From the Editors
This is the 100th issue of the Heterodox Economics
Newsletter. To celebrate this milestone we have included two special
sections in this issue. First, in the H.E.N in Numbers section, the remarkable
quantitative growth in the Newsletter readership is reported. To
highlight, the number of subscribers has doubled since June 2005
(currently 3,830 people are receiving the Newsletter). Second, in the
following section, readers will find "100
Words on (the current state and future of) Heterodox Economics" by
leading heterodox economists. Unsurprisingly, their responses are as
diverse and enlightening as heterodox economics itself. We urge you
(especially, young heterodox economists) to heed their words
attentively.
The on-going global financial crisis has provided heterodox
economists with both opportunities and threats. Speaking of threats, we
recently reported that the heterodox economics department at University
of Notre Dame was dissolved. Similar attacks are happening around the
globe. The Administration at the University of Massachusetts Lowell has
recently decided to dismantle the department of Regional Economics and
Social Development (RESD). The Italian government has decided to
abolish two fundamental public research bodies, ISAE and ISFOL. Please
find details in the Queries from
Heterodox Economists section and sign the petitions to save RESD,
ISAE, and ISFOL.
One last note: following the tradition set by the former
editor, we plan on spending a little more time on research, as well as
kick back a bit and enjoy the beautiful summer here in Buffalo, so the
next issue of the Newsletter will be published on June 30.
In solidarity and in peace,
Tae-Hee Jo and Ted Schmidt, Editors
Email: heterodoxnews@gmail.com
Website: http://heterodoxnews.com
|
H.E.N in Numbers
Subscribers
Since the first issue of the Newsletter, the number of subscribers
has increased markedly. In June 2005 about 1,900 people were directly
receiving the Newsletter, around 3,000 in June 2008, and now 3,830.
There are also a number of people who receive the Newsletter but are
not counted because they get it through other mailing lists such as
AFEE, Capital and Class, London-HPE, AHE, Historical Materialism, PKSG,
etc. All combined, there are over 4,000 people around the globe who
receive the Heterodox Economics Newsletter.
Of 3,830 current subscribers, 25.6% are geographically located in
the continental Europe and Russia, 21.4% in the US (29.9% including
URPE members), 16.5% in the UK/Ireland, 13% in Asia, Africa, and
Oceania, 12.2% in Latin America, and 2.8% in Canada (see the figure
below).
Unique Visitors
The Heterodox Economics Newsletter moved to a commercial web server in
April 2008, and this paid service provides some interesting data. One
is the number of unique visitors to http://heterodoxnews.com (see
the figure below). The number has been increasing, and it peaked in
March 2010 (5,535 unique visitors).
Daily Access
There are about 800 unique visitors on the day a new issue is
published. The mean number of visitors per day is 259. Individual
issues are accessed by about 1,500 people, and readers are viewing 597
web pages per day (total 18,521 pages) based on March 2010 data.
Access by Countries
The top 25 countries in terms of access to the Newsletter website in
March 2010 are depicted below.
100 Words
on Heterodox Economics
Editors asked about 100 heterodox economists,
representing their school of
thought, institution, association, country, or region, about the
current state and future of heterodox economics. We have received very
interesting and enlightening responses. The
questions asked were:
Questions
- How is heterodox economics different from
mainstream-neoclassical economics?
- What is the current state of heterodox economics (in your
country or region)?
- What should be done to advance heterodox economics?
- Any word for the future generation of heterodox economics?
Even though we as heterodox economists are
diverse in terms of our theoretical emphasis, we share a lot in
common. Most respondents identified heterodox economics as
pluralistic, inter-disciplinary, policy-oriented, starting with the
real world, and challenging the status quo--perhaps the latter
is the main reason heterodox economics has been marginalized in
academia around the globe. At the same time, it implies that to advance
heterodox economics further, we need unceasing efforts to develop
realistic and relevant theories, to engage actively in the
policy-making process, and to communicate with other heterodox
economists (including, but not limited to, "organizing
conference-seminars, refereeing papers, publishing newsletters, editing
journals, and doing the administrative/institutional work necessary to
establish and run heterodox undergraduate and post-graduate economic
programs.")
