basing his research on Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, Rehmann provides a comprehensive socio-analysis of Max Weber’s political and intellectual position in the ideological network of his time. Max Weber: Modernisation as Passive Revolution shows that, even though Weber presents his science as ‘value-free’, he is best understood as an organic intellectual of the bourgeoisie, who has the mission of providing his class with an intense ethico-political education. Viewed as a whole, his writings present a new model for bourgeois hegemony in the transition to ‘Fordism’. Weber is both a sharp critic of a ‘passive revolution’ in Germany tying the bourgeois class to the interests of the agrarian class, and a proponent of a more modern version of passive revolution, which would foreclose a socialist revolution by the construction of an industrial bloc consisting of the bourgeoisie and labour aristocracy.
Link to the book is available here.
By Gianfranco Tusset | 2014, Pickering & Chatto Book Series
Can money improve economic organization? Between 1909 and 1917, Gustavo Del Vecchio, an Italian economist, developed a ‘theory of circulation’. In a series of articles he set out his thoughts on the utility and value of money, credit, discount rates, banking and international payments. Tusset re-evaluates Del Vecchio’s theory, concluding that money represents a technology which organizes both economy and society.
Link to the book is available here.
By Francisco Fernández Buey. Translated by Nicholas Gray | 2015, Brill
Reading Gramsci is a collection of essays by Francisco Fernández Buey with a unifying theme: the enduring relevance of Gramsci’s political, philosophical and personal reflections for those who wish to understand and transform ‘the vast and terrible world’ of capital. Reading Gramsci is of considerable biographical and philosophical interest for scholars and partisans of communism alike.
Fernández Buey distils Gramsci’s intimate thinking on the relation between love and revolutionary engagement from Gramsci’s personal correspondence; he reveals how Gramsci draws on both Marxism and Machiavellianism in order to formulate his conception of politics as a collective ethics; he retraces the trajectory of Gramsci’s thinking in the Prison Notebooks, and elucidates Gramsci’s reflections on the relation between language and politics.
Link to the book is available here.
By José Cademartori, Felipe Correa & Jan Cademartori | 2014, Editorial USACH
Full employment: myth or something achieved in the past in different countries and circumstances? Unemployment: how do we define it? Does globalization mean more and better jobs? Do our official statistics reflect unemployment in its new forms as precarious, unstable or transitory work? This book attempts to clarify this and other questions related to unemployment. Its evolution, in recent decades, its causes and consequences, its favourite victims in the developed capitalist countries, in China, in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe, Latin America and especially in Chile, is analysed. For the non-specialized reader, a summary with the main theories developed from right and left wing economists is provided. Are there always the same explanations everywhere? What political consequences has unemployment had for unions, companies and governments? Finally, solutions from the conservative and liberal points of view are discussed. In this book, three economists from three different generations summarize and explain in simple terms academic bibliography, international and governmental reports, press articles and data bases, which complete and actualize to this times of global crisis, the writings that José Cademartori contributed at the beginning of the nineties.
Link to the book is available here.
By Luigino Bruni and Alessandra Smerilli | 2015, Routledge
This book looks at the governance of values-based organizations (VBOs), which are organizations with a mission and identity based on ideals. Examples of VBOs include non-profit organizations, charities, NGOs, environmental, educational or cultural organizations, and social enterprises. The main objective of any VBO is to evolve and grow without losing its identity, which its survival is linked to in the medium and long terms.
The focus of this book is the study of the relational and motivational dynamics during identity crisis, using critical mass models and Hirschman’s "exit and voice" framework.
This book analyses the dynamics that arise in VBOs when the quality of the ideal deteriorates. On the basis of Hirschman’s "exit and voice" model, it analyses the factors that lead the best members – the intrinsically motivated ones who care most about the mission and ideals of the organization – to leave if their voice is ignored. We show that the possible cumulative effects caused by the "exit" of intrinsically motivated members can lead the organization to a process of deterioration.
This book offers an analysis of these phenomena, which are usually studied in sociology or political science, by using an economic approach and the language of evolutionary game theory. By combining sociological politics and economics as a theoretical tool, we create a fresh approach to explore crises in organizations.
Link to the book is available here.
Edited by Richard Westra, Dennis Badeen and Robert Albritton | 2015, Routledge
The Future of Capitalism After the Financial Crisis: The Varieties of Capitalism Debate in the Age of Austerity contains thirteen world leading political economists writing from within eight different countries who critically analyze the current crisis tendencies of capitalism both globally and in particular countries. Given the likelihood of an increasingly crisis prone future for capitalism, it is important not only to rethink capitalism in its current manifestations or varieties. It is also important to rethink research methods and conceptual frameworks in preparation for understanding an increasingly rocky future in which capitalism itself could go the way of the many species that in the past were endangered only to become extinct.
More and more titles of books and articles are suggesting that capitalism or perhaps civilization itself is endangered if we do not make radical changes in the near future. This book breaks with academic path dependency and attempts to open new vistas of political economy and of multidisciplinary analysis that are crucially important if our thought processes are to be effective in a world in jeopardy.
The varieties of capitalism (VoC) debate itself came into being as the Soviet Union unraveled. It drew in scholarship from a cross-section of Marxian and heterodox political economy. The key argument of VoC was that if capitalism was the only global option then those on the Left must get involved in policy discussions on how capitalist economies can be fashioned to become competitive as well as progressive. However, the financial crisis has seen policy across the advanced economies veer toward competitiveness coupled with austerity. The lesson for the Left is that alternatives to capitalism must be sought in the here and now.
Link to the book is available here.
By Anton N. Oleinik | 2014, Pickering & Chatto Book Series
This is an innovative study of the techniques of domination, based on financial markets, judicial systems, academia and international relations, across North America and post-Soviet Russia. Building on Weber’s theory of a constellation of interests and Commons’s work on transactions, Oleinik focuses on the existence and influence of gate keepers, those with the power to limit entry to a particular transaction, such as judges, market regulators, reviewers and academics. Ultimately, he seeks to provide an alternative to mainstream economic analyses of power.
Link to the book is available here.
By Stavros Tombazos | 2015, Haymarket Books
Time in Marx demonstrates that the basic concepts of the three volumes of Capital come under different categories of time: "time of production" in volume one is linear, “time of circulation” in the second is circular, while in the third volume “organic time” is the unity of the two. Capitalist relations emerge as a definite organization of social time that obeys its own intrinsic criteria and operates as an autonomous, social subject.
Link to the book is available here.
2 fully funded PhD studentships are available in the multi-disciplinary Centre for the Study of Decision Making Uncertainty, partly funded by INET.
The University College London (UCL) has recently been ranked overall number 1 university in the UK for research.
The following are current priorities for such PH.D studentships available from September 1 2015:
Application Process:
Interested applicants should submit a CV with the names of two referees and a letter indicating the nature of their interest and suitability and the approach they might take to one or more of the projects to: d.tuckett@ucl.ac.uk.
More details can be found here.
GDAE Research Fellow Jeronim Capaldo’s analysis of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has continued to influence public debates at the highest level. National Parliaments in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, as well as the European Parliament discussed Capaldo’s alternative projections of TTIP’s effects. He was also invited to present his analysis at an expert meeting held by the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. In his October GDAE Working Paper, Capaldo showed that influential analyses of TTIP rely strongly on several questionable assumptions and that, once these are removed, net losses of incomes and employment appear as likely outcomes. Most recently, Capaldo summarized his analysis in a Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) Economic Policy Viewpoint, a publication widely read by EU officials.
China-Latin America Round-Up
In Depth AnalysisMaria Helena dos Santos Andre: Thank you Greece
Link to the Newsletter is available here.
Link to the full article in the Washington Post is available here.
One of the victims of the assault on the Parisian satire magazin "Charlie Hebdo" on January 7 2015 was the economist and historian of economic thought Bernard Maris. Please find here a link to tribute to Bernard Maris by Karim Errouaki.
Dear friends,
A quick note to let you know that ROKE has now been indexed by Thomson Reuters. This is quite an accomplishment after only 2 years of existence. Indeed, in being informed of this, I have been told that it is extremely rare for a journal to be indexed before the 5th year. I was told the strong scholarship was a key factor, and that the journal held 'considerable promise'. We could not be happier
In turn, this will help us now to get ranked in various countries. I hope you will contribute to the next phase of success by sending us your next paper. We would very much like to consider it for publication.
Spread the word.
Thank you.
Louis-Philippe Rochon
Associate Professor - Laurentian University
Founding co-editor - Review of Keynesian Economics
Co-editor - New Directions in Post-Keynesian Economics - an Edward Elgar book series
INET grantee - The Political Economy of the New Fiscalism
The 24 of November was an important day for the economists at the University of Greenwich, when four programmes in economics offered by the Department of International Business and Economics -BSc (Hons) Economics, BSc (Hons) Economics with Banking, BA (Hons) Business Economics and BA (Hons) Economics with Language-were successfully reviewed. Every day all over the country undergraduate programmes get reviewed and revalidated. Our revised programmes, however, are different or so we hope. Why so, you may ask? The revised programmes were commended for “the enthusiasm and development of new material by the teaching team, showing a flexible and responsive approach to the current environment, as well as taking a leading role in the sector”. That is, they were praised for leading changes in the way economics is taught. The last seven years have not been easy for the global economy as well as the teaching of economics. The recent financial crisis and the Great Recession have led many economists, non-economists and students in economics to question the state of the discipline, wondering to what extent it provides the necessary tools to interpret the complex world we live in, signalling a deep dissatisfaction with economists’ ability to provide solutions to real world problems. Employers have recognised that the economics graduates that the standard curriculum generates are not equipped with the skills that the real world requires. Likewise, students themselves have recognised that the tools and theories they learn don’t enable them to make sense of the world they live in, let alone to address and solve real world problems. The need for a pluralistic approach to the teaching of economics, the need to teach real world economics that better helps to understand and act in the world we live in, the urgency to integrate some of the burning issues of our time such as ecological sustainability to the curriculum all emerged from the debate as crucial aspects. We are grateful to Rethinking Economics, International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics, and Post-Crash Economics Societies in Manchester and elsewhere for stimulating our debate.
The University of Greenwich revalidation constitutes one of the first institutional responses to current pressures from students, faculty, employers and policy makers to produce more ‘world-ready’ graduates. In redesigning our economics programmes we – the economics programmes team - have decided to:
In particular, the rationale for the introduction of Economic History and History of Economic Thought courses is that students should be made aware of what has happened in the sphere of economics, more or less in the order that it happened. This will help them place the economic ideas and theories they come across in all courses into an historical context, to form their own opinion by reading the original texts, e.g. by Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Schumpeter, and Keynes, and hopefully develop an understanding of economics as the result of a dynamic social process including controversy, conflict, and social change. However, we do not isolate the development of a pluralistic perspective to only a few courses, but rather integrate it in all our courses by approaching real world problems from the perspective of different theories, both old and contemporary, comparing, contrasting, or at times synthesising them. This should help the students to develop a critical perspective towards current economic theories and evolving economic events, and develop an understanding about the limitations of theories and models (for example, what happens out of equilibrium), and think more widely about the historical, institutional and political context of economic behaviour and policies. The work of a diverse body of research active lecturers informs our teaching.
Our understanding of pluralism does not only include different schools of thought and disciplines, but also methodologies. Our new programmes encourage going beyond Quantitative Methods. We encourage the use of case studies, qualitative research methods, as well as a multitude of different quantitative methods including but not limited to econometrics. E.g. we pride ourselves for having the biggest research centre in Social Network Analysis (SNA) in Europe, and I, among others, use the approach and methodology of SNA in teaching economics.
The ability to think critically also requires the ability to analyse empirical evidence, and this is why we have restructured our Quantitative Methods courses to strengthen students’ ability to identify, access and use relevant data sources to analyse current economic problems and form an independent opinion in the public debate, and to be critical about the way data is supplied and used. Finally, we care about developing the ability of our students to communicate economic ideas clearly and in a non-technical fashion to a wide variety of audiences, because economics should not be a cryptic language accessible only to an elite group of economists, but rather belong to the society.
All in all we have tried to contribute towards a better teaching, learning and use of economics, and we hope to see more of this in the future, around the country and the world.
Sara Gorgoni
University of Greenwich, Department of International Business and Economics, Programme Leader