Issue 155 May 09, 2015 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory
Within the last weeks I have found that the combination of newsletter-editing and busy-conference-travelling is disturbingly pressing. While I seriously hope that this is only a casual observation and no first sign pointing to an "iron law of newsletter editing", it was worth all the efforts and I spent a great time at both, the annual conference of EAEPE in Paris as well as the Hamburg congress on pluralist economics.
The latter conference was held in German and organized by a network of pluralistically oriented groups of students, which has been constantly growing with respect to size and expertise over the last few years. You can find their (German) website here, in case you are interested in their work. The activities of these students are paralleled by their colleagues from Manchester, who managed to ignite a debate on the narrow-minded state of economics. The respective discussion even reached national (UK) media, as is evidenced by the respective entry in our "Heterodox Economics in the Media"-section. It is great to see that real-world economics matters – at least to students. So, keep up the good work!
Another sign of progress comes in the form of the current subscription count of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter, which now totals more than 5.000 subscribers. However, while this is surely good news, the main task of the Newsletter is to supply rather specialized information on academic events and current research. While the newsletter only rarely directly contributes to increasing the visibility of alternative economic thinking in the general public, I am particularly happy to see www.understandingthecrisis.net finally online. This website compiles and visualizes a series of arguments on the current economic crisis. Its main goal in is to tell an alternative story about the crisis as compared to what we are told by Mainstream Media. I think this tool could be an interesting asset for promoting a critical approach to economic theory and policy in the context of the financial and economic crisis. If you like it, please feel free to share it, maybe also outside academic circles.
In sum, there are some good news to tell. And even more news are provided below.
All the Best!
Jakob
© public domain
29-31 May 2014 | University of Lausanne, Switzerland
The 18th ESHET Conference will take place in Lausanne, 29-31 May 2014. It will be organized by the Centre d'études interdisciplinaires Walras-Pareto of the University of Lausanne.
Proposals for papers of sessions on all aspects of the history of economic thought are welcome. An abstract of about 400 words for a paper and 600 words for a session should be submitted on this conference website.
Deadline for submission: January 13th, 2014.
Note that: a) already published papers are not eligible for submission; b) only one conference presentation is allowed per person (but more than one submission may be accepted, if involving co-authors who are also presenting); c) session proposals must conform with the normal conference-sessions format (3 papers, 90 min.) and must provide their own discussants.
Particularly welcome are proposals of papers and sessions that fall into the ESHET 2014 Conference theme:
Liberalisms: perspectives and debates in the history of economic thought
The assertion of liberal principles and values and the crystallization of economic discourse both took place in the 17th and 18th centuries century. This common origin crossed over the history of ideas and extended in intertwined relationships that translated into many semantic and theoretical evolutions. Despite those long debates and controversies, the ‘liberal’ label is still far from being a well-defined notion, in particular in economic thought. Its numerous denominations – 18th century ‘liberté du commerce’, classical liberalism, Paretian liberalism, Austrian liberalism, Kantian liberalism, Benthamite liberalism, neoliberalism, paternalistic liberalism, ordoliberalism, etc. – are an illustration of its polysemic nature.
The organizers invite proposals that focus on the debates that have crossed liberal thought, and the changes experienced by it.
Participants are also welcome to address additional transversal questions, such as:
Further information concerning the Conference are available here.
18-20 June 2014 | Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin, Ireland
Proposed IPEG panel(s), BISA 2014. Organised by Elizabeth Cotton, Phoebe Moore, Hironori Onuki
The panel(s) will addresses whether global governance is in crisis, specifically focusing on the social relations of production and reproduction. How far and in what ways has the contemporary global recession shaped corporate and state powers in governing the labour markets and employment relations? How have power dynamics under the global economic crisis impacted the everyday and everynight lives and corporeality of workers, labouring in different industrial and cognitive sectors and positioned differently in the flexiblised and stratified labour markets? For instance, management techniques recently utilized or endorsed by corporate power to measure working time have alienated workers from their product as well as from one another. This has been seen in care work and reproductive labour, home-working, rewritten workload models, the intimacy and narcissism of production and living as seen in the use of mobile technologies, self-tracking, self-archiving, new performance targets, and more.Such capital-driven regulation of work is matched with neoliberal policy reforms – e.g. the rise in anti-union legislation, the revival of temporary migrant worker programmes and in the workplace, workload intensification and new measures of work – that have simultaneously constrained the rights of workers. Here, the post-autonomous literature concerned with the concepts of cognitive/immaterial/affective labour in post-Fordist capitalism highlights the global expansion and diversification of insecure employment. Not limited to such an intervention but drawing on a broad range of critical theoretical approaches, this panel aims to explore whether the current global crisis urges us to develop “new” ontological/epistemological frameworks in order to comprehend the current conditions of work.
PAPER SUBMISSIONS
Paper titles and short descriptions of your contributing proposed paper.-Complete details i.e. your title, affiliation, work address, phone number, email address.-Please submit this information to norizo3@hotmail.com and p.moore@mdx.ac.uk by 17 November 2013.
CONFERENCE AND PROPOSAL INFORMATION
The British International Studies Association is very pleased to announced that the Call for Paper, Panel and Roundtable proposals for the 2014 Annual Conference is now open.
11-12 September 2014 | Nottingham University, UK
Two-day workshop hosted by the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) and the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Politics (CCCP) at Nottingham University/UK, 11 – 12 September 2014.
Chinese development is widely considered to be an example of successful developmental catch-up with double-digit growth rates year on year. Some even talk of an emerging power, which may in time replace the US as the global economy’s hegemon. And yet, there is a dark underside to this ‘miracle’ in the form of workers’ long hours and widespread super exploitative working conditions. This has resulted in increasing inequality and rising levels of industrial conflict across China.
The purpose of this workshop is twofold: (1) to assess the way China has been integrated into the global economy to understand better the basis of these economic growth rates, but also to investigate how the exploitative working conditions are linked into global production structures; and (2) to analyse new forms of resistance be it through the state trade union All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), be it through informal labour NGOs. The latter also implies analyses of links between Chinese formal and informal labour organisations with national and international, formal and informal labour organisations outside China.
The workshop intends to reach beyond academia and facilitate discussions between academics and trade union researchers as well as social movement activists. Hence, we invite papers by all three groups in the following areas:
Confirmed speakers include Prof. Anita Chen (Australian National University), Dr. Eli Friedman (Cornell University), Prof. Jane Hardy (University of Hertfordshire), Dr. Huang Yan (South China Normal University), War on Want (labour NGO based in London), Laowei (labour law firm based in Shenzhen, China) and Paul Mason, the Culture and Digital Editor of Channel 4 News, who will provide the public keynote lecture.
Paper proposals of ca. 250 words should be sent to Chun-Yi.Lee@nottingham.ac.uk by 10 January 2014. There is no registration fee for the workshop and all participants will be provided with coffee/tea breaks, two lunches and one evening dinner free of charge.
This workshop is financially supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the project on Globalisation, national transformation and workers’ rights: An analysis of Chinese labour within the global economy (ESRC Standard Grant: RES-062-23-2777, £275k).
9-10 October 2014 | University of Strasbourg, France
The 2nd International Conference “Economic Philosophy” will be held at the University of Strasbourg from 9th to 10th October 2014. This conference is organized by the Bureau d’Economie Théorique et Appliquée (BETA, UMR 7522 of CNRS).
This international conference will host sessions on the theme “Oneself and the Other”, but any paper or session which addresses the Philosophy of Economics is welcome.
The Philosophy of Economics primarily considers the economic agent as a moral subject. Economics, however, has long overlooked the agent’s moral—that is to say, reasonable— dimension, to focus instead on the strictly rational. The economic agent refers to “himself” (herself) in terms of his desire and passions, yet also refers to others besides himself. For the rational economic agent, what is the nature of this relationship with the Other? And should it not be understood as undergoing a transformation once we come to consider the economic agent as a reasonable being? Through what process does the Other pass from being an instrument at the disposal of a rational agent to being an end in itself for a moral subject? In other words, how does another become “anOther”?