Jorge
Garcia-Arias
1. They differ in their objects (and subjects) of study; in their
concerns, in many of the questions that they ask, in the answers that
they offer (for those questions that they share), in their underlying
mode of thought and, mainly, in the methodology that they use.
Unfortunately, there are also significant differences in their capacity
to influence the general public, the media, administrators and
politicians.
2. At this moment, Spain is a “world leader” in the
implementation of one of the most perverse, most baroque, least
transparent and best planned mechanisms to eradicate heterodox
viewpoints from university teaching and researching in Economics. (see Heterodox
Economics Newsletter, issue 94, for a brief overview; or
interested colleagues can request a more detailed account by e-mail, jrgara@unileon.es).
3. Promoting regional and worldwide associations, developing
international research groups, recruiting the best degree students for
heterodox postgraduate studies, calling for a public agency to manage
bibliometrics analysis, taking further the advances in the development
of particular indices for journals and centres involved in heterodox
economics, and increasing visibility in the academic environment and in
the public arena.
4. To work on the edges, and even more so, clearly outside the
boundaries, of mainstream economics is a hard task which involves
considerable costs at both personal and professional levels. Anyway,
working in the field from within one of the strands of heterodox
Economics can actually make you feel more useful for society, more
content with yourself, more able to enjoy things, in a word, happier.
N.B.: These opinions are exclusively those of the
respondent. They do not necessarily reflect, far less commit, those of
other Spanish heterodox economists, nor those of any Spanish or
international heterodox economics association, group or institution,
whether or not the respondent is linked to them.
Jorge Garcia-Arias, Associate Professor of Economics,
Department of Economics, University of Leon, Spain. Homepage
David
Barkin
The varieties of Political Ecology – involving the integration of
ecological, social, and solidarity economics with political economy
– offer valuable insights into the underlying causes of the twin
crises currently confronting us: economic and ecologic. When these
approaches are enriched with the teachings of peoples actively engaged
in strengthening their own communities with their multiple proposals
for assuring social well-bring and ecological protection and
restoration, we can develop new models for economic analysis and
political action. From the vantage point of Latin America, we can
enrich our teaching by incorporating the experiences of hundreds of
communities that are building social and political alliances to develop
new paradigms.
David Barkin, Profesor de Economía, Universidad
Autonoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, Mexico
Heinrich
Bortis
To revive political economy in the sense of Ricardo, Marx, Kalecki and
Keynes is of the greatest importance at present. The problem is to
forge the theoretical tools to come to grips with the present crisis
and to lay the conceptual foundations for shaping a new world economic
and financial order. This requires, however, that political economy,
post-cum-classical-Keynesian for example, be systematically presented
in the form of volumes on principles, treatises and textbooks. Given
this, political economy could be taught systematically. This would, in
turn, enable the transformation of existing economic theory chairs into
political economy chairs, or even the creation of new chairs in
political economy. In any case, in the form of political economy in a
broad sense, including, most importantly, the history of economic
theories, economic theory would become socially relevant again.
To conclude, systematic writing on political economy is, at present,
the most pressing task of (experienced) political economists.
Heinrich Bortis,
Professor and Chair of Political Economy, History of Economic Theories
and Economic History, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences,
University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Homepage
Andy Denis
Heterodox economics is constituted by the neoclassical mainstream by
exclusion. By excluding some and including others it creates a
heterodoxy and an orthodoxy. There will only be consistency in the
heterodoxy to the extent that mainstream economics is consistent in
what it excludes. Equally, the mainstream itself is not a single entity
but simply those approaches deemed insufficiently threatening to
warrant exclusion. A salient example is behavioural economics: though
highly critical of mainstream microeconomics and the principle of Homo
economicus, the reductionism of this school of thought renders it
acceptable to the mainstream - at a time when macro level irrationality
is apparently endemic, it is helpful to apologetic economics to be able
to suggest that the fault lies with insufficiently rational individual
agents.
The most important criteria which seem to me to operate in deciding
whom to exclude are
-
Holism or reductionism: seeing individual agents as isolated
atoms or as embedded in networks or social relations; and
-
Equilibrium or disequilibrium: explanation of social conditions
as underpinned by timeless equilibria or by momentary pauses between
kaleidoscopic shifts;
On these criteria institutionalism, post Keynesianism, Marxian
economics, Austrian economics and critical realism are all heterodox.
On the other hand, neoclassical Keynesianism, monetarism, new classical
macroeconomics, new Keynesianism, new institutional economics, and
analytical Marxism are all orthodox.
Scientific economics is best served by the struggle for pluralism, that
is, against exclusion, against the constitution of orthodoxies and
heterodoxies. We cannot support heterodox economics per se, as that
would require (for example) support for both Marxian and Austrian
economics, which would be incoherent. What we can do is to engage with
allies both within and outside the mainstream to oppose the monism of
the current orthodoxy, and those heterodox economists who would merely
like to replace it. Our goal should not be to replace the current
orthodoxy with a new one, but to remove the division of the discipline
into orthodox and heterodox camps.
Andy Denis, Senior Lecturer in Political Economy in the
Department of Economics, City University London. Homepage
Sheila Dow
Heterodox economics has never been stronger and at the same time had
such a great opportunity for gaining attention. The important challenge
in my view is to communicate heterodox ideas successfully. This
requires engagement with policy-making, where orthodox theory has been
found wanting, and the promotion of alternative theories. But it also
involves conveying what heterodox economics entails at the level of
ways of thinking about the economic process and of criteria for good
theorising (in general, not just in times of crisis). This can best be
achieved by advocating a pluralist structure for the education of
economists.
Sheila Dow, Professor of Economics, University of Stirling,
UK. Homepage
Amitava
Krishna Dutt
Recent economic events have drawn attention to the interconnected
failings of many aspects of economic orthodoxy: its optimization
fetish, its preoccupation with mathematical technique for its own sake,
its belief in the efficiency of market economies, its support for free
market policies, and its neglect of values. Now, more than ever,
heterodox economists, who have long been aware of these deficiencies,
need to continue to constructively develop alternative approaches to
economics with a genuine commitment to pluralism – in terms of
methods, views of the economy, and socially-just policies – while
seeking common ground beyond their shared opposition to mainstream
economics.
Amitava Krishna Dutt, Professor, Department of Political
Science, University of Notre Dame, USA. Homepage.
Peter E. Earl
Heterodox economists are different because they are unwilling to
compromise being able to address the complexity of the real world in
order to construct formal models. They are going to become increasingly
rare in Australia as the lack of heterodox journals on the A* list of
Excellence in Research Australia limits prospects for being hired or
promoted, and as requirements for mainstream coursework deter heterodox
PhD students. Heterodox economists should switch to the
‘Real-World Economics’ brand and try operating covertly
under the guise of pluralism, showing the value added by incorporating
‘non traditional variables’ alongside mainstream ones in
applied economics.
Peter E. Earl, Associate Professor of Economics, University
of Queensland, Australia. Homepage
Wolfram
Elsner
Heterodoxy is about interdependence among heterogeneous agents,
complexity, true uncertainty, search, adaptation, and complex process,
learning to coordinate, processes with multiple equilibria and manifold
lock-ins. About reducing complexity through emergent structure and
instrumental institutions, with mutual foundations of macro through
micro and ‘meso’, and vv. It is about power, status, and
the dominance of ceremonialism in the capitalist ‘market’
economy, which is crisis-prone and with its neoliberal degeneration
overly turbulent, unsustainable, and inacceptable; thus about building
collective action capability for realizing higher-level rationality.
In Germany, economics is particularly orthodox and anti-pluralist,
with its mission to transform German post-WWII-welfare state into a
‘proper’ Anglo-Saxon system.
We have largely determined economic research questions the last
three decades. But mainstream teaching, textbooks, and public advise
remained unswayed. Let’s get clustered! Any established
heterodoxer become mentor and advisor of 15 younger heterodoxers. And
say, write, and teach real-world economics from first semester. No
longer anti-plural, toxic textbooks, just because the curricula
prescribe it. Use only non-toxic textbooks. Students will appreciate it
– and get good jobs.
Wolfram Elsner, Professor of Economics, Institute for
Institutional and Innovation Economics (iino),
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics, University of Bremen,
Germany. Homepage
Ben Fine
1. It is different in method, in concepts, in social and historical
content, in goals, in interdisciplinarity and in sensitivity to its own
history and contemporary relevance.
2. It is alive and well but outside of economics departments where it
is suffering a slow and painful death of assault and neglect from an
intellectual barbarism that presents itself as scientific and rigorous.
3. Maintain intellectual and strategic integrity, especially in forging
interdisciplinarity and attachment to material realities as opposed to
slavish and opportunistic dedication to techniques.
4. Good luck but we can prevail collectively and individually
contingent upon broader struggles.
To address all of these questions, join www.iippe.org
Ben Fine, Professor of Economics, School of Oriental and
African Studies, University of London, UK. Hompage
William T.
Ganley
1. Heterodox economics is distinctive for the utilization of
methodological pluralism and the search for the analysis of economic
reality. How different than economic orthodoxy with its placement of
reality into neoclassical empty boxes!
2. Economic crises created opportunities for heterodox theories to
explain the present day economic situation; juxtaposed with the failure
of orthodox economics.
3. Now is the time for us to reach new audiences in the general public
and the halls of academia. The popularization of heterodox ideas has
never been more important.
4. Young heterodox economists: take heterodox economic theory to the
people. Power to the people!
William T. Ganley, Professor of Economics &
Finance, SUNY Buffalo State College, New York, US
Hardy Hanappi
HET is a pool of approaches advancing the understanding of
political economy as a scientific discipline. It differs from the
ruling body of economic mainstream by opposing a simple import of
methods of 18th century physics. This import - due to inadequacy with
respect to human society – has degenerated to a secularized,
monotheistic ‘religion’. The breakdown of an inadequate
dogma advances with its proven inability to support decision-making
– and the simultaneous success of heterodox approaches. Therefore
the most important task is to develop a methodological toolbox to
explore scientifically how to control the deteriorating dynamics of the
global political economy.
Hardy Hanappi, University Professor, Jean Monnet Chair for
Political Economy of European Integration, University of Technology
Vienna–Economics, Austria. Homepage
Geoffrey C.
Harcourt
As a Post-Keynesian, I approach economic issues by having modern
capitalism as the background to analysis. I try to analyse processes in
historical time and highlight decision making on pricing, production,
employment and accumulation in an inescapable uncertain environment by
those who run capitalist firms. I look for cumulative causation rather
equilibrating processes at work. I try to find why modern economies
malfunction, how to rectify this and move towards just, equitable
societies. I place all reasoning in historical, biographical settings,
taking in the contributions of past greats in our and related
disciplines. I happily use many modes of reasoning, including relevant
mathematics.
G. C. Harcourt, Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge,
UK and University of Adelaide, Australia. Homepage
Eckhard
Hein
1. Heterodox economics rejects the idea that economics has to start
from optimising (representative) individuals in a world of
probabilistic risk and that meaningful macroeconomic results can be
derived from this microeconomic perspective. Institutions, money,
state, class, gender, etc. are important for the explanation of
economic behaviour in a world of fundamental uncertainty. In this
realistic framework all sorts of fallacies of composition can arise.
2. In Germany, heterodox economics has almost disappeared from the
major universities and research institutes. However, it is still alive
at a few smaller universities, at universities of applied sciences, and
in two research institutes which are close to the trade unions.
Furthermore, there are heterodox societies and networks with regular
conferences, in particular the Research
Network Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies with annual
international conferences which have more than 200 participants.
3. Increase the pressure on universities to provide relevant teaching
and research in economics, and improve access of researchers doing
relevant economics to university positions and to public funding.
4. Don’t give up.
Eckhard Hein, Professor of Economics, Berlin School of
Economics and Law, Germany. Homepage
John F.
Henry
I’d suggest that the feature that best distinguishes (or should
distinguish) heterodoxy from mainstream economics is that we should be
trying to “change the world.” While such a slogan would
have different meanings for different strands of heterodox economists,
all are attempting to produce a world that is more humane, more
sensible, more amenable to the provisioning process—in particular
to the nurturing of children. It would appear that in this, we are not
very successful in the current period. We need to be better organized,
more aggressive in making our positions more public. To this end, the
advice I would give future generations would be to quote Marx:
“Struggle!”
John F. Henry, Professor of Economics, University of
Missouri-Kansas City, US. Hompage
Arturo Hermann
One central aspect of a heterodox perspective in economics is its level
of interdisciplinarity. As is well known, mainstream economics largely
rests on the attempt to insulate itself from other perspectives in
economics and in other fields of social and psychological sciences.
Such situation is unsatisfactory for those who believe in the unitary
character of science and, then, try to establish systematic contacts
with other social sciences. This process, of course, is not tantamount
to downplaying the distinctive features of each discipline. Conversely,
the analysis of different perspectives in particular, sociology,
history, anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis by broadening the
horizon of awareness of the observer, constitutes an excellent way for
obtaining a better comprehension of the real features of each
discipline.
This heterodox and enlarged theoretical perspective, by helping to
attain a better understanding of the multifarious aspects of any given
reality, can contribute to devise policies more tailored to the
competencies and aspirations of all the subjects involved.
Arturo Hermann, Senior Researcher at the Institute for
Studies and Economic Analyses (ISAE), Rome, Italy.
John E.
King
Heterodox economics is concerned with the real world. It is pluralist,
multi-disciplinary and policy-oriented. It is under serious threat from
our government’s research assessment exercise (ERA: Excellence in
Research Australia), since heterodox journals are systematically
under-rated. To advance heterodox economics, we should continue to be
pluralist, multi-disciplinary, policy-oriented and concerned with
reality: one day the brittle façade of the mainstream will start
to crack. The future generation of heterodox economists should talk
politely to each other and critically (but still politely) to the
mainstream. They should stay cheerful, even though there may be no good
reason to!
John E. King, Professor of Economics, School of Economics
and Finance, La Trobe University, Australia. Homepage
Dany Lang
The past years have been characterized by an impressive and stimulating
revival of post-Keynesian modeling. Roughly speaking, the main strands
of this literature are the Kaleckian models of growth and income
distribution, the Kaldorian-Robinsonian models of path dependency, and
the Minskian models of financial crises. On the top of that, the
stock-flow consistent methodology is a perfect tool for understanding
complex macroeconomic interactions with multiple buffers. These
post-Keynesian models are worth considering, partly because they are
rather realistic, and explain numerous aspects of the 2007 crisis and
the subsequent recession.
The next stage should be the framing a post-Keynesian synthesis. The
baseline of it could be a dynamic model of growth and income
distribution, with a path dependant rate of capacity utilization, and
an endogenous supply of credit that changes as the behavior of
financial institutions varies in the different phases of the cycle.
Class struggle, subcontracting and domination should also be taken into
account explicitly.
To enrich these models and their understanding of reality,
post-Keynesians should really develop further the discussion with the
other heterodox schools, rather than engaging with a mainstream that
whatever happens won’t listen.
Dany Lang, Associate Professor, CEPN, University of Paris
13, France. Homepage
Frederic S. Lee
All too often I hear a conversation that boils down to two statements:
“What can heterodox economics do for me?” and “I am
too busy publishing or teaching to do anything to help advance
heterodox economics.” Advancing heterodox economics involves much
work that does not per se advance one’s professional
career. The selfless work I am referring to involves organizing
conference-seminars, refereeing papers, publishing newsletters, editing
journals, and doing the administrative/institutional work necessary to
establish and run heterodox undergraduate and post-graduate economic
programs. If all heterodox economists would contribute to this in some
small way, then heterodox economics will advance.
Frederic S. Lee, Professor of Economics, Department of
Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA, Editor of the
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, and Founding Editor of
Heterodox Economics Newsletter. Homepage
Vladimir A. Masch
The present economic turmoil makes us, once again, return to Keynes.
But it would be primitive and wrong to consider only his currently
fashionable deficit financing ideas and similar narrow issues.
(Moreover, following only this part of his legacy would be
counterproductive.) He was the Einstein of economics, and, like
Einstein, he was much broader than his discipline: he was a Thinker.
The most important true philosophical legacy of Keynes can be reduced
to three principles, expressed by him explicitly or implicitly.
I. There is no "universal economics": different approaches should be
applied under different states of the society and the economy and under
different problems facing them.
II. Economics is based on logic of choice, not under scarcity alone,
but rather under both uncertainty and scarcity, perhaps with
uncertainty playing more important role.
III. Lower level market activities are beneficial, but -- if the
economy is not considered autonomous -- they should be controlled,
constrained, and directed, at a higher level, by a non-market entity
that pursues broad sociopolitical goals.
There are no absolutes in society, and there exist no timeless rules of
behavior or decision-making that can be taken as axioms. Economics
cannot be constructed as an axiomatic (deductive) theory. There are
only approximate rules of thumb, which sometimes are applicable and
sometimes are not. Even the most basic tenets of economics are
therefore no more than temporarily acceptable approximations of
reality. How acceptable are those approximations? That depends on the
then current stage of the society and the economy. What was completely
satisfactory yesterday might become unacceptable tomorrow. (from In
the Century of "Black Swans", Modern Economics Deserves "Creative
Destruction, The Huffington Post, May 12, 2010).
Vladimir A. Masch, President, Risk Evaluation and
Management, Inc. Homepage
Alessandro Roncaglia
1. The best short answer is Sraffa's counterposition of the marginalist
"one-way avenue" leading from scarce resources ("Factors of
production") to "Consumption goods" to the Classical view "of the
system of production and consumption as a circular flow". This implies
fundamental differences in content for all concepts utilised in our
analyses, from prices (indexes of relative scarcity vs. difficulty of
production) to markets (a point in time and space where demand and
supply meet, or a web of exchanges connecting productive units in a
system based on the division of labour), and so on. The Classical
("surplus") approach requires that the different issues (employment,
distribution, techniques, finance, etc.) be dealt separately, which
allows for an important role to be attributed to (Keynesian)
uncertainty.
Alessandro Roncaglia, Professor of Economics, Department of
social studies at La Sapienza University of Rome. Italy. Homepage
David F.
Ruccio
Heterodox economics comprises all those theories that academic
economists and others use to criticize and develop alternatives to
mainstream (neoclassical and Keynesian) approaches. Heterodox and
mainstream theories differ in terms of their starting points,
methodologies, and conclusions. Thus, for example, Marxian economists
start with class and use Marxian value theory to criticize capitalism,
whereas neoclassical economists start with a set of given preferences,
technology, and resource endowments and use a framework of supply and
demand to celebrate capitalism. The problems of capitalism and
mainstream economic theories, now as throughout their history, create
the space for and interest in heterodox approaches.
David F. Ruccio, Professor of Economics, University of Notre
Dame, USA. Homepage.
Bruno Tinel
The traditions composing Heterodoxy in economics share a common
methodological and theoretical ground. This internal diversity of
Heterodoxy makes it intellectually exciting and relevant for society.
Though it remains scientifically unchallenged, its institutional
positions have weakened in most advanced capitalist countries. The
issue of academic reproduction is not intellectual but practical. The
“Heterodox Economics Newsletter” is a very good element
within this strategy which has to be completed by national and
international organizations such as FAPE (French Association
of Political Economy) and IIPPE (International
Initiative for Promoting Political Economy).
Bruno Tinel, CES (Centre
d'Economie de la Sorbonne), University of Paris 1
“Panthéon Sorbonne”, France
Lefteris
Tsoulfidis
1. The main difference is that heterodox economics accepts a theory of
value and distribution which is separate from a theory of output. In
particular, the theory of value is based on objective data (real wage,
output and technique) whereas in neoclassical economics it is based on
subjective data (preferences). Furthermore, competition is conceived
realistically and not as perfect competition, and thus heterodox
economics is opposed to the ideas of perfect foresight and rational
expectations as it recognizes widespread uncertainty.
2. Heterodox economists in Greece constitute a small but rather active
group organized in formal and informal societies.
3. Simply, develop alternative explanations of economic phenomena and
propose sensible and viable economic policies. In a period of economic
crisis such as the current one heterodox economists are offered a
unique opportunity to popularize their ideas and have a lasting impact.
4. The task before the future generation of heterodox economics should
be the integration of the existing wealth of heterodox ideas into a
single theory competitive to the neoclassical orthodoxy.
Lefteris Tsoulfidis, Associate Professor of Economics,
University of Macedonia, Greece and Editor of Bulletin of Political
Economy. Homepage.
Richard D.
Wolff
Orthodoxy, like heterodoxy, lies largely in its beholders’ eyes.
Across the nineteenth century, Marxian economics contested the
orthodoxy of classical political economy much as socialism contested
capitalism. Across the twentieth, Marxian economics struggled to
redefine its specific heterodox difference as orthodoxy swung between
neoclassical and Keynesian economics, capitalism alternated between
regimes of less and more state economic intervention, and classical
socialism peaked. Its new reformulation articulates a self-consciously
non-determinist theory of class (defined in terms of the production,
appropriation and distribution of surpluses). Such a Marxian
economics represents a new, systematic, and well-developed alternative
to both neoclassical and Keynesian economics.
Richard D. Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Visiting Professor, Graduate
Program in International Affairs, New School University, New York City.
Homepage
Call for
Papers
16th
Workshop on Alternative Economic Policy in Europe
24-26 September 2010 | University of Crete, Greece
Organised by the EuroMemorandum Group
The financial crisis and subsequent recession have sharply exacerbated
divergences and tensions in the Euro area and in the EU as a whole. The
Greek economy is in deep crisis and several other European states face
similar pressures. The policies of the EU and the stronger members
states are reinforcing a polarisation that threatens to release strong
disintegrative tendencies in the Union.
These issues will be at the forefront of this year’s EuroMemo
conference to be held in Crete from 24-26 September. We would like to
invite you to attend the conference and to submit proposals for papers
for one of the four workshops. Proposals for papers are particularly
encouraged from people who have not contributed papers to the
conference in previous years.
Papers should aim to address the key themes of the workshop which are
shown in the draft programme attached as pdf-file. Proposals for papers
together with a short abstract (maximum 500 words) should be submitted
by 30 June. Completed papers should be
submitted by 1 September.
If you would like to participate in the workshop, please copy the
registration form below into an email and reply by the 30 June 2010
indicating:
- that you would like to participate and
- whether you wish to offer a paper for one of the workshops.
The University of Crete is about five kilometres from the city of
Rethymno Information sheets with details about travel arrangements and
hotel bookings are attached. Rethymno is roughly equidistant from the
airports at Chania and Heraklion. A contingent of rooms has been
reserved at two hotels in Rethymno. Please use the attached form to
make your own bookings. Transport will be arranged between the hotels
and the university during the conference.
Organizers:
Wlodmierz Dymarski, Miren Etxezarreta,
Trevor Evans, