Issue 61: April 29, 2008

In this issue:

Call for Papers

JSPE 56th Annual Conference, 2008

Subprime Shock and the Future of Global Capitalism
To be held on October 25-26, 2008, at Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

The 56th annual conference of the JAPAN SOCIETY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY (JSPE) will be held on October 25 (Saturday) and 26 (Sunday), 2008, at Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. As stated above, the theme of the plenary session in this conference will be: Subprime Shock and the Future of Global Capitalism. With this theme, focusing on the global financial crisis caused by the subprime mortgage fiasco in the United States since the middle of 2007, we intend to analyse the causes and risks of the subprime shock and what the extent of the ripple effect it will have through the world-wide economy. Through analysing this subprime mortgage crisis from multifaceted perspectives, we try to clarify where Global Capitalism is now and where it is going. (cont.)

Submission Procedures and the Deadline
All those who want to present a paper at the conference should send an abstract of the paper [in 200 words] with (1) name, (2) address (E-mail and mailing address), (3) affiliation and other relevant data by no later than June 7, 2008, to:
Prof. Shinjiro HAGIWARA,
E-mail: jspecice@jspe.gr.jp 
Postal mailing address: Faculty of Economics, Yokohama National University, Tokiwadai 79-3, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa, 240-8501, Japan. Tel: +81-45-339-3575(Office), Fax: +81-45-339-3504

'The Character and Trajectory of the Indian Economic Formation in an Era of Globalisation'

Wednesday 26th November to Friday 28th November 2008 University of Delhi, India

Contact: indian.formation@gmail.com
Web:http://www.arts.yorku.ca/neoliberalism/  

Context:

The inherent complexity of the present Indian economic formation has underscored the inadequacy of speculative and empiricist attempts to conceptualise it. The gravity of the contemporary human development situation in India demands an appreciation of this. There is an increasing recognition of the need to combine intellectual forces, across disciplines, to theoretically delineate the precise ways in which the myriad elements of the Indian reality constitute an articulated whole. This is the immediate conjuncture.
Click here for detailed information.

The History of Capitalism in the United States

Graduate Student Conference at Harvard University November 6-8, 2008 Call for Papers

The development of American capitalism has profoundly shaped the histories of both the United States and the world. Its study has the potential to connect large-scale processes with daily life and to shape our understanding of nature, culture and even freedom. All too often, however, scholars have divided the history of capitalism into business histories, labor histories, and economic histories along with studies of the state. This conference is intended as a forum in which to encourage dialogue, debate and more inclusive approaches to the writing of the history of capitalism in the United States. We hope, in the process, to interrogate the conceptual boundaries often employed in research on capitalism.

Building on the success of the 2006 conference, we seek papers or panel proposals from graduate students whose work will broaden the understanding of American capitalism and provide a new prism through which to understand U.S. history as a whole. Because we see capitalism as both a subject in itself and an analytical framework, we invite papers that reflect the variety of topics that are intricately connected to capitalism. We particularly welcome papers that utilize transnational approaches to reposition the history of capitalism in the United States within a global context.

We believe the framework of capitalism can be applied to nearly any topic and welcome submissions on subjects related (but not limited) to:

• Industrialization
• Slavery and the slave trade
• Labor and management
• Markets, credit, and finance
• Currencies and commodities
• Entrepreneurship
• Trans- and multinational corporations
• Migration and immigration
• Imperialism and colonialism
• Materialist histories of culture
• Legal structures and the state
• Cultural reverberations of capital

Submit proposals of 500-1000 words to histcap@fas.harvard.edu  by June 1, 2008.


The Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics (EJPE)

Inaugural Issue
http://www.eur.nl/fw/english/eipe/eipe_journal/

EJPE is a peer-reviewed online journal founded by the graduate students of the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
http://www.eur.nl/fw/english/eipe/

EJPE aspires to:
- publish high quality and interesting contributions to the field of philosophy and economics.
- provide a forum for inter-disciplinary content and approaches that is particularly friendly to Young Scholars (graduate students and recent PhD graduates), supported by an efficient and constructive peer review process.

Research domains

(1) Methodology of economics

Issues falling within the analytical philosophy of science tradition including the methodological analysis and appraisal of the concepts, theories and techniques of economics, both mainstream and heterodox. Contributions on methodological issues in evolutionary and institutional economics are particularly welcome.

(2) History of economic thought

Issues in the historical development of the ideas, theories, and methods of economics.

(3) Inter-disciplinary issues relating economics to other fields

Issues arising from non-traditional sources of critique and investigation of economics, including, for example, ethics; sociology; political philosophy; continental philosophy; rhetoric. Such contributions must show a clear connection to economic issues and involve conceptual rather than purely empirical analysis.

Content sought
Academic articles (5-7 per issue; with abstract; 4000-8000 words; [exceptional papers may be longer by arrangement])
Book reviews (4-6 per issue; 500-1500 words)
Summaries of recently completed PhD theses in philosophy and economics (500-1000 words)

Article guidelines
- All submissions should be in English.
- Use 1.5 spacing, Microsoft Word format.
- Articles should be between 4000-8000 words and include an abstract no longer than 200 words.
- Articles should be fully referenced and signalled serially in the text of the article by superscripts. References should be typed in the text as (Author's surname, date of publication, page number). Extensive references and comments should appear as footnotes at the bottom of each page.
- References: list references alphabetically by author, double-spaced, at the end of the manuscript.
- Authors of accepted submissions will be asked to prepare a final version in the Journal's style.

Submission Deadline: July 31st, 2008 (for publication November 2008).

The EJPE Editors: ejpe.editors@gmail.com

Thomas Wells:
http://www.eur.nl/fw/english/eipe/students/wells/

Luis Mireles-Flores:
http://www.eur.nl/fw/english/eipe/students/luis_mireles_flores/

Tyler DesRoches:
http://www.eur.nl/fw/english/researchmaster/studentprofiles/ 

The Dissemination of Economic Ideas

The Japanese Society for the History of Economic Thought (JSHET) in cooperation with the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET) organizes a joint conference on

The Dissemination of Economic Ideas

21-22 March 2009, Tokyo and 24 March 2009, Kyoto, Japan.

While there exist several valuable studies of aspects of the dissemination and further development of economic ideas and theories at least since the time of the Meiji Restoration in 1867, if not before, a comprehensive account of the rich flow of ideas between and within Europe, Japan and the rest of the world is not yet available. The conference aims at

– investigating how economic ideas developed and spread across national borders (within Europe, Asia, and the US);

&nd! ash; studying the implications of the novel ideas with respect to the ways in which certain economic and social problems were perceived;

– investigating the policies that were derived from the new perspectives assumed and tools adopted;

– studying the impact of the new ideas on the formation of institutions;

– elaborating these aspects in particular with regard to the age of enlightenment, historicism and the interwar period.

While in the past Japan was first and foremost an importer of ideas coming from the West and especially Europe and its Western offshoots, in more recent times things have changed. It would suffice to recall the names of major Japanese economists who had an important impact on recent developments in economics. Hence there is a substantial intellectual cross-breeding taking place right now. The conference aims at covering also this aspect of the dissemination of ideas and ! welcomes papers dealing with the contributions of major Japane! se schol ars and the absorption of their ideas in Europe and elsewhere.

Proposals of papers plus abstracts of no more than 800 words each are to be submitted electronically by 31 August 2008 to Tamotsu Nishizawa (nisizawa@ier.hit-u.ac.jp) and Heinz D. Kurz (heinz.kurz@uni-graz.at). Applicants will be informed about a decision concerning the acceptance of the paper by 30 September, 2008. First versions of accepted papers will have to be submitted in full by 31 December, 2008.

Scientific Committee:

JSHET: Yasunori Fukagai (Yokohama National Univ.), Masaharu Hattori (Rikkyo Univ.), Keiko Kurita (Tokyo Woman's Christian Univ.), Tamotsu Nishizawa (Hitotsubashi Univ.), Gentaro Seki (Kyushu Univ.), Tetsuo Taka (Kyushu Industrial Univ.)

ESHET: Richard Arena (Nice), Richard van den Berg (Kingston-upon-Thames), Harald Hagemann (Stuttgart-Hohenheim), Heinz D. Kurz (Graz), Cristina Marcuzzo (Rome), Annalisa Rosselli (R! ome). 

International Conference on Critical Realism and Education

University of London Institute of Education
July 18, 19 and 20, 2008

The organizer of this conference is Professor Roy Bhaskar, currently World Scholar at the University of London Institute of Education, and founder of the philosophy of critical realism.
This conference is designed to lay the basis for the development of an International Centre for Advanced Studies in Critical Realism and Education.

In recent years there has been growing interest in the interface between critical realism and education, which makes this conference especially timely. Education is central to the critical realist project. On the other hand, critical realism is still, relatively speaking, a newcomer in the field of education and education studies, and only too rarely explicitly utilized in research or thematized in teaching.

The conference aims to begin to repair this situation with a large part of the first day being given over to a short course, led by Roy Bhaskar, developing the basic principles of critical realism, with education especially in mind.
Among the topics discussed in this short course will be basic critical realism in the philosophy of science and social science; the development of critical realism, including dialectical critical realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality; applied critical realism and interdisciplinarity; critical realism in and for education; and the ends of education. This part of the conference programme will include working parallel sessions in which conference participants can learn about or refresh their understanding of critical realist ideas and concepts.

The bulk of the conference will address the development of a mediating level of theory and description between philosophy and the day-to-day concerns of educational practice. Throughout, the conference will attempt to initiate, develop and enrich a two-way interaction between critical realist philosophy and educational research and practice. Parallel workshop sessions, in which individual participants present and discuss their papers, will be interwoven with plenary sessions, in which distinguished speakers from the fields of critical realism and education studies will address topics of interest to all.

Plenary speakers will include Michael Apple, Margaret Archer, Rom Harré, Karl Maton, Richard Pring, Chris Sarra and Brad Shipway.
Among the topics highlighted in the plenaries will be comparison of critical realism and social realism; consideration of explicit ex ante versus implicit critical realism; the topology of educational studies; the relationship between quantitative and qualitative methods; the nature of educational practices and the tension between the emancipatory orientation and the contemporary marketization of education.
The strands in the parallel sessions will embrace: philosophy and the ends of education; research methods; interdisciplinarity; sociology of knowledge and education; Bernstein, Bourdieu and implicit critical realism; historical explanation and historical sociology; geography and education; special and inclusive education; education and emancipation; the development of critical realism, including dialectical critical realism; meta-Reality; science education; religion and education; peace education; Marxism; Piaget and Vygotsky.

Call for Papers
The Critical Realism and Education Conference 2008 calls for papers in any subject area which bears on critical realism, on the one hand, and education, on the other. Please send abstracts by June 1 and any queries concerning the call for papers to Roy Bhaskar at : r.bhaskar@ioe.ac.uk
At the end of the first day, there will be a conference reception and at the end of the second day, a conference dinner. Accommodation is available by advance booking in student halls of residence and a number of reasonably priced hotels nearby.
To register and for further information and details of accommodation, please go to the conference website:
www.ioe.ac.uk/conferences/criticalrealism
or contact James McSean at:
fpsadmin3@ioe.ac.uk 

Latin America: New Century Scenarios

The 22nd, 23rd and 24th October 2008, the Sociedad de Economía Política y Pensamiento Crítico Latinoamericano (SEPLA – Latin American Society for Political Economy and Critical Thinking) will held its fourth International Conference, called:
LATIN AMERICA: new century scenarios.
New challenges and transformation horizons.
http://seplaconference.blogspot.com/
This conference represents the continuation of those that took place in México in 2005, Santiago de Chile in 2006 and Caracas in 2007; as well as several other critical economists meetings that gathered in previous years in Brasil and other countries.
The conference will be held, on one hand, in the context of the financial crisis unleashed in the United States and spreading towards other regions of the world; on the other hand, among an increasing questioning from Latin American societies to the United States domination, and the consequent search for new methods and projects. In order to reflect this reality in the broadest possible way, we make this call for the submission of papers by Latin American and world-wide critical economists. The papers should contain any of the following general and particular topics:
General subjects:
* Latin America in the midst of the stress of the world economy.
* Contesting models: neoliberalism, neodevelopmentalism, socialism.
* Which kind of regional integration?
* Forms of imperialisms today: accumulation by dispossession, international insertion and natural resources.
* The new international financial architecture.
* Resistances, new radicalities and transformation alternatives.
Particular subjects:
* Once again: public debt and international financial flows.
* The energetic dimension of international integration.
* Integration and regional infrastructure: the Puebla-Panamá / IIRSA Plan.
* Quality and responsibility in the statistics for economic analysis.
* Wealth distribution. Politics and instruments for its sustentability.
* Labour flexibility, precarization and accidents.
* Potentialities and challenges of social movements (autonomy / self-organization – fragmentation / cooptation - politization).
* Latin America relationships with U.S and Europe.
Chronogram deadlines:
Abstract presentation: July 31st, 2008.
Paper presentation: September 15th, 2008.
Rules for the submission of papers: Times New Roman, size 12, 1.5 separation between lines, 2 cm. margins (minimum) and a maximum extension of 25 pages (including graphics and bibliography). In PDF format.
The admission of papers will be communicated on September 25th, by e-mail to each participant.
Any inquiries may be addressed to coloquiosepla@gmail.com
The conference will take place at the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas of the University of Buenos Aires (Córdoba 2122, Buenos Aires, Argentina). In our next communications, we will provide more information about planned activities and on organizational matters.
Buenos Aires, February 2008.

The Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics (EJPE) Inaugral Issue

EJPE is a peer-reviewed online journal founded by the graduate students of the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

EJPE aspires to:
• publish high quality and interesting contributions to the field of philosophy and economics.
• provide a forum for inter-disciplinary content and approaches that is particularly friendly to Young Scholars (graduate students and recent PhD graduates), supported by an efficient and constructive peer review process.

Research domains
(1) Methodology of economics
Issues falling within the analytical philosophy of science tradition including the methodological analysis and appraisal of the concepts, theories and techniques of economics, both mainstream and heterodox. Contributions on methodological issues in evolutionary and institutional economics are particularly welcome.
(2) History of economic thought
Issues in the historical development of the ideas, theories, and methods of economics.
(3) Inter-disciplinary issues relating economics to other fields
Issues arising from non-traditional sources of critique and investigation of economics, including, for example, ethics; sociology; political philosophy; continental philosophy; rhetoric. Such contributions must show a clear connection to economic issues and involve conceptual rather than purely empirical analysis.

Content sought
Academic articles (5-7 per issue; with abstract; 4000-8000 words; [exceptional papers may be longer by arrangement])
Book reviews (4-6 per issue; 500-1500 words)
Summaries of PhD theses in philosophy and economics (500-1000 words)

Article guidelines
-All submissions should be in English.
-Use 1.5 spacing, Microsoft Word format.
-Articles should be between 4000-8000 words and include an abstract no longer than 200 words.
-Articles should be fully referenced and signalled serially in the text of the article by superscripts. References should be typed in the text as (Author's surname, date of publication, page number). Extensive references and comments should appear as footnotes at the bottom of each page.
-References: list references alphabetically by author, double-spaced, at the end of the manuscript.
-Authors of accepted submissions will be asked to prepare a final version in the Journal's style.

Submission Deadline: July 31st, 2008 (for publication November 2008)


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Conferences, Seminars and Lectures

Cachan-Amsterdam History of Economics as History of Science Workshop

This is to inform you that the programme of the 5th "Cachan-Amsterdam History of Economics as History of Science Workshop" is available at:

http://economix.u-paris10.fr/fr/activites/ws/?id=58

Marx and Philosophy Society: Fifth Annual Conference

Is there a Marxian philosophy?

Saturday 24th May 2008, 10.00am - 6.00pm
Room 642, Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1

Speakers:

- Timothy Hall (East London)'The Metacritique of Philosophy: Marx, Lukács and Adorno'
- Amy Wendling (Creighton)'The Strife between Technology and Capital: Machines in the Communist Future'
- Andrew Feenberg (Simon Fraser)'Marx and the Critique of Rationality: From Surplus Value to Technology Studies'
Graduate panel: Silvia de Bianchi (Rome), Simon Skempton (Middlesex)

Registration: £10 waged, £5 unwaged, payable at the door (provides annual membership of the society and entrance).
To reserve a place in advance please email martin.mcivor@alumni.lse.ac.uk. 
For map and travel directions see http://tinyurl.com/2vcqwl  (20 Bedford Way is marked A on the map).
http://www.marxandphilosophy.org.uk

A Crisis of Financialisation?

ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
SOAS, University of London
30 May 2008
The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in the USA has triggered a fully-fledged crisis of banking and financial markets. The crisis poses questions of economic regulation and brings to the fore the broader implications of financialisation. Financial institutions draw a large part of their profits directly from the income of working people. Meanwhile, financial innovation has worsened systemic instability.
This forthcoming conference provides an opportunity to discuss financialisation from the perspective of political economy.

Speakers: S Aybar, R Blackburn, G Dymski, G Duménil, C Lapavitsas, A Nesvetailova, J Painceira, D Papadatos, P dos Santos,
E Stockhammer, J Toporowski, and K Williams
Sponsored by SOAS
For further details
Khalili Lecture Theatre Kadir Has University, SOAS Paulo L dos Santos
9.00-17.00 and Historical Materialism ps45@soas.ac.uk 

Sponsored by SOAS and Historical Materialism For further details contact Paulo L. dos Santos--ps45@soas.ac.uk 

2008 HES Conference

The preliminary program for the 2008 HES Conference in Toronto, 27-30 June, is now posted at

http://historyofeconomics.org/Conference08/2008Program.htm

Please have a look, and let us know ( dgroves@yorku.ca ) of any mistakes or changes for your own papers and abstracts.

Many of you have shared the frustration at conferences of not being able to attend sessions in which you are interested, because harried conference organizers (always!) have unknowingly scheduled you as discussants or chairs at competing sessions. In an attempt to enhance your conference experience, we are asking for you to suggest up to 2 papers you would be interesting in discussing, and up to 2 sessions you would be willing to chair. We will do our best to match preferences and assignments, and hopefully have more of you at the sessions in which you are most interested. Please respond (again to dgroves@yorku.ca) by the end of April. (We have to admit this will also make our organizing job easier.) Preference-matching will only go so far, so we thank you in advance for taking on whatever roles you are ultimately assigned.

In order to encourage audience participation, we are suggesting the following guidelines. Each paper/discussant combination generally has 30 minutes in total. Presenters should aim for 15 minutes (20 maximum), and discussants should aim for no more than 5 minutes. That will ideally leave 5 minutes for audience questions. Papers will be posted to the website at they are submitted, so interested audience members will have the opportunity to look at papers in advance of presentations.

To further discussion, we will be creating online discussion boards for each session, so questions that don’t get answered or raised in person can be pursued after the session and after the conference.
Discussants may, if they wish, also post their remarks to the discussion boards.

The deadline for discounted rates on registration is also 30 April, so be sure to submit your registration form before then.

How Class Works- 2008

How Class Works- 2008 conference program, on-line registration, housing and other information are now available on the conference pages of the Center for Study of Working Class Life at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The How Class Works - 2008 conference will be at Stony Brook, Thursday - Saturday, June 5 - 7, 2008

Topics Include The color line in the 21st century and the legacy of Theodore W. Allen - single-payer health care - corporate practices in higher education - teaching class - white working class anger in the UK - lessons of the Charleston 5 - class and the legal system - class and religion – labor law and union strategy - plus many more in 54 sessions.

Speakers Confirmedinclude Sam Anderson, Catherine-Mercedes Brillantes Judge, Pedro Caban, Fuat Ercan, Claudia Fegan, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Tami Gold, Elizabeth Hoffman, Sara Jarayaman, Stathis Kouvelakis, Sherry Linkon, Meizhu Lui, Manning Marable, Jack Metzgar, Nelson Motto, Manny Ness, Bertell Ollman, Jeff Perry, Catherine Pouzoulet, Dave Roediger, Andrew Ross, John Russo, Vinny Tirelli, Michelle Tokarczyk, Richard Trumka, Joe Wilson

Plus over 180 presentationsin working class studies from graduate students, faculty, union and community activists -- from Australia, Canada, France, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Turkey, UK, and US -- plus film, music, photography, and poetry

See the conference program and register on-line.

Institutions, Technology and their Roles in Economic Growth

Subsidised and full-rate places are still available at the 17-18 June 2008 International Workshop at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) on

"Institutions, Technology and their Roles in Economic Growth"

Speakers:
Geoffrey Hodgson (University of Hertfordshire)
Richard Lipsey (Simon Fraser University)
Carlota Perez (University of Cambridge)
Jochen Runde (University of Cambridge)
Vernon Ruttan (University of Minnesota)

This workshop will also include a POSTER SESSION where participants will be able to discuss a small display of their work.

For further details, please go to: http://www.geoffrey-hodgson.info/p37.htm 

SOAS Seminar Series II

Money Finance and Development
All seminars are in the Brunei Gallery, Room B111, 6.00 p.m.
Click here for detailed information.

Séminaire Hétérodoxies du CES-Matisse

L’objectif de ce séminaire, organisé par le CES-Matisse (UMR 8174), est d’offrir un cadre pour s’approprier et approfondir les outils présentés par différents travaux hétérodoxes (d’inspiration keynésienne, marxiste, régulationniste, conventionnaliste, évolutionniste, etc.).

Mardi 20 mai 2008
14h30 – 17h00

Séance co-organisée et animée par Olivier Allain (CES-Matisse)

1/ Les apports des approches stocks-flux
à l’analyse post-keynésienne

2/ Un modèle SFC à trois pays :
l’impact de la transformation en euros des réserves de change de la Chine

Marc Lavoie et Jun Zhao
(Université d’Ottawa)

Discutant : Jacques Mazier (Paris 13, CEPN)


MSE, 106 Bld de l’Hôpital, 75 013 PARIS (M° Campo Formio)
Salle des Conférences (6ème étage)

Les communications seront disponibles 15 jours avant le séminaire sur le site :
http://matisse.univ-paris1.fr/heterodoxies

Responsables du séminaire : Bruno Amable, Christophe Ramaux, Bruno Tinel et Carlo Vercellone. Contact : Seminaire-Heterodoxies@univ-paris1.fr

Marx and Philosophy Society: Fifth Annual Conference

Is there a Marxian philosophy?
Saturday 24th May 2008, 10.00am - 6.00pm Room 642, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1
Speakers:

Timothy Hall (East London): 'The Metacritique of Philosophy: Marx, Lukács and Adorno'

Amy Wendling (Creighton): 'The Strife between Technology and Capital: Machines in the Communist Future'

Andrew Feenberg (Simon Fraser): 'Marx and the Critique of Rationality: From Surplus Value to Technology Studies'

Graduate panel: Silvia de Bianchi (Rome), Simon Skempton (Middlesex)

Registration: £10 waged, £5 unwaged, payable at the door (provides annual membership of the society and entrance).
To reserve a place in advance please email martin.mcivor@alumni.lse.ac.uk
For map and travel directions see http://tinyurl.com/2vcqwl  20  Bedford Way is marked A on the map).
--
The Marx and Philosophy Society aims to encourage scholarly engagement with, and creative development of, the philosophical and foundational aspects of Marx's work. The society welcomes contributions from any philosophical or political position.

Organising group:
Chris Arthur, Andrew Chitty, Jan Derry, Martin McIvor, Scott Meikle, Sean Sayers
http://www.marxandphilosophy.org.uk
 
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Job Postings for Heterodox Economists

The University of Bath

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Professor in International Development - Ref 08H110A
The University of Bath, ranked among the top ten UK Universities, is seeking to recruit a professor of international development. Applicants should have an outstanding record of research and teaching in the field of international development, and be committed to multidisciplinary approaches. In addition to strong international standing as a scholar, the successful candidate should have the vision, leadership qualities and management skills to provide strategic direction to the ID Group within the Department of Economics and International Development.

The ID Group currently comprises ten staff with backgrounds in social anthropology, economics, politics and sociology. DEID is also home for the Economics Group, comprising 24 economists. Further information about the Department, including undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programmes and research can be obtained from the websites at
http://www.bath.ac.uk/econ-dev/index.htm  and http://www.bath.ac.uk/cds.

Informal enquiries about the post can be made to the Head of Department of Economics and International Development, Dr James Copestake at J.Copestake@bath.ac.uk or on +44(0) 1225 383859.

Application forms and further details may be obtained from the Human Resources Department, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, email jobs@bath.ac.uk  or contact +44 (0)1225 386873 quoting Ref No 08H110A. See www.bath.ac.uk/jobs.  Alternatively, please phone the 24 hr answer-phone service on (01225) 386924, text phone (01225) 386039 quoting Ref No 08H110A
Closing date for receipt of applications: Monday 12 May 2008
Interview dates: Monday 9 June 2008

Cardiff School of Management

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Social Economy

Cardiff School of Management is seeking to appoint a social economist or heterodox economist to contribute to both the teaching and research aspects of our work.

The Cardiff School of Management has a strong profile, both nationally and internationally, in the fields of Management, Business, Computing, Tourism and Hospitality, together with proven standing with a range of relevant professional bodies. The School is now looking to recruit additional academic staff to maintain the pace of its development.

Applications are invited from candidates with a strong appetite and ability to embark immediately on a doctorate as a minimum for Lecturer level. An enthusiastic engagement with the discipline is essential, as is the ability and flexibility to teach across a range of modular options at all levels.

The appointee will also be expected to be research active and an interest in the social economy or co-operative research is particularly welcome. The Wales Institute for Research into Co-operatives is located within the Cardiff School of Management and being qualified and enthusiastic about contributing to the research of this team would be an advantage.

Salary: Lecturer: £33,780 - £38,019
Senior Lecturer: £39,160 - £45,397

Closing date for receipt of applications: 2nd May 2008
More details of the post are available on the UWIC website at:
http://www.uwic.ac.uk/jobsatuwic/pdfs/V428%20L%20Economics%20JD%20March%202008.pdf

Wales Institute for Research

There is also a forthcoming Research Assistant post within Wales Institute for Research into Co-operatives. For an informal chat about this post call Molly Scott Cato on 01453 764730.

University of Brighton

Brighton Business School is seeking to build upon its existing reputation and become one of the top business schools in the country.
Professors (three posts)
from £52,628 to £55,833 per annum
Our senior management and leadership structure is undergoing a major reorganisation and we wish to appoint three additional professors to provide academic leadership. You will have an established record of research and publications in your subject area, the ability to enhance our reputation, and work with enthusiastic business school colleagues to develop their interests and expertise. Candidates may also be able to take on another leadership role as part of the management group providing strategic direction for the school.
Applications in the areas of strategy, HRM, marketing and law are particularly welcome – although we will consider applications in any of our disciplines or related areas. Ref: MB3001
Lecturer/Senior lecturers (four posts)
from £30,013 to £35,858 at Lecturer level
from £36,912 to £42,791 at Senior Lecturer level
We are also looking for lecturers and senior lecturers in business process management, economics, strategy and human resources management, to work in a vibrant environment, bringing new ideas and contributing to all aspects of school life. Senior lecturers will play an important part in the redesign of our postgraduate portfolio. You are likely to be an experienced lecturer with a good research record or an experienced professional wishing to pursue an academic career. Candidates with a recent postgraduate qualification and an active research interest will be considered for lecturer posts. Job sharers welcome. Ref: MB3063
Closing date for all posts: Tuesday 6 May 2008
Interviews are likely to take place between 30 May and 6 June 2008
Informal enquiries can be made to Professor Aidan Berry on 01273 642570 or at a.j.berry@brighton.ac.uk.
For an application form call (01273) 642849 (24 hours) or visit www.brighton.ac.uk/vacancies/  quoting the appropriate reference number.

University of Leeds

Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment
Chair in Environmental Social Science
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Environmental Policy
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Environment and Development

With over 30 staff and 35 PhD students, the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) is now one of the largest concentrations of environmental social scientists in the UK. It is a thriving research institute situated in one of the strongest Schools of Earth and Environmental Sciences. SRI has received significant research funding from various sources, including the recent award of £5.5 million from the ESRC to establish the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (in partnership with the LSE).

Research within the SRI draws on disciplines which span the environmental social sciences and that combine social and natural sciences in leading-edge, interdisciplinary research. As well as being a centre of excellence for inter-disciplinary research, SRI runs a range of postgraduate and undergraduate programmes on the different dimensions of sustainability.

Chair in Environmental Social Sciences
We are seeking to appoint a leading environmental social scientist with connections to our core research areas and a commitment to inter-disciplinary research. The appointee will have a world-class record of peer-reviewed publications and a strong and ongoing track record of research income generation. They will be highly esteemed within their field, and demonstrate momentum for further enhancement in their profile into the future. They will have a significant impact on the research profile of SRI and they will be expected to contribute to its on-going management and development. They will also be expected to make a contribution to teaching based on their research expertise.

Professor - University Grade 10, salary range (from May 2008) £51,095 to £68,665. Closing date - Friday May 30th 2008, interviews July 8th 2008.

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Environmental Policy
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Environment and Development
We are seeking to recruit to two positions that will help develop our research capabilities in the fields of environmental policy and environment and development. You should have a strong publications record in relevant fields and relevant teaching experience. We also encourage applications from those with interests that relate to climate change or with experience in inter-disciplinary research that combines social and natural sciences. Applications from early career academics are also welcome.

Lecturer - University Grade 8 (£34,793 - £41,545 p.a.), Senior Lecturer – University Grade 9 (£42,791 - £49,606 p.a.). Salaries effective from 1 May 2008. Closing date 19 May 2008. Interviews to be held week commencing 2 June 2008

Further details concerning the SRI can be found at http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/research/sri/index.htm
Informal enquiries to Prof Andy Gouldson, Director of the SRI (tel +44 (0)113 343 6417 email a.gouldson@see.leeds.ac.uk).
To apply online please visit http://www.leeds.ac.uk and click on ‘jobs’. Alternatively, application packs are available via email recruitment@adm.leeds.ac.uk  or tel +44 (0)113 3435771.

State University of New York- Potsdam

SUNY Potsdam invites applicants for a position as instructor or assistant professor beginning fall 2008 in Employment Relations.
For a tenure-track appointment at the assistant professor level, applicants must hold a doctorate or other terminal degree by fall 2008. Scholarly activity is also desirable. The candidate is expected to teach a broad range of Employment Relations courses in a liberal arts environment (including Labor History, Comparative Labor Relations, Introduction to Employment Relations). For a list of current courses offered by the department, refer to http://www.potsdam.edu/emre/courses.  The department also welcomes new courses.
Application review begins immediately and continues until the position is filled. Send or email cover letter [indicating your previous teaching experience and describing your teaching methods], CV, copy of graduate transcripts, teaching evaluations, and the names of three references to: Search Chair, Economics and Employment Relations, SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, New York 13676, or email nuwermj@potsdam.edu. 
SUNY Potsdam is an Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Employer committed to excellence through diversity.



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Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles

"From the credit crunch to the spectre of global crisis"

by Chris Harman
http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=421&issue=118

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Heterodox Journals and Newsletters

The Associative Economics Bulletin

The Associative Economics Bulletin consists of news and views on associative economics, including short extracts from Associative Economics Monthly (available electronically for $1 an issue at www.cfae.biz/a em or in a hard copy format - tel (UK) 01227 738207).

1. Friends of Associative Economics
2. The AE Festival, August 2008, Canterbury, UK
3. Events at The London School of Economics from this Thursday 17th April
4. Rethinking Credit - Associative Economics Monthly 2008
5. The Colours of Money - October 2008

1) FRIENDS OF ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMICS

The idea of The Friends of Associative Economics is to provide a community of support that will help bring an associative paradigm present day practical arrangements. Visit the webpage at http://www.aefriends.com/

2) ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY 10-14 AUGUST 2008

More details, programme and registration at www.cfae.biz/festival 

3) EVENTS AT THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS FROM THIS THURSDAY 17TH
APRIL (NOTE NEW ROOM)

April 17th Capitalising Initiative - The antidote to inflation?
May 22nd Finance and Farming - Sectors within or boundaries of economic life?
June 19th Pluralist and Practical - How should economics be taught?

Attendance charge: £5 (Students free)
LSE, Room S306, 3rd Floor, St. Clement's, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.htm
Full details - http://www.arthuredwards.net/events/

4) RETHINKING CREDIT - ASSOCIATIVE ECONOMICS MONTHLY 2008 (CONTENTS)

In Full Astearn!, we begin with a look at some typical press coverage of the current financial turmoil. Unfortunately, the telling scale and scope of the difficulties we face, but also the extent of disagreement over what is ‘wrong’, does little to lessen today’s uncertainty.
The Sign of the Times is an extract from the blog of the US economist, Paul Krugman, who claims the problem is that we have failed to learn the lessons of the early 1930s about unrestricted banking. But is it in fact about getting the financial system under control? Or is it our economic thinking that we need to get to grips with, especially the basic concepts by which we understand capital in relation to land? The aim of these pieces is to provide evidence of the problems then addressed in the feature, Concerning Real and Personal Credit, which looks at Rudolf Steiner’s analysis of today’s difficulties. Steiner focuses on two main problems – what he regards as the conceptual error of capitalising land, and the practical remedy of favouring ‘personal’ over ‘real’ credit. It is from this that the 6th of our 21 Policies is derived concerning sectoral interest rates. In response to today’s calls for an overhaul of modern economic ideas, Befriending Associative Economics - this month’s AE Hero - highlights a recent development intended to foster the associative approach.
Accountant’s Corner provides a post script to our commentary with its questioning of Marking to Market.

5) THE NEXT COLOURS OF MONEY SEMINAR

3rd-5th October 2008, Stroud, UK
Details - http://www.arthuredwards.net/events/

International Review of Applied Economics

Volume 22 Issue 1 is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

This new issue contains the following articles:

- Capacity utilization and technology shocks in the US manufacturing sector p. 287
Authors: Jens J. Krüger

- Combining minimum wage and exchange rate policy to release the external constraint on growth p. 299
Authors: N. Bauduin; N. Chusseau; J. Hellier

- The impact of labour reallocation and competitive pressure on TFP growth: firm-level evidence from crisis and transition ridden Bulgaria p. 321
Authors: Ralitza Dimova

- Value chains in the informal sector: income shares of home-based subcontracted workers in Pakistan p. 339
Authors: Shahrukh Rafi Khan; Sajid Kazmi

- Patterns of innovation diffusion and technological competition in Portuguese manufacturing and service industries p. 353
Authors: Maria Fraga; O. Martins; Paulo Anciaes

- An assessment of mortgage interest inflation measurement bias in the UK p. 373
Authors: Damian Ward

- On quasi-markets and privatizations in public services p. 387
Authors: Grazia Ietto-Gillies

Review of Social Economy

Volume 66 Issue 1 is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

Special Issue: Living Standards and Social Well-Being

This new issue contains the following articles:

- Introduction to Living Standards and Social Well-Being p. 1
Authors: Deborah M. Figart; John Marangos

- Consumption, Work Hours, and Values in the Writings of John A. Ryan: Is it Possible to Return to the Road Not Taken? p. 7
Authors: Martha A. Starr

- Overtime Work and Wellbeing at Home p. 25
Authors: Lonnie Golden; Barbara Wiens-Tuers

- Family Friendly Policies: Helping Mothers Make Ends Meet p. 51
Authors: Heather Boushey

- Basic Income and Productivity in Cognitive Capitalism p. 71
Authors: Stefano Lucarelli; Andrea Fumagalli

- Living Wage and Optimal Inequality in a Sarkarian Framework p. 93
Authors: Mark Friedman

Forum for Social Economics

Volume 37 Number 1 of Forum for Social Economics is now available on the SpringerLink web site at http://springerlink.com
In this issue:
- The State, Public Policy and Heterodox Economics: An Introduction Author(s): Clifford Poirot, Samuel R. Pavel
- The Theory of the State: The Position of Marx and Engels Author(s): John F. Henry
- Institutionalism and the State: Founding Views Reexamined Author(s): Timothy A. Wunder, Thomas Kemp
- Toward ‘Wisely Managed’ Capitalism: Post-Keynesian Institutionalism and the Creative StateAuthor(s): Charles J. Whalen
- Is Pragmatism Good for Anything? Towards a Theory of Impractical Economics Author(s): Clifford Poirot

CASE E-Brief

The new CASE E-Brief “Development of Scenarios for Health Expenditures in the Accession Economies: Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia” is available on our website. Click here to download the publication: http://www.case.com.pl/upload/publikacja_plik/19658310_E-brief_March08_Sowa.pdf .

Journal of Post Keynesian Economics

Volume 30 Number 3 / Spring 2008 is now available at http://mesharpe.metapress.com.

This issue contains:

- Foreign savings, insufficiency of demand, and low growth
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, Paulo Gala

- The U.S. housing slump and the consumer
Philip Arestis, Elias Karakitsos

- A model of the Spanish housing market
Marisol Esteban, Amaia Altuzarra

- U.S. growth, the housing market, and the distribution of income
Gennaro Zezza

- Monetary policy rules and U.S. monetary policy
H. Sonmez Atesoglu

- Accounting for Irish growth: a balance-of-payments-constraint approach
Carlos Garcimartín, Luis Alberto Rivas, Santiago Diaz De Sarralde

- Inflation targeting and macroeconomic stability in a Post Keynesian economy
Gilberto Tadeu Lima, Mark Setterfield

- Short-run and long-run determinants of income inequality: evidence from 16 countries
Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee, Scott W. Hegerty, Harvey Wilmeth

- Some considerations on equilibrium and realism
Claudio Sardoni

- Stability, equilibrium, and realism: a response to Sardoni
Dany Lang, Mark Setterfield

Levy News

Digital Newsletter of The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
April 23, 2008

NEW STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

Fiscal Stimulus: Is More Needed?
DIMITRI B. PAPADIMITRIOU, GREG HANNSGEN, and GENNARO ZEZZA
April 2008
www.levy.org/pubs/sa_apr_08.pdf 
Our Macro-Modeling Team simulates the effects of President Bush’s stimulus bill as well as an additional $450 billion fiscal stimulus. According to an updated baseline scenario without a stimulus plan, the United States will experience a recession in 2008, output will be permanently reduced by 4 percent, and unemployment will increase by 2 percentage points. Because of the temporary effect of transfers, a fiscal stimulus of 1 or 4 percent of GDP is inadequate to counter the fall of GDP below potential. Government expenditures such as public works projects, however, are superior to net transfers.
The authors challenge the notion that a stimulus larger and more prolonged than the president’s package is unnecessary and would generate inflationary pressures. An enduring recovery will depend on an increase in exports due to a weak dollar, a modest increase in imports, and a narrowing of the current account gap.

NEW WORKING PAPER

Can Robbery and Other Theft Help Explain the Textbook Currency-demand Puzzle? Two Dreadful Models of Money Demand with an Endogenous Probability of Crime
GREG HANNSGEN
Working Paper No. 529
www.levy.org/pubs/wp_529.pdf
Research Scholar Greg Hannsgen constructs a dynamic monetary model in order to explain the empirical puzzle posed by N. Gregory Mankiw—namely, that individuals hold much less money than suggested by theory. Hannsgen’s analysis may help answer broader questions about the stock of cash that is not held by U.S. households and provide evidence for certain welfare issues.

BIENNIAL REPORT ISSUED

Biennial Report, 2006–2007
www.levy.org/pubs/br_07-08.pdf 
Throughout 2006–07, the Levy Institute continued to make significant contributions to the public policy discussions on numerous economic issues. In addition to organizing conferences, workshops, and lectures with distinguished representatives of the academic and business communities and government, the Institute used its wide range of print and online publications to disseminate information about, and foster debate on, numerous policy issues.
The Biennial Report includes a complete listing of the Institute’s 2006–07 publications, organized by research program; outlines of its conferences and symposia; and descriptions of its affiliated programs, grant research, and new initiatives.

SPRING 2008 SUMMARY
Volume 17, No. 2
www.levy.org/pubs/sum_17_2.pdf
The Summary, published three times a year, is aimed primarily at an academic audience. It updates current Levy Institute research, with synopses of new publications, special features on continuing research projects, accounts of professional presentations by the research staff, and an overview of Levy Institute events.

APRIL 2008 REPORT
Volume 18, No. 2
www.levy.org/pubs/rpt_18_2.pdf
The Report, a quarterly newsletter, is aimed at a diverse general audience interested in policy matters. It includes interviews with prominent scholars and public officials who can provide insights into current topics of debate, editorials by Levy Institute research staff, summaries of new publications, synopses of conferences and other events, and news of the Institute and its scholars.

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Heterodox Books and Book Series

SOLIDARITY ECONOMY: Building an Economy for People and Planet

Papers & Reports from the U.S. Social Forum 2007. It is available on the web via www.lulu.com/ChangeMaker. 

This 430 page book documents and theorizes about emerging "solidarity economy" values, practices and institutions which are creating a more just and sustainable economy in the U.S. and in the world. I recommend it for URPERs interested in economic transformation in the U.S. -- and to profs looking for grounded yet inspirational reading for classes in political economy, economic justice, economic alternatives, or to complement a mainstream microeconomics class.

$25 for the book; $5 for a downloaded copy.

For more information on SOLIDARITY ECONOMY, including the table of contents and short reviews from J.K. Gibson-Graham, Michael Albert, and Gar Alperovitz,see:

http://net4dem.org/senet/SENAD2BU.pdf

For an electronic examination copy, email Germai@GrowingtheGreenEconomy.org 

For more information on the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, see www.ussen.org 

LES BANQUES CENTRALES DOIVENT-ELLES ETRE INDÉPENDANTES ?

EDWIN LE HÉRON, PHILIPPE MOUTOT

La Banque centrale européenne (BCE) est la mal-aimée de l’Europe. De Nicolas Sarkozy à Ségolène Royal, un large consensus critique semble s’être dessiné. Pourtant, les partis de gouvernement, PS et UMP en tête, ont soutenu, depuis une vingtaine d’années, la création puis l’affermissement d’une BCE indépendante. Les Français euxmêmes y ont consenti, à une courte majorité, via le référendum sur le traité de Maastricht, en 1992.
Les partisans de l’indépendance justifient leur position par les nécessités de la lutte contre l’inflation. Ses détracteurs soulignent que l’indépendance de la BCE confine à l’irresponsabilité la plus absolue. Les uns voient à la fonction de banquiercentral un caractère purement technique et invoquent la séparation des pouvoirs, à la base de toute démocratie. Les autres considèrent que son rôle est forcément politique et fustigent le déficit démocratique de la BCE. Qui croire ?
C’est pour permettre à chacun de se forger sa propre opinion que les ouvrages de la collection « Pour ou contre ? » réunissent sur un même sujet les avis de deux experts aux points de vue différents dans un langage clair et accessible.
Edwin Le Héron est maître de conférences à l’IEP de Bordeaux. Ce spécialiste reconnu des questions monétaires est l’auteur de nombreux articles et ouvrages. Il préside l’Association de développement des études keynésiennes (ADEK). Philippe Moutot est à la tête de la direction de la politique monétaire de la Banque centrale européenne. Ce haut fonctionnaire passé par le FMI a pris directement part à la création de l’euro. Son oeuvre comprend de nombreux articles. Site du livre http://www.editionspromethee.fr/Pages/bce.htm   (pdf)

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Heterodox Websites and Blogs

PEKEA

A political and ethical knowledge on economic activities
PEKEA is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations granted in July 2006.
PEKEA is running as an open network , gathering academics from various disciplines, people committed in concrete actions and also local governments that are sharing the objective defined below. Its participants seek to contribute to, or simply support reflections on this objective, especially during conferences (see our Recent History).
They are individual members of PEKEA, members of associations or local authorities partnered with PEKEA and sharing the same objective and the same argument They have produced hundred of texts where we may find ideas on all subjects thanks to our research engine: Pekea-doc . http://www.pekea.org

SEPLA

Sociedad de Economía Política y Pensamiento Crítico Latinoamericano (SEPLA)
(Latin American Society for Political Economy and Critical Thinking)
http://sepla.icidac.org/Coloquio4.htm 
http://seplaconference.blogspot.com/  

Brazilian Institute for Full Employment

http://www.desempregozero.org.br/
Several months ago, the Brazilian Institute for Full Employment joined EFE as an institutional member. At that time I shared with the members of the network information and documents regarding the Brazilian Campaign for Zero Unemployment. We are very happy to announce that a lot of progress has since been made regarding a proposal for the creation of the Brazilian Job Guarantee Programme. In the past months, broadly based consultations with civil society organizations, members of government, trade unions and economists in Brazil have resulted in enthusiastic endorsement for such a policy intervention.

To further discuss this initiative we have organized the First Citizen City International Symposium on ELR. This public dialogue forum, supported by the National Development Bank of Brazil, is scheduled to take place in Rio, March 9-10. For details please visit the EFE website.

In conclusion, we wish to acknowledge the contributions of the network of Economists for Full Employment, which have enabled us to make important connections with economists, policy makers and advisors from around the world.

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For Your Information

Classification of the History of Economic Thought in Australia

The final resolution over the classification of History of Economic Thought and Economic History within the Australian system of research classification codes has now been announced. As most on this site will recall, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) had made a provisional decision to relocate both HET and EH away from its current classification as part of Economics and into a new category under the heading, “History, Archaeology, Religion and Philosophy”. The opposition to such a shift was both national and international in which two almost identical but entirely separate campaigns were waged by historians of economics and economic historians to overturn this decision. And while following these campaigns there had been an earlier statement from the ABS that it would be recommending the preservation of both areas within the overall Economics classification, final confirmation had not occurred until now.

On 31 March, the ABS released its final revised classification codes entirely in keeping with its previously stated undertakings. The classification code History of Economic Thought and Economic History has been removed as a separate part of the Economics classification with HET being placed within Economic Theory and EH now listed as part of Applied Economics. Economics is categorised as Division 14 within which there is now “Group 1401 Economic Theory”. In relation to this group, the ABS classification codes now makes a specific statement to say that included in this group is the history of economic thought. This is the relevant statement from the ABS’s Revised Research Classification Code for Group 1401:

“This group covers economic theory. It includes history of economic thought.
This group has five fields:

140101 History of Economic Thought
140102 Macroeconomic Theory
140103 Mathematical Economics
140104 Microeconomic Theory
140199 Economic Theory not elsewhere classified.”

Should it be thought that the placement of history of economic thought as first in this listing reflects any judgment on the subject matter itself, it should be noted that the classification list is merely in alphabetical order.

It is then noted by the ABS under the heading “Exclusions” that “history and philosophy of economics is included in Group 2202 History and Philosophy of Specific Fields.” But when one actually follows the pathway to Group 2202 all one finds are eleven subject codes, each representing histories of vast areas of the academic world. Had historians of economics not taken the steps it took, History of Economic Thought would have been utterly lost, placed under Grouping 220208 “History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences”. As a subject area, history of economic thought would have completely disappeared.

In many ways it is regrettable that the ABS was adamant that it would not retain a separate division containing just HET and EH. But that is a much lesser matter than the near miss disaster that would have occurred had history of thought and economic history been hived off into some far off region in the nether world of academic obscurity. This was a fight in which it turns out HET and EH had even more to lose than was ever fully understood at the time. History of economic thought and economic history are not separate from economics; they are as much part of economics as microeconomic theory and international trade and it is absolutely right that this understanding is now to be embedded in the Standard Research Classification Codes.

From our perspective, there is no doubt that had the proposed change
been made it would have diminished economics as a subject within Australia and the standing of Australian economists overseas. There is also no doubt that the outcome the ABS has now proposed is appropriate, as the testimony from so many economists from across the world has so eloquently shown and for which we in Australia remain extremely grateful. But none of this is to deny just how close run this entire episode has been. Nor does any of this foreclose on the possibility that this same threat may recur when the classification system is next revised in ten years time although possibly sooner. But that is for another generation of historians of economics to deal with should this issue ever arise again.

As for our colleagues overseas, there are many warnings in this local episode which ought to be borne in mind, particularly the difficulties involved in convincing individuals utterly unsympathetic to the study of the history of economics that it is in fact an important area of research and an absolutely integral part of the subject matter of economics itself.

Steven Kates
www.Community-Wealth.org e-newsletter

Welcome to our latest www.Community-Wealth.org e-newsletter. This quarter we bring you the following new developments:
- The Democracy Collaborative will be participating in a LISC webinar on “Linking Your CDC to Local Anchor Institutions.” The webcast event will take place Wednesday, April 23, from 2:00 - 3:30 PM Eastern Time. Click the link to visit www.lisc.org  for details.
- Our nation’s capital is not only the seat of the Federal government, but also home to a network of local community wealth-building models and initiatives. This quarter we present the eleventh in our continuing series of profiles of Community Wealth Cities: Washington, D.C.
- We also offer the sixth in our continuing series of conversations with community wealth-building leaders: Eric Weaver of San Jose, CA-based Lenders for Community Development. For more than a dozen years, this CDFI has effectively combined individual wealth-building programs with microenterprise and community development lending.
- We’ve made a number of enhancements to our C-W Blog, including adding links to related blogs and adding RSS feed and e-mail services that allow you to get regular updates on additions. If you know of something we should announce or feature, please let us know!

Click here for detailed information.

What's The Economy For, Anyway?

If you have ever asked yourself...
What's the Economy For, Anyway?
What should a well-functioning economy do?
What's behind lower wages and longer working hours?
Should we, ordinary folk have any say in running our own economy?
How do we build a more just and sustainable economy?
...then this course is for you!

What's The Economy For, Anyway? The Case for a Solidarity Economy and Social Wealth
An Online Course offered by the Center for Popular Economics
Summer Session I (June 2 - July 10, 2008)
Course Fee: $900 for 3 Univ. of Massachusetts Credits or $400 for non-credit students.
40-60 Professional Development Points (in MA) or 3.6 Continuing Education Credits (outside MA) available.
Limited scholarships available for non-credit students.

The Center for Popular Economics, in collaboration with the Forum on Social Wealth and the Political Economy Research Institute at Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst is offering a special topics 3-credit online course (Econ 197) this Summer. The course runs from Monday, June 2nd til Thursday July 10th. No background in Economics is required. The course is suited for students as well as activists and community members who want to learn more about the economy. For more info. and course outline please visit: http://www.populareconomics.org/WTEF_Online_Course.html. An overview of the course is presented below. For more details contact Amit Basole at abasole@gmail.com or Emily Kawano at emily@populareconomics.org.

Overview: "The Economy" is often portrayed in the media and by politicians as a force of nature that we must adapt to or perish. But we, the ordinary people make our economy tick. Shouldn't we have a say in how it is run and to what purpose? This online course raises the questions: what purpose do we want our economy to fulfill? Is it fulfilling this purpose today? If not, what can we do about it? What resources do we have available in order to effect our changes?

The course is comprised of three main parts. Part One takes a look at the performance of the current economic model, known to economists as "Neoliberalism." Although our economic model has allowed unprecedented accumulation of wealth by a few, for the majority of us it has meant falling or stagnant wages, longer work hours, rising healthcare costs, and deterioration of our natural and social environment. We start with a look at the historical roots of neoliberalism and then try to understand the economics behind it.

In Part Two, we start talking about how some of the things that we saw going wrong in Part One can be set right. In the midst of growing inequality and corporate power, many grassroots economic alternatives have been springing up throughout the U.S. as well as the rest of the world. This is the new "Solidarity Economy." Grounded in principles of economic democracy, social solidarity, cooperation, egalitarianism, and sustainability, this is an alternative to the Neoliberal vision of the economy. In this part of the course we will look at some examples of such alternatives as well as understand the economics behind them.

Building alternatives requires resources. But part of the neoliberal agenda is the diverting of economic resources into fewer and fewer hands. Where will the resources for alternatives come from? In Part Three we talk about a vast store of assets that communities everywhere possess and on which they can draw for constructing alternatives. This store, which we call "social wealth" consists of our cultural and ecological commons and our capacity to work for those we care about. We will also look at how the economics of the care economy or the cultural commons differs from the economics of corporations.

Lost in Transmission

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,2273557,00.html
John Crace
Tuesday April 15, 2008
The Guardian

For the tens of thousands of tourists who visit each year, Eyam is the Derbyshire village that quarantined itself during the plague of 1666 to stop the disease spreading. Except it's not. The death toll and heroism have been greatly exaggerated and Eyam's elevation to a model of civic virtue is largely a romantic and social construct, created about 200 years after the event, to chime with 19th-century ideals of national identity and heritage. But the facts have long since ceased to matter; Eyam's place in English history is secure.

Facts are sometimes regarded as the lowest form of academic life - the dull but necessary building blocks around which far more exciting theories and narratives are hung. Yet they can be surprisingly problematic: not only do different disciplines view facts in different ways - the humanities talk of fact and fiction, lawyers speak of fact and inference, scientists speak of fact and scientific interpretation - but facts are often highly labile in transmission. So what happens when, as with Eyam, a fact turns out not to be true?

Blue-skies research

Just over three years ago, Mary Morgan and her colleagues in the department of economic history at the London School of Economics (LSE) were brainstorming ideas that fitted the Leverhulme Trust's research grant remit on The Nature of Evidence and came up with what, at first glance, seems a strange solution. Rather than get lost in the philosophical and scientific cul-de-sac of the "when is a fact not a fact" debate, why didn't they just accept that a fact could be anything that was widely held to be true at the time? That way they could start looking at something far more interesting; how facts travelled from one discipline to another and how some facts travelled better than others.

"It was one of those great lottery-winning moments," Morgan says. "The basic idea was very simple: our department spans two disciplines and we wanted to try to define what we understood by useful, reliable knowledge that transferred successfully between the two. But beyond that, we really had no idea how it was going to pan out." The beauty of the Leverhulme Trust grant - one of the last great blue-skies awards on offer - was that it gave her, her faculty and her team of five post-docs an open playing-field and plenty of time to find out. And three years and some 26 working papers, covering everything from the architecture of St Paul's cathedral to macro-economics and epidemiology, later, she's just about ready to offer some preliminary conclusions.

Functional role

"There are two main messages," she says. "First is that facts travel well when they have good companions - when they are well-labelled, well-packaged and have good character witnesses. Second is that facts also travel well if they have sufficient character for them to play various functional roles; or, to put it more simply, there has to be a demand for a fact for it to travel. The reason research that turns up surprising results tends to get so much attention is that it satisfies our curiosity."

It's here that things get really interesting. For what often really determines how well a fact travels is not whether it is true or not, but how much people want to believe it. Urban myths, such as "we only use 10% of our brains", spread because they flatter our sense of unfulfilled potential. The link between autism and the MMR vaccine is another case in point; there was such a groundswell of desire for there to be a causal explanation that the usual rules of evidence got blurred.

Not that the existence of these meta-factoids are entirely down to the public's credulity, as Jon Adams, a researcher on the Nature of Evidence project, points out. "Scientific facts are often quite abstruse and come with heavy qualifiers," he says. "So they often morph on their travels. One of the fundamental problems of science popularisation is that a complex issue can be over-simplified to such an extent that there is little resemblance between the scientific fact and the way it is commonly understood.

"Scientists also sometimes use fictional devices as a means of engaging with their audience. This can be a great way of getting people's attention and of enabling facts to travel, but then the ratio of factual to fictional material tips past a crucial point and the generic blurring risks undermining the security of the knowledge. The reader becomes unsure whether to trust the material and risks becoming either too sceptical or too credulous. This is of particular concern for the predictive sciences - climate change, population growth etc - as, like fiction, they work in the subjunctive mode. Pit two counterfactuals against each other and it's difficult to pick a winner."

Stability of facts

The onus - especially now that so much research has become multi-disciplinary - is for specialists to clearly package and label their information so that it retains its meaning through repeated transmission and that a fact that is foundational in a specific field comes to be foundational in others. And Morgan argues that what has surprised her is not so much the instances where academics have lost control and authorship of their facts, but the stability of so many others. "We've done a great deal of work on rumour [where ideas get embellished in transmission] and gossip [where ideas get muddled in transmission]," she says, "and we expected to find that facts operated along similar lines. Yet in a large number of cases their integrity was maintained."

What's become clear, too, is how facts can also emerge - seemingly counter-intuitively - out of data that most scientists would acknowledge is fallible. "We're seeing this in some areas of epidemiology," Adams says. "Collecting data on how disease is spread in some areas of the world often relies heavily on anecdotal evidence. Yet given enough of this information, statisticians can model effective immunity programmes that become the framework of public health policy."

None of which looks like the typical work of an economic history department. But then, as Morgan knows only too well, facts often have a life of their own. So how does she imagine the results of this research project will be used in the future? "With 'blue-skies' projects - almost by definition - you are never really sure where the findings will end up, and who will use them for what and when," she says cautiously. "But I do know from my past experience of working on models that it's likely to end up in all sorts of places I never imagined." Just how far it does travel, though, will undoubtedly depend on how well it's packaged.

We Are What We Learn

How professors can turn bleeding hearts into capitalists--and vice versa.

What is fair? Should we raise taxes and redistribute the proceeds to the poor? Depends on whether you value equality (there should not be poverty in prosperity's midst) or efficiency (if we tax too much, perhaps no one will bother to do any work).

Different people value different things. According to the World Values Survey, Americans are less than half as likely as Finns to support income redistribution if it comes at the expense of incentives for individual effort. (cont.)

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