In the act of producing, the economic agent has friends, masters and subordinates. The acts of exchanging, sharing and borrowing all involve partners. When an economic agent consumes, through the use of goods and services, he depends on other agents of the same kind. Could we claim, then, that in each of these actions there is an encounter with the Other? And would such an encounter not imply, moreover, an acknowledgment of the Other as “my equal”, irrespective of how different they may be? Deprived of the qualities of a moral subject, is the economic agent defined by Economics in a manner sufficient to be seen as a consciousness capable of discovering something within himself, or as a subjectivity capable of experiencing the pain of envy?
Such questions, with which current research is increasingly concerned, lead us to consider the philosophical dimensions of the science of Economics—they lead us, in other words, towards a re-examination of certain fundamental notions, and to a re-reading of certain great authors. It is precisely the study of these notions and these authors which the Colloquium on the Philosophy of Economics invites you to join. Presentations could address the following themes:
PROPOSALS FOR PAPERS/SESSIONS
Proposals for papers in the form of abstracts of approximately 500 words, in French or English, must be submitted no later than January 31st, 2014 via the website of the conference.
Proposals for complete sessions are also welcome; they should contain a title, a summary of each of the proposed papers, and the name of the session chair (3 papers per session).
DEADLINES
January 31st, 2014: submission deadline
March 31st, 2014: notification to applicants August 31st, 2014: full paper submission deadline
A selection of papers will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Contact: colloque-philoeco@unistra.fr
By proposing to explore the political economy of corporate governance, the Special Issue seeks to foreground how agency theory becomes prescriptive by soliciting a very specific idea of the corporation and corporate governance that foregrounds the primacy of shareholder value. Agency theory here is framed as a theoretical program that pushes a specific distribution of wealth and becomes the most prominent propagator of neoliberal politics (Harvey, 2005; Ireland, 2009; Peck, 2010). The dominance of this prescriptive theory over corporate governance research and practice provides every reason to question both the ‘is’ and the ‘ought’ of corporate governance as an emerging discipline (Friedman, 1953).
To this end, we ask for contributions, from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective, which critically analyse the ideas, values and ideologies that inform notions of corporate governance. We welcome contributions from within the broad study of corporate governance – e.g. from organization studies, sociology, accounting and finance, legal theory, economics, political theory – with an emphasis on the political economy of corporate governance, addressing topics such as:
The deadline for contributions is the 31st of December 2013.
All contributions should be submitted to one of the issue editors. Please note that three categories of contributions are invited for the special issue: articles, notes and reviews. Please contact any of the editors with your ideas especially to propose a note or review for the issue, or a contribution of any other format.
All Information about the Special Issue here
All submissions should follow ephemera’s submissions guidelines
10-12 September 2014 | Universidad Nacional de Educacion, Madrid
THE THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES (ENPOSS)
Keynote Speakers:
Margaret Gilbert (University of California, Irvine)
Uskali Mäki (University of Helsinki)
CALL FOR PAPERS
The European Network for the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (ENPOSS) invites contributions to its 3rd Conference to be held in Madrid in September of 2014, and organised by UNED. Contributions from all areas within the philosophy of the social sciences are encouraged. Moreover, contributions from both philosophers and social scientists are welcome. Only one contribution per person will be considered.
Contributions can be either of individual papers orof special-theme symposia, and they must be submitted through EasyChair
For individual paper submissions, an abstract between 800 and 1000 words suitably prepared for blind reviewing should be submitted.
For submission of symposia, comprising 3 to 4 papers, a single document for each symposium must be uploaded. It must contain the title of the symposium, the name of the organiser(s), the names of all the authors and titles of their papers, a general abstract of the symposium (between 400 and 500 words), plus an abstract of each single paper (between 500 and 600 words each ).
Each submission, whether of an individual paper or a symposium, will be blindly reviewed by two members of the Scientific Committee.
CONFERENCE HOMEPAGE:
For more information about the Conference and ENPOSS, see this link.
PUBLICATION:
Selected papers from the Conference will be published in an annual special issue of the journal Philosophy of the Social Sciences
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Jesús Zamora Bonilla: jpzb@fsof.uned.es
21-24 May 2014 | Gediz University, Izmir, Turkey
Critical studies of security and finance have been marked by three analogous and partly parallel phenomena: 1) the enormous influence of the analytic of performativity; 2) a turn to the imaginary/ virtual, either in the primacy of the virtual over the ‘real’ associated with the process of financialisation, or warfare regimes based on cyber technology and scenario-planning and 3) in both areas, processes of securitisation have been seen as inseparable from processes of insecuritisation.
This workshop seeks to interrogate the ‘special’ yet contingent relationship of security and finance in the light of these developments that have in part been associated with a new paradigm of uncertainty, following the discipline-marking events of 9/11 and the global financial crisis. This paradigm of future governance expresses new understandings of territory and time, which have implications for legitimate governance structures. But it has also led to techniques of threat enactment, scenario-planning and stress-testing increasingly replacing or supplementing the normal distribution as predictor of the future.
What do these common features of security and finance tell us about the episteme of our time? How does the performativity literature in both fields relate to each other and how does it relate to the performance of narratives and fictions? Can performativity both account for and criticise power? Can it theorise limits to knowledge and failure? What role is there in performativity for ‘social relations’? What insights does a comparative analysis of these common phenomena yield for understanding the changing nature of security/ finance interstices? How do they redefine, rationalise and govern the line between the real and the virtual?
Indication of paper topics:
We invite both theoretical contributions and empirical-based studies and welcome an engagement, even if tentative, with both discourses of security and finance:
Submission:
Please upload your abstract of 250 words here by 15 December 2013. Notifications about the selection process will be sent out on 20 January 2014. Successful applicants are asked to submit a paper of 4000-6000w by 1 May 2014. Work in progress is welcome.
For more information please go here
For any further questions please contact:
Dr. Nina Boy (nina@prio.no) or
Benjamin Wilhelm (benjamin.wilhelm@uni-erfurt.de)
16-18 September, 2014 | Naples, Italy
International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) Fifth Annual Conference in Political Economy: “The Crisis: Scholarship, Policies, Conflicts and Alternatives”
Panel proposed for IIPPE 2014 conference: Financialisation and the restructuring of production
The origins of financialisation have been traced to the 1970s. The literature has illuminated the impact of financialisation on business strategies, for example the shareholder value movement and the shift from patient to impatient capital in investment decision making. Empirical studies of these processes and phenomena, however, have failed to fully reveal their complexity, firm, sector and industry specificity, because they have predominantly been conducted at the macro level and focused upon quantitative dimensions, for example trends in dividend payments and the acquisition of financial relative to tangible assets. To fully understand the implications of financialisation on the organisation of production, empirical studies need to be extended to the level of industrial sectors and specific commodities. Contemporary studies on the productive economy and industrial organisation have focussed almost exclusively on the vertical de-integration and fragmentation of production globally and the rapid growth and consolidation of transnational corporations without consideration of the nature, impacts and consequences of financialisation on the organisation of production itself. How have financial imperatives changed relations along supply chains? How have business strategies of transnational corporations been financialised? Are there commodity or sector specificities, similarities and differences, both in the way that financialisation manifests and reorganises production? How does productive reorganisation reinforce and extend existing and new forms of financialisation? The panel seeks to explore these and related questions.
We welcome contributions from different theoretical perspectives and in particular those based on contemporary empirical analyses at the TNC, sector and commodity levels. We plan to draw from these contributions to compile a special issue for a heterodox economics journal.
Deadline for abstracts (maximum of 500 words) to be considered for the proposed panel: 1st March 2014
Please send abstracts to lynne.chester@sydney.edu.au and newman@iss.nl
Further information about the conference
12–14 June 2014 | Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
10th Convention of the Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA)
Title: Identity politics and dynamics of (dis)integration in Europe
Programme Chair: Annette Freyberg-Inan, University of Amsterdam
The 10th Convention of the CEEISA will feature a diverse set of panels organized around multiple aspects of the study of international relations. Submissions of papers, panels, and roundtables on any aspect of international relations broadly understood are welcomed and encouraged.
We particularly invite submissions in which scholars turn their focus to this year’s convention theme: “Identity politics and dynamics of (dis)integration in Europe”
A recurring theme at the heart of all politics is struggle for self-determination, at the individual and the group level. At the individual level, struggles for self-determination support drives to liberate, liberalize, and democratize polities. Self-determination here means limiting interference and repression by authorities as well as building channels through which citizens can participate in making decisions that affect their lives.
At the group level the picture becomes more complicated. Individuals experience affinities to different social groups, such as ethnic groups or nations. Group-based identification creates in-group out-group dynamics that feed social competition and, potentially, conflict. Identity politics typically are expressions of such competition, which may have deep historical roots. While group-based demands for recognition, rights, or autonomy often seem legitimate to outsiders, they can easily be seen as offensive by competing or “othering” groups, especially in times of economic and social crisis. This sets in motion social conflict with the potential of political destabilization.
Democratic polities are built on multiple social identities. This is particularly obvious in large, federal, and multi-national structures. E pluribus unum was the de facto motto of the US until 1956. Since 2000 the EU’s official motto is “United in Diversity” (In varietate concordia). Such mottos reflect what might be considered the core challenge of democratic political culture: How can group-level struggles for self-determination be evaluated, mediated, and “managed” to allow for self-expression and political agency by groups while at the same time keeping social conflict at a level non-threatening to the polity’s integrity? For the CEEISA’s 2014 convention we particularly welcome papers which reflect on empirical as well as theoretical responses to this challenge in Europe, east and west. Our location at the multicultural Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj in Transylvania is ideal for this purpose.
Conference participants are especially invited to respond to the following four “theme” questions from within their own sub-fields and research specializations:
REGISTRATION FEES
The CEEISA encourages all the participants who are not yet members of the CEEISA to join the association and enjoy the benefit of free subscription to the Journal of International Relations and Development and reduced registration fees for CEEISA Conventions. For information about CEEISA membership please visit the CEEISA website at http://www.ceeisa.org/index.php/membership.
Convention registration fee: 120 euro
Reduced registration fee for PhD students: 90 euro
Registration fee for CEEISA members: 60 euro
Reduced registration fee for PhD students who are also CEEISA members: 30 euro
PAPER/PANEL PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
To submit your paper or panel proposal, please follow the links below and fill in and submit the on-line form. You will receive a confirmation of your paper/panel submission within approx. a week.
Submit a panel proposal
Submit a paper proposal
Deadline for submissions: 1 December 2013
Notification of acceptance (by e-mail): before 1 February 2014
Should you have any questions regarding paper or panel proposals, please contact us at ceeisa2014.programme@gmail.com
Should you have any other questions regarding the upcoming conference, please contact us at secretariat@ceeisa.org
For information about the CEEISA convention, please visit the CEEISA website
Call for Papers: ‘Fair Trade’ Theme Issue 2014/02
Guest Editor: David Miller (Oxford University)
Many commentators on global economics now see trade, rather than aid, as the most effective and secure route out of poverty for developing countries. But they usually add that for this to come about, trade must be ‘fair’ to all parties. There is now a small, but rapidly growing, philosophical literature on what fair trade means, against a background of global inequality. Some look for criteria of fairness to apply within the practice of trade itself, for example, reciprocity between trading partners. Others take a wider view, and argue that trade must be assessed for its overall contribution to global justice, for example its impact on human rights. For this issue of Moral Philosophy and Politics, we invite papers that examine what states, corporations and international organizations are required to do to ensure that trade practices are not only mutually beneficial but also fair, or that contribute more abstractly to the debate about relevant principles of fairness.
Paper Submission Deadline: February 28th,2014
Papers should not exceed 8,000 words in total.Visit the journal’s manuscript submission site
Aims & Scope: Moral Philosophy and Politics (MPP) is an international, peer-reviewed journal which invites the submission of original philosophical articles on issues of public relevance. ‘Public relevance’ is to be understood in a broad sense. Of particular interest to the journal are the philosophical assessment of policy and its normative basis, analyses of the philosophical underpinnings or implications of political debate and reflection on the justice or injustice of the social and political structures which regulate human action.
MPP is committed to the ideal of clarity, evidence-based thinking and intellectual openness; interdisciplinary work and historical approaches will be considered as long as they are relevant to contemporary issues. MPP will consider publishing both theoretical and meta-ethical work as well as work concerned with conceptual problems, if such work sheds light on political, moral, economic and social issues of contemporary societies. Contributors are expected to make clear how their work relates to these issues.
The Research in Political Economy is an annual hardback book series established in 1977, with volumes advancing a critical analysis of political economy. It is a referred publication that can consider contributions up to 20,000 words, i.e., longer than for journals. Journal length submissions are equally acceptable. The Research is soliciting contributions generally. It is also undertaking active consideration for two special volumes:
"Debating the State of Political Economy"
Since the advent of classical political economy, there has been a variety of debates and commonalities among the various approaches. What are contending approaches to the dominant paradigms and how are these approaches perhaps better suited to capture the changing and complex nature of global capitalism and the varied themes and interests therein: environmental justice, gender, race and class, development, resistance movements, and the ongoing privatization of the commons under neoliberalism?
"The Political Economy of Dispossession", edited by Susanne Soederberg.
We give priority to work received by January 1, 2014. The website for the series is at here. Submissions may be sent to zarembka@buffalo.edu.
10 April 2014 | St Catharine's College, Cambridge, UK
The conference is organised by the Cambridge Trust for New Thinking in Economics.
See below for the purpose of the conference and the speakers. Full details and registration can be found here
There is a special rate for academic and not-for-profit bookings.
Purpose of conference:
The conference will be held under the aegis of the ‘The Cambridge Trust for New Thinking in Economics’ and is intended to explore further the contributions to New Thinking in Economics - ‘New Economics’ - as the new mainstream. This particular conference will focus on finance and the macroeconomics of environmental policies. New Economics is concerned with institutional behaviour, expectations and uncertainty as opposed to traditional economics with its emphasis on equilibrium, mathematical formalism and deterministic solutions. With the financial crisis brought on by the unrestrained pursuit of personal and corporate profit, sanctioned by traditional economics, this is an opportune time to establish a new way of approaching economic understanding, based on new economic theory. It is also a good time to bring forward new ideas on the approach to economic policy across a wide range of areas (for example, macroeconomic and global governance, employment and unemployment, social security and pensions, as well as environmental issues).
New thinking in economics is an interdisciplinary approach to economic problems that acknowledges and respects the insights and analysis of other disciplines, e.g. those of political science, ethics, history and engineering. It also recognises complexity and evolutionary theory as relevant to understanding economic systems and economic behaviour. We wish to emphasise the new thinking in economics that goes beyond the traditional approach, which arguably is no longer mainstream economics.
The proposed conference will concentrate on finance and the macroeconomics of environmental policies. The range of areas to be addressed in the workshop include:
14 December 2013 | Keio University, Mita Campus, Tokyo
The Third Local Meeting in AY2013 of the Society for the History of Japanese Economic Thought (SHJET)
Venue: Conference Room A (A Kaigishitsu), First Floor, Research Building (Kenkyuto)
Map of the University and the Map of Mita Campus.
Program:
Chair: SHIMADA Masakazu (Bunkyo Gakuin University) (The presentations are given in Japanese.)
We welcome anyone who is interested in the history of Japanese economic thought. Please contact me if you have questions about attending a meeting or presenting a paper (preferably in Japanese).
Visit the Website (Japanese).
I am organizing a panel on Political Economy vs. Economics at the URPE sessions at the Eastern Economic Association meetings in March next year. I am looking for brief presentations, which could be understood by undergraduates, on how political economy improves on standard economics/is necessary to understand real world phenomena.
I am a member of the URPE steering committee, with a special interest in the URPE website. We have a valuable section on class syllabi. We hope to supplement this with clearly written, relatively simple explanations of how political economy is an improvement on standard economics. (As well as other types of fact sheets.) We hope to publicize these well and attract undergraduates disaffected by standard economics and others wishing to understand more about political economy.
I am also the editor of Hunger Notes www.worldhunger.org. Fact sheets have worked very well for Hunger Notes, helping to explain complex phenomena to a broad audience, and is an important reason why I am trying to promote their development for URPE. Hunger Notes has six fact sheets and in total they were viewed by over 600,000 people last year. The HN fact sheet that is most similar to political economy is Harmful Economic Systems as a Cause of Hunger and Poverty.
Some types of topics (certainly not all) that would be worthwhile:
Please send me an email if you are interested in participating in the panel. My email address is lvanderslice@verizon.net. Thanks!
Lane Vanderslice
Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa" is pleased to announce upcoming seminars organised in collaboration with Dipartimento di Economia, Roma Tre University.
Thursday 28 November 2013, h. 14:30, room 11
Bertram Schefold (Goethe University, Frankfurt)
Profits equal surplus value on average and the significance of this result for the Marxian theory of accumulation. A new contribution to Engels' Prize Essay Competition, based on random matrices and on manuscripts recently published in the MEGA for the first time.
Friday 29 November 2013, h. 14:30, room 11
Anwar Shaikh (New School for Social Research)
A New Phillips Curve: Wages, Productivity and Unemployment in the US, 1947-2012
In Phillips’ original investigation we can distinguish between his general question and his particular answer. His general question was about the effects of unemployment on wages. His particular answer was posed in terms of an empirical relation between the rate of change of money wages and the level (and rate of change) of unemployment. It is well known that the latter relation dissolved over time. In my paper, I argue that the appropriate answer to Phillips’ general question requires us to consider the money wage in relation to prices, productivity and unemployment. Goodwin famously posited a real-wage Phillips curve, and Friedman-Phelps posited an expected-real-wage curve. I argue that the classical answer to Phillips’ question would be a wage-share curve. I also argue that any appropriate measure of unemployment must take into account both the level and duration of unemployment. On this basis, I demonstrate that there exists a strong and clearly visible wage-share curve in the US along which the economy moves upward when it is pumped up (as in the Vietnam War boom and the Dot.com bubble) and downward as the booms fade. I show that this curve shifts only once, downward precisely in face of an onslaught on labor beginning with Reagan in the early 1980s. Most interestingly, a wage-share curve implies that the wage share is stable only at one particular level of the duration-adjusted unemployment rate. The trigger unemployment rate is lowered from 5.9 percent in the 1948-1984 era to 4.2 percent in the neoliberal era of 1993-2011 (i.e. after the reduction of labor strength it takes a much tighter labor market to begin raising the wage share). It should be added that none of this need imply any particular connection between inflation and the trigger rate of unemployment.
Please, go to www.centrosraffa.org for the complete list of seminars and events at Centro Sraffa. For further information, please write at the address: centro.sraffa@uniroma3.it
26 November 2013, | Cedeplar/UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
The Research Group on Intellectual History and the History of Economic Ideas at Cedeplar/UFMG and the Center for Latin American Studies at UFMG are promoting the seminar “The History of Economic Thought in Latin America”. The event is part of the preparations for the 2014 Latin American Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET), which will take place at Cedeplar/UFMG.
Program:
3–3:30 p.m.: Opening Address
3:30–5:30 p.m.: Roundtable: Latin American Economic Debates
Chair: Alexandre Mendes Cunha (Cedeplar/UFMG)
5:30–6 p.m.: Coffee Break
6–8 p.m.: Roundtable: Historiographical Perspectives
Chair: Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak (Cedeplar/UFMG)
The seminar will be held at the UFMG School of Economics (FACE)
For more information, please visit this Website.
January 30th - February 7th | Kemmy Business School of the University of Limerick, Ireland
Macro-modeling: Fully Scalable models
If you are a highly motivated student of economics at masters or Ph.D. level, or you are working with a research center or a public institution and want to spend one week studying, researching, discussing, and exchanging experiences in the nice atmosphere of an Irish University campus nurtured by international experts and fellow students from all around the world, our winter school offers you 7 working days of lectures, seminars, and labs on Stock-Flow Consistent and Agent Based approaches. For more information, visit the Website.
January 2, 2014 | La Salle University Philadelphia, USA
Facilitator: Geoffrey Schneider, Professor of Economics, Director of Bucknell University Teaching & Learning Center
Date: Monday, January 2, 2014, 11:00am-5:00pm
Location: La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA
Registration Fee: $50. To register, send your name, contactinformation, and a check for $50 payable to:
Teaching and Learning Center; Bertrand Library; Bucknell University; 1Dent Drive, Lewisburg, PA 17837
Note that you must submit the $50 registration fee to be guaranteed a spot in the workshop—space is limited and will be allocated on afirst-come first-served basis. Lunch, snacks and coffee are included in the registration fee.
Scholarships: Scholarships are available for graduate students and foruntenured faculty who do not have financial assistance to attend theworkshop. Scholarships in the amount of $125 are available to coverworkshop registration and expenses related to attending the workshop(lodging, travel). These scholarships are being provided by heterodoxorganizations, including URPE, AFEE, AFIT, and ASE, to their members.A few scholarships are available to unaffiliated graduate studentsthanks to support from the Heterodox Economics Newsletter. To applyfor a scholarship, please register for the workshop and include inyour submission a letter of application including your name, emailaddress, reason for requesting a scholarship, employment status (yearin graduate school and expected date of completion, or year andlocation of employment) and whether or not you are a member of any ofthe heterodox associations listed above. Preference will be given tograduate students in their last two years of graduate school andvisiting or untenured professors. Note that those receiving ascholarship will receive a check for $125 upon completion of theworkshop, but no funds will be available prior to that point.
Overview: Most heterodox economists today end up working at teaching-oriented institutions. Thus, our success in the academy oftendepends significantly on our ability to teach successfully. This workshop is structured for heterodox graduate students and new faculty to give them a comprehensive background in advanced pedagogical techniques and strategies that will help them succeed in the classroom. Drawing on the latest pedagogical research, the workshopwill cover constructing and meeting learning objectives, syllabusdesign, assessment, models for pluralistic teaching, active andcollaborative learning techniques, and teaching controversial topics.
10:30-11:00 Check in; Pick up materials; Initial workshop activity
I. Course design (11:00)
Designing first day activities: establishing Customs, Connections,Community and Curiosity
The first day of class sets the tone for the whole semester, and it isan opportunity to begin building the kind of classroom environmentthat you want. Participants will engage in a group activity modelinggood first day activities, discuss best practices, and work onconstructing their own activity that connects with their coursematerial and that facilitates productive classroom interactions.
Constructing sophisticated, assessable learning objectives for anengaging, well-organized course
Often the first thing that tenure and job search committees look at isyour syllabus and its learning objectives. A well-organized coursecontains a coherent focus with sophisticated course-level learningobjectives. Learning objectives should include the big ideas of thecourse, they should define what students should learn to do (e.g.,solve a particular type of problem; understand the economic issues ina newspaper) and at what depth students should understand things. Acourse should also be broken down into objectives for majorassignments which can be assessed. Participants will hear about bestpractices in constructing learning objectives and will construct somefor their courses.
Course rules vs. a Welcoming Syllabus
We are often told that a syllabus is our “contract” with the students.If we don’t have an iron-clad syllabus, we open ourselves up tostudents taking advantage of us. But many syllabi are lifeless andhectoring, written for the few bad apples instead of the many goodstudents. We’ll work on creating a welcoming syllabus that alsoprotects us from problem students. We’ll also consider designing asyllabus that serves as a useful study guide for students. This isimportant for pedagogical purposes and because constructing awelcoming syllabus can be quite useful for the job market and for thetenure process.
Meeting learning objectives: exams, papers and assignments thatfacilitate learning
We all use exams, papers, assignments and other techniques forassessing how well students meet our learning objectives, but they canbe dry and formulaic. We will work on constructing exams andassignments that actually help students learn material, and designrubrics and test blueprints to facilitate learning, to make gradingeasier and more systematic, and to satisfy departmental assessmentrequirements.
Models for pluralistic teaching and teaching controversial topics
Teaching heterodox material in the classroom can be complicated inthat we sometimes face hostile colleagues or students. There aredifferent methods for teaching heterodox economics, such as aheterodox-focused course, a multi-paradigmatic approach, or animplicitly pluralistic approach to the subject matter. Each of thesecomes with different opportunities and challenges. We will discuss thevarious approaches and determine which one suits our teachingenvironment and our personal style. We will also explore some classicstrategies for teaching material that may seem quite controversial tomany students. It is important for heterodox economists to framematerial so that they are seen as open-minded and fair.
II. Roundtable: Teaching environments facing pluralistic economists(2:00, over lunch)
Invited guest speakers talk about their experiences teaching heterodoxeconomics. Panelists will include: Paddy Quick, St. Francis College,and others.
Roundtable participants will offer advice for new teachers ofheterodox economics. They will discuss the challenges they have facedas teachers, both from colleagues and from students, and share some oftheir most effective teaching strategies. After the panelists finishbrief presentations, we will have an open discussion.
III. Classroom interactions (3:00)
Active Learning Techniques for Economics Classes
At teaching institutions today, the focus is on active,student-centered learning. We will focus on some classic activelearning techniques to make the classroom more lively and to getstudents more engaged in the course material.
Collaborative Learning Exercises for Economics Classes
Some of the most exciting and innovative classroom exercises involvecollaborative learning. During this part of the workshop, participantswill learn about and experience collaborative learning exercisesdesigned for use in economics classes. They will begin adapting somecutting edge collaborative learning techniques for their own classes.
5:00 Wrap Up and Workshop Evaluation
About the workshop leader: Geoffrey Schneider received a BA from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. from the University of NorthCarolina, Chapel Hill. He is currently a Professor of Economics andDirector of the Teaching and Learning Center at Bucknell University. He has co-authored two textbooks, Introduction to Political Economy and Economics: A Tool for Critically Understanding Society, andauthored or co-authored articles in the Journal of Economic Issues,The Review of Social Economy, The Review of Radical Political Economics, The Forum for Social Economics, and Feminist Economics. Heis an award-winning teacher, author of several articles on pedagogy,and guest editor of two special issues of the Forum for SocialEconomics on Teaching Heterodox Economics.
Title/Position: Research Analyst, Family Economic Security
The National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University is recruiting a Research Analyst for its Family Economic Security (FES) unit to work in the center’s New York City office. The Research Analyst will support NCCP’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of programs and policies aimed at reducing poverty. This staff position will be supervised by the director of FES.
Responsibilities
To apply Visit Jobs at Columbia, where the job title is Project Coordinator for Family Economic Security Research.
Below is the ad that appeared in the October JOE. Please note that Connecticut College has traditionally been open to applicants with heterodox interests and training.
Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5 – Environmental Economics
Connecticut College seeks a full-time tenure track faculty member, whose field of teaching and research is environmental economics, beginning in fall 2014. The appointment will be at the rank of assistant professor and applicants must expect to complete their Ph.D. by August 2014. We seek candidates whose area of expertise is related to the global/international environment. Possible areas of research and teaching may include, but are not limited to climate change policy, global resource use and management and global distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. Additional fields of particular interest include public economics and microeconomics. The successful candidate will contribute importantly to the interdisciplinary environmental studies major and must demonstrate commitment to research and teaching excellence in a liberal arts environment.
The College is actively building a faculty of diverse backgrounds and experiences. AA/EEO.
Applications must be submitted electronically at apply.interfolio.com/23032 and should include curriculum vita, graduate transcripts, three letters of recommendation, writing sample, statement of teaching philosophy and summaries of teaching evaluations. Questions only should be directed to Prof. Candace Howes, Chair chow@conncoll.edu. The deadline for completed applications is November 22, 2013. Interviews will be conducted at the ASSA.
Title: Assistant Professor, Visiting Professor
Deadline Information: December 15, 2013
Deadline Date Provided: December 15, 2013
JEL Classifications: Any Field
Locations: Istanbul, Turkey
Full Text of Listing:
The Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences at Kadir Has University invites applications for faculty positions at Assistant Professor level in any field of Economics, candidates will be expected to teach introductory economics courses as well as courses in their area of specialization. Qualifications include strong commitment to scholarly research and high quality teaching. Visiting positions are also available.
Kadir Has University is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, founded in 1997. It provides excellent academic environment, state-of-the-art teaching facilities and diversified campus life. The medium of instruction is English. More information about the University can be found at http://www.khas.edu.tr . The University offers competitive salary and research funds. Applicants should hold or expect to hold in the near future a Ph.D. degree in economics.
Application Instructions: Please email a cover letter, curriculum vitae, a sample of written work, three letters of reference to Head of Department, Sedat Aybar at saybar@khas.edu.tr and cc to utku.oren@khas.edu.tr.
The Knox College Department of Economics invites applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level beginning Fall 2014. Knox College is an independent, selective liberal arts institution with a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching. We are seeking candidates with teaching and research interests in international economics and economic development. Familiarity with multiple paradigms is a plus as the Department is methodologically diverse. Teaching responsibilities may also include introductory and intermediate level macroeconomics, as well as contributing to the general liberal arts curriculum.
Successful candidates will have a sincere interest in quality undergraduate teaching at an institution that values and affirms diverse experiences. Candidates should have a desire to maintain an active research program. The teaching load is two courses in each of three 10 week terms. A Ph.D. at the time of appointment is preferred but ABD candidates will be considered.
Founded in 1837 in Galesburg, Illinois, Knox College enrolls 1,400 students from 48 states and 51 countries who have a strong passion for and commitment to intellectual community and experiential education. In keeping with a 177-year commitment to equal rights, we particularly welcome applications from women and members of other under-represented groups.
Review of applications begins immediately and will continue until the position is filled with applications completed by December 10 receiving priority for interviews to be conducted at the ASSA meetings in Philadelphia, PA, January 3rd – 5 2014.
To apply, please visit our Website to submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, sample of written work, statement of teaching philosophy and evidence of teaching effectiveness (for example, teaching evaluations or sample assignments). Arrange for three letters of recommendation to be submitted.
Title/Position: Program Coordinator, Economic and Social Rights
CWGL Employment Opportunity: Position for anyone with a MA in heterodox/feminist economics
The Center for Women’s Global Leadership has begun a formal search for a Program Coordinator.
To apply for this position, visit the Rutgers University Human Resources website. The position number is 13-002933.
Applicants must be legally permitted to work in the United States and NJ residency is required.
Please note that submission of documents through the Rutgers University Human Resources site is the only way to assure consideration.
Job Description:
Reports to the Associate Director in the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL). Coordinates programming needs for CWGL’s externally focused women’s human rights work, particularly related to economic and social rights (ESR). Serves as the point person on policy and advocacy at the United Nations, working closely with the Associate Director, assisting the Executive Director and other staff on the details of this work. Responsible for the development, field testing, revision and implementation of a training module and train the trainer module for ESR. Updates and maintains CWGL’s ESR web pages and prepares content for website. Contributes to CWGL’s blogs and briefs and disseminates to constituencies. Keeps internal and external stakeholders current with CWGL programming and events; Collaborates with other staff to provide comprehensive planning, outreach, write popular education materials, and execution of events, preparation of related reports, and recommendations for action. Performs related duties as needed.
Job Requirements:
Requires a bachelor's degree in a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and/or experience in women's rights or social justice. Master's degree in heterodox economics preferred and a minimum of 2 years employment experience in rights-based or social justice work required; international experience preferred. Excellent written and verbal communication abilities in English required, and a second language preferred. Skill in balancing project priorities and time management are essential. Electronic communications skills in web maintenance, listserves, knowledge and abilities in research and analysis and report preparation. This position requires domestic and some international travel. This position maintains regular communication with a global network of partners and advocates addressing the issues of economic and social rights in different regions. Experience in international and/or domestic diverse settings desirable.
Two Job Opportunities at University of Technology Sydney
Title/Position: Research Director - Associate Professor
Title/Position: Associate Professor
Can you provide leadership in local government research, education and sector?
Looking to establish and lead high-performing research teams?
Join a great team in a fantastic working environment
The Centre for Local Government promotes a cooperative approach to local government education, research and development, and maintains close ties with a large number of local government associations, professional institutes and academic bodies in Australia, the Asia-Pacific and globally.
The Centre's activities are diverse and include:
In this position some main areas of opportunity will include; provide leadership in high quality, scholarly local government research, help support the implementation of the center’s research program and assist in the formulation and implementation of Centre research plans, strategies and objectives. The demonstrated capacity to secure funding is significant in this role. These are but a few of the many exciting projects that the Centre for Local Government is currently evolving.
Salary: $130,292 – 162,010. The University offers salary packaging plus 17% superannuation. We can also offer relocation support. Salary is negotiable
Enquiries regarding this position should be directed to Roberta Ryan, Director of the UTS Centre for Local Government on 02 9514 2643
Closing Date: 9AM 20th November
Heterodox Economics Student Association (HESA) at the University of Utah announces a call for paper submissions on the topic of political-economy for the 2013/14 E.K. Hunt Award for Best Short Paper in Political-Economy.
Submission deadline is January 15, 2014, 11:59PM (MDT). No late admissions will be accepted.
NEW - The competition is now open to graduate students of all disciplines from all universities!
The Best Paper will be awarded with $100
Applications must include:
Additional requirements:
Submit Applications to hesa@economics.utah.edu.
The Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics is committed to supporting and encouraging the work of Young Scholars in philosophy and economics. This academic prize is intended to promote and reward the best of such scholarship.
The prize is named in honour of Professor Mark Blaug (1927-2011), a founder of the field of philosophy and economics who made a tremendous scholarly contribution to many areas of the history and philosophy of economics. Mark Blaug’s generosity and commitment to Young Scholars was recognized by all who knew him.
The prize includes a cash sum of 500 Euros.
2014 Prize is open for submissions: To qualify for the Mark Blaug Prize the author has to be a Young Scholar, defined as someone who is enrolled as a graduate student, or graduated during 2012 or 2013. You may be asked for evidence of your eligibility.
Young Scholars should submit a single-authored article for publication in EJPE in the usual way before the end of December 2013, and mention that you would like to be considered for the prize. Co-authored papers where all authors are Young Scholars are also eligible. Prize submissions should not include articles previously published or under consideration elsewhere. For more information about submissions, see the EJPE Call for Papers.
Articles that pass peer-review and are accepted for publication will be considered by a committee of experts and the winner will be announced in mid-2014.
Jayati Ghosh: Microfinance and the challenge of financial inclusion for development.
Flavio Comim & Pedro V. Amaral: The Human Values Index: conceptual foundations and evidence from Brazil.
Judith Mehta: The discourse of bounded rationality in academic and policy arenas: pathologising the errant consumer
Peter E. Earl: The robot, the party animal and the philosopher: an evolutionary perspective on deliberation and preference
Robert McMaster & Michael J. White: An investigation of Oliver Williamson’s analysis of the division of labour.
Maurizio Conti & Enrico Sette: Type of employer and fertility of working women: does working in the public sector or in a large private firm matter?.
Prabirjit Sarkar: Does an employment protection law lead to unemployment? A panel data analysis of OECD countries, 1990–2008
Saumya Chakrabarti: Interrogating inclusive growth: formal-informal duality, complementarity, conflict.
Edward N. Wolff & Ajit Zacharias: Class structure and economic inequality
Michael Assous & Amitava Krishna Dutt: Growth and income distribution with the dynamics of power in labour and goods markets.
Robert Wade: How High Inequality plus Neoliberal Government weakens Democracy.+
Laurence Seidman: Stimulus without debt.
Andrew Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada and Walter McHugh: The Plunge in Teem Summer Employment.
Olga Zakrevskaya und Sharon Mastracci: Differential Effects of the Great Recession by Household Type.
Mike Sharpe: The U.S. Military: Ignorant and Arrogant.
Jean de Largentaye: The reef That Wrecks the Monetary Economy.
Victoria Chick and Sheila Dow: Keynes, the Long Run, and the Present Crisis.
Alain Parguez and Slim Thabet: The Twenty-First Century World Crisis: A Keynes Moment?: A True Systemic Crisis Fitting Keynes's Prophecy.
John Smithin:Rehabilitation of the Model of Effective Demand from Chapter 3 of Keynes's General Theory (1936).
López G. Julio and Luis Reyes Ortiz: Effective Demand in the Recent Evolution of the U.S. Economy.
The latest issue of the journal is devoted to a two-part study of American foreign policy by Perry Anderson. The first text, ‘Imperium’ examines the objectives and outcomes of US world power, from the closing stages of the Second World War through to the present; the second, ‘Consilium’, engages with the mainstream literature on America’s role in the world and the assumptions of its practitioners. NLR has run three special numbers before: Tom Nairn on Europe in 1972, Anthony Barnett on the Falklands War in 1982, and Robert Brenner on the dynamics of manufacturing over-capacity that underlie hyper-leveraged financialization in 1998. Concerned with leading questions of world politics, Anderson’s contribution can be read as complementary to Brenner’s on the global economy.
Steven Pressman: The Review of Political Economy at 25: Past, Present and Future. p. 533-543.
P. Sai-Wing Ho: Does Mill's case for infant industry protection capture Hamilton's and List's arguments for promoting industrial development?. p. 546-571.
Stephen Kinsella: Was Ireland's Celtic Tiger Period Profit-led or Wage-led?. p. 572-585.
Timothy P. Sharpe: A Modern Money Perspective on Financial Crowding-out. p. 586-606.
Georgios Argitis & Yannis Dafermos: Finance, Monetary Policy and the Institutional Foundations of the Phillips Curve. p. 607-623.
Thanasis Maniatis & Costas Passas: Profitability Capital Accumulation and Crisis in the Greek Economy 1958–2009: a Marxist Analysis. p. 624-649.
This age of austerity comes on the back of a lengthened period of apparently rampant consumer excess: that was a party for which we are all now having to pay. A spectacular period of unsustainably funded over-indulgence, it seems, has now given rise to a sobering period of barely fundable mere-subsistence. Consumption, narrated along such lines, is a sin which has to be paid for. Beyond the deceptive theology of consumption, however, lies actual politics. In May 2012, we hosted a conference at Dublin’s Royal Society of the Antiquaries of Ireland in order to analyse and debate the politics of consumption. This special issue is the outcome of the discussions which took place during that event. It features conceptual and empirical investigations into the politics of consumption, a head-to-head debate on the idea of consumer citizenship, a series of notes on the relationship between art, politics, and consumption, and reviews of two recent books. Taken together, these diverse pieces underline the need for a politically-oriented analysis of consumption, not only for the sake of informing academic debates but also for the sake of informing contemporary consumption practices. Consumption, we argue, is political: to approach it otherwise is to dogmatically seek refuge in a world of fantasy.
Link to the issue is available here
By Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos, John Milios, Spyros Lapatsioras
About the book:
The recent financial meltdown and the resulting global recession have rekindled debates regarding the nature of contemporary capitalism.
This book analyses the ongoing financialization of the economy as a development within capitalism, and explores the ways in which it has changed the organization of capitalist power. The authors offer an interpretation of the role of the financial sphere which displays a striking contrast to the majority of contemporary heterodox approaches. Their interpretation stresses the crucial role of financial derivatives in the contemporary organization of capitalist power relations, arguing that the process of financialization is in fact entirely unthinkable in the absence of derivatives.
The book also uses Marx’s concepts and some of the arguments developed in the framework of the historic Marxist controversies on economic crises in order to gain an insight into the modern neoliberal form of capitalism and the recent financial crisis. Employing a series of international case studies, this book will be essential reading for all those with an interest in the financial crisis, and all those seeking to comprehend the workings of capitalism.
By Ricardo Crespo | 2013, Routledge
About the book:
The work of Aristotle has influenced writers from Marx and Menger to Amartya Sen. This book introduces us to Aristotle's thought on 'the economic' and on its influences on economists. First, it focuses on Aristotle´s ideas, situating Aristotle in his historical context, describing his positions on the economic and analyzing what kind of reality the economic is, its relation with ethics and with politics. Then, it determines what kind of science is concerned with the economic. Later, it analyzes related topics. It concludes by highlighting the Aristotelian contributions to today's economy.
Series: Routledge Studies in the History of Economics
By Olivier Butzbach and Kurt von Mettenheim | 2013, Pickering & Chatto Publishing
About the book:
The recent banking crisis has brought into question the business model used by most large banks in the United States and Europe. Post-crisis reforms have been announced, with calls for a return to ‘narrow banking’ methods, instead of commercial banks diversifying into areas traditionally offered by investments banks, and vice versa. In spite of wide-ranging debate on these reforms, the success of ‘alternative banks’ – savings banks, cooperative banks and development banks – has been largely overlooked. This success is all the more extraordinary as such banks are not expected to turn a profit. This collection of essays explores this paradox, using case studies from around the world and discussion of both the historical and theoretical context of banking practices.
By William D. Ferguson | Stanford University Press
About the book:
In Collective Action and Exchange: A Game-Theoretic Approach to Contemporary Political Economy, William D. Ferguson presents a comprehensive political economy text aimed at advanced undergraduates in economics and graduate students in the social sciences. The text utilizes collective action as a unifying concept, arguing that collective-action problems lie at the foundation of market success, market failure, economic development, and the motivations for policy.
Ferguson draws on information economics, social preference theory, cognition theory, institutional economics, as well as political and policy theory to develop this approach. The text uses classical, evolutionary, and epistemic game theory, along with basic social network analysis, as modeling frameworks. These models effectively bind the ideas presented, generating a coherent theoretic approach to political economy that stresses sometimes overlooked implications.
By Jocelyn Pixley and G.C. Harcourt | 2013, Palgrave Macmillan
About the book:
This volume is a debate about a sociology and economics of money: a form of positive trespassing. It is unique in being written by scholars of both disciplines committed to this mutual venture and in starting from the original groundwork laid by Geoffrey Ingham.
The contributors look critically at money's institutions and the meanings and history of money-creation and show the cross cutting purposes or incommensurable sides of money and its crises. These arise from severe tensions and social conflicts about the production of money and its many purposes. We demonstrate the centrality of money to capitalism and consider social disorders since the 2007 crisis, which marks the timeliness and need for dialogue. Both disciplines have far too much to offer to remain in the former, damaging standoff. While we are thankful to see a possible diminution of this split, remnants are maintained by mainstream economic and sociological theorists who, after all the crises of the past 30 years, and many before, still hold to an argument that money really does not 'matter'. We suggest, to many different and interested audiences, that since money is a promise, understanding this social relation must be a joint though plural task between economics and sociology at the very least.
By Kari Polanyi Levitt | 2013, Zed Books
About the book:
Four years into the unfolding of the most serious crisis since the 1930s, Karl Polanyi's prediction of the fateful consequences of unleashing the destructive power of unregulated market capitalism on peoples, nations, and the natural environment has assumed new urgency and relevance. Polanyi's insistence that 'the self-regulating market' must be made subordinate to democracy, otherwise society itself may be put at risk, is as true today as it was when Polanyi wrote.
Written from the unique perspective of his daughter, From the Great Transformation to the Great Financialization is an essential contribution to our understanding of the evolution and contemporary significance of Karl Polanyi's work, and should be read against the background of the accelerating accumulation of global finance that created a series of financial crises in Latin America, Russia, Asia, and, eventually, the heartlands of capitalism itself.
By Peter Newell | 2013, polity books
About the book:
Globalization and the Environment critically explores the actors, politics and processes that govern the relationship between globalization and the environment. Taking key aspects of globalisation in turn - trade, production and finance - the book highlights the relations of power at work that determine whether globalization is managed in a sustainable way and on whose behalf.
Each chapter looks in turn at the political ecology of these central pillars of the global economy, reviewing evidence of its impact on diverse ecologies and societies, its governance - the political structures, institutions and policy making processes in place to manage this relationship - and finally efforts to contest and challenge these prevailing approaches.
The book makes sense of the relationship between globalisation and the environment using a range of theoretical tools from different disciplines. This helps to place the debate about the compatibility between globalisation and sustainability in an explicitly political and historical context in which it is possible to appreciate the ‘nature’ of interests and power relations that privilege some ways of responding to environmental problems over others in a context of globalisation.
By Louis-Philippe Rochon and Salewa 'Yinka Olawoye | 2013, Edward Elgar
About the book:
Has the economic and financial crisis changed the way we conduct monetary policy? Is quantitative easing consistent with the endogeneity of money? These are but two of the questions this new book explores. The various contributors offer interesting and new perspectives on the conduct of monetary policy during the crisis, and provide sharp criticism of central bank policies in the US and Europe.
By Ascension Mejorado, Manuel Roman | 2014, Routledge
About the book:
From the mid-1980s, investors in the US increasingly directed capital towards the financial sector at the expense of non-financial sectors, lured by the perception of higher profits. This flow of capital inflated asset prices, creating the stock market and housing bubbles which burst when the imbalance between stagnant incomes and rising debts triggered the banking meltdown. Profitability and the Great Recession analyses these trends in profitability and capital accumulation, which the authors identify as the root cause of the financial crisis, in the context of the US and other major OECD countries.
Drawing on insights from Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, the authors interpret the relationship between capital accumulation and profitability trends through the conceptual lens of classical political economy. The book provides extensive empirical evidence of declining rates of US non-financial corporate accumulations from the mid-1960s and profitability trends in that sector falling from post-war highs. In contrast to this, it is shown that there was a vigorous rise of profitability in the financial sector from a 1982 trough to the early part of the twenty-first century, which led to the bloating of that sector. The authors conclude that the long-term falling accumulation trend in the non-financial corporate sector, highlighted by the bankruptcy of major automobile corporations, stands out as the underlying force that transformed the financial crisis into a fully-fledged Great Recession.
This book will be of interest to students and researchers in the areas of economics, political economy, business and finance.
By Jesus Felipe and John S.L. McCombie | Edward Elgar
About the book:
‘Felipe and McCombie have gathered all of the compelling arguments denying the existence of aggregate production functions and showing that econometric estimates based on these fail to measure what they purport to quantify: they are artefacts. Their critique, which ought to be read by any economist doing empirical work, is destructive of nearly all that is important to mainstream economics: NAIRU and potential output measures, measures of wage elasticities, of output elasticities and of total factor productivity growth.’ – Marc Lavoie, University of Ottawa, Canada
By John B. Davis and Asimina Christoforou | 2013, Edward Elgar
About the book:The economics of social institutions has been a well-established research field for over a century, one that continues to expand and to develop new areas of investigation. Here Professor Davis and Dr Christoforou bring together in one easily accessible volume the most significant contributions by leading figures in this area. The volume provides a comprehensive review of the origins and development of the economics of social institutions and addresses the main theoretical and policy concerns that have occupied scholars and researchers.By Sheila Collins and Gertrude Goldberg | 2013, Oxford University Press
About the book:
The Great Depression and Great Recession are frequently compared, and so are the responses of the New Deal and the Obama administration to these economic crises. None of the comparisons, however, systematically examines what the successes and failures of the New Deal can teach us about solutions to the Great Recession and its aftermath. This book fills that gap by evaluating New Deal approaches to relief, recovery and reform along a wide range of policy issues, including a response to environmental degradation that is of particular contemporary relevance. The book offers new perspectives on the Great Depression and the choices taken by New Dealers on issues similar to those that confront contemporary publics. Through doing so, it demonstrates some possible ways out of our malaise—policies and programs that began modestly but were expanded, that were initiated but never fulfilled in the 1930s, that were raised as possibilities by popular movements but not allowed onto the political agenda, that were enacted but either discontinued or diminished, or that were simply unforeseen in an earlier era. Thus, the book presents a set of guideposts—some beneficial, some cautionary--for the future.
Economic Policies in the age of Globalisation (EPOG)
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: 2014-16 COHORT
Deadline for applications with Erasmus Mundus scholarship: 22 January 2014.
The main objective of the EPOG Master's course is to give birth to a new generation of international experts, able to define and assess economic policies and evolve within different political, social and regional contexts. This double degree programme is based on institutional and holistic approaches of economic policies, and has been created thanks to the cooperation of 8 prestigious universities:
SCHOLARSHIPS
The very best students from all over the world will be eligible for scholarships awarded for 2 years by the European Commission, based on our selection:1. Category A scholarship (for non-European students only*): € 24 000 / year (including € 1 000 / monthly allowance, € 8 000 for participation costs and € 4 000 for travelling and installation expenses).2. Category B scholarship (for students who do not fulfill the Category A criteria*): between € 10 000 and 13 000 / year (including € 500 / monthly allowance, € 4 000 for participation costs and, in the case of a mobility period in a third country, € 3 000 for travelling and installation expenses).*
Eligible for category A scholarships: citizens of countries which are not one of the European Union’s 28 member states, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein; and who have not resided in one of those countries for more than 12 months during the past 5 years.
Specific Scholarships are reserved for students from Turkey and the Western Balkans, non-mediterranean countries and Eastern European countries.
WHEN TO APPLY?
Deadline for students who are applying for Erasmus Mundus scholarships will be the 22 January 2014.Deadline for other students may be extended until April 2014 if some places are left unfilled.The course will start in September 2014.
The entire application form has to be filled in exclusively online. All documents (degree, CV, transcript etc.) have to be attached to the application in the « Attachments » section. Please do not send any documents by email since they will not be considered if they are not attached to your application form.
For detailed information visit the website.
The School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at QMUL offers a number of generous studentships for students commencing their doctoral studies in September 2014. The deadline for consideration for funded places is 31st January 2014. Candidates whose applications are received after this date may be considered for admission, but not for funding.
Applications are welcome in all the fields and disciplines for which we provide expert supervision, which includes British and European policy and politics, political theory and political economy, the history of ideas, area studies (Latin American, the Balkans, Africa, SE Asia, the Middle East), and security studies. A full list of research interests in SPIR is available by following the links here.
Before applying, you should make informal contact with a potential supervisor to establish whether we can provide you with expert supervision. Make sure you include a draft research proposal with any enquiry to a potential supervisor – academic members of staff are unable to respond to general, undefined queries about research degrees. If you would like general information on the research degree programmes and the process for applying, please contact the Research Manager (see below for email).
QMUL Principal’s Studentships
Queen Mary Principal’s studentships are open to UK, EU and international students. They cover tuition fees and a maintenance allowance of around £15,590 per year for up to three years. Candidates will normally be expected to have a good first degree and a Master’s degree in Politics, International Relations, or a related subject.
Economic & Social Research Council: Doctoral Training Centre (London Social Science) Studentships
The School of Politics & IR is part of a prestigious ESRC-funded Doctoral Training Centre (DTC), London Social Science, with QMUL and Goldsmiths, University of London. The DTC will provide funding for up to two PhD studentships in SPIR for entry in 2014.
Studentships cover up to four years of tuition fees and provide a standard maintenance grant of £15,590 per year. PhDs with a particular emphasis on quantitative research may receive an additional Advanced Quantitative Methods (AQM) stipend of £3,000. Successful applicants will be offered a variety of flexible models of combined PhD study and research training: either a 1 + 3 model (i.e. 1 year doing an MRes in advanced research training, plus 3 years of PhD) or a model where the research training is completed throughout the course of the 4 years of the studentship. Students who already hold a Master’s degree with sufficient training can also apply for the standard 3-year funded PhD.
Please note that you need to complete an additional ESRC application form to be considered for funding through the DTC. Further details and guidance on how to apply are below and available here
Candidates must adhere to the current residential eligibility rules as laid out in the ESRC Postgraduate Funding Guide available here.
How to Apply
Full details on how to apply are here. Please follow these instructions carefully as incorrect or incomplete applications will not be considered for funding.
Questions can be directed to the Research Manager through: politics-pgresearch@qmul.ac.uk
Toward a Heterodox Theory of the Business Enterprise: The Going Concern Model and the US Computer Industry
Author: Erik N. Dean
Email: erik.dean1@pcc.edu
Defended: October, 2013
Institution: University of Missouri - Kansas City, Economics & Social Science Consortium Committee Chair: James Sturgeon
Abstract:
This dissertation applies heterodox concepts of the social construction and allocation of resources in the provisioning process; the organization of going concerns in societies that are themselves going concerns; and the governance of markets, and production more generally, toward a heterodox theory of the firm. It is argued that, in contrast to extant theories of the firm, the boundaries of modern firms are not the result of processes of individual contracting in the face of transactions costs, or coterminous with knowledge-based resources. Rather, they are principally the product of the coevolution of business and technological practices, chiefly in the interest of the former over the latter. It is furthermore argued that this process, in a socioeconomic system defined by the firm as a hierarchy of going concerns, is more akin to the gerrymandering of congressional districts than to an efficient allocation of material transactions between the firm and market spheres.
The history of the US software industry from the 1950s through the 1990s is provided as a case both illustrating and informing the theory. In particular, it is shown that this industry owes its structure, and indeed its existence, to the evolution of business strategies concerning the technological relationships surrounding the provision and use of computer systems. The industry's history corroborates the general hypotheses that 1) markets and firms themselves tend to be governed by the concerns operating therein; and 2) the resulting governance structures necessarily involve state sanctioning, including the administration of appropriate property rights over the relevant technological relationships.
October 2013 | Toronto, Ontario
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE YORK UNIVERSITY
Abstract:
This dissertation offers the first comprehensive historical examination of the political economy of US public debt ownership. Specifically, the study addresses the following questions: Who owns the US public debt? Is the distribution of federal government bonds concentrated in the hands of a specific group or is it widely held? And what if the identities of those who receive interest payments on government bonds are distinct from those who pay the taxes that finance the interest payments on the public debt? Does this mean that the public debt redistributes income from taxpayers to public creditors? Who ultimately bears the burden of financing the public debt? Despite centuries of debate, political economists have failed to come to any consensus on even the most basic facts concerning ownership of the US public debt and its potential redistributive effects. Some claim that the public debt is heavily concentrated and that interest payments on government bonds redistribute income regressively from poor to rich. Others insist that the public debt has become very widely held and instead redistributes income progressively. The lack of consensus, I argue, boils down to both the empirical and theoretical problems that plague existing studies. Empirically, only a handful of studies have attempted to map the ownership pattern of US federal government bonds, and even fewer have made efforts to measure the redistributive effects associated with a given ownership pattern. And to make matters worse, those few studies that do attempt to map the pattern of US public debt ownership make little effort to theorize in any systematic way the distributive and redistributive dimensions of the public debt. Anchored within a ‘capital as power’ theoretical framework, my purpose in this is to shed some much-needed light on the dynamics of distribution and redistribution that lie at the heart of the public debt. I show for the household and corporate sectors how over the past three decades, and especially in the context of the current crisis, the ownership of federal bonds and federal interest has become rapidly concentrated in the hands of dominant owners, the top 1% of households and the 2,500 largest corporations. Over the same period the federal income tax system has done little to progressively redistribute the federal interest income received by dominant owners. In this way, this dissertation argues that, since the early 1980s, the public debt has come to reinforce and augment the power of those at the very top of the hierarchy of social power.
[This thesis was nominated for the York University Dissertation Prize.]
View Full Dissertation (PDF)Table of Contents
Better Work or ‘Ethical Fix’? Lessons from Cambodia’s Apparel Industry by Dennis Arnold
The Guardian has run three interesting articles in context of the Manchester student revolt against their Mainstream curriculum. Thumbs up for the students and here are the links:
The Guardian, Oct. 28, 2013 II
Attached is a brochure of Heterodox Economics compiled by Tae-Hee Jo (SUNY Buffalo State), which includes the lists of heterodox associations, graduate programs, and journals. Copies of this brochure will be distributed at the Heterodox Economics Booth at the ASSA 2014 meetings in Philadelphia (January 3-5). Feel free to use it to promote your association, program, journal, and heterodox economics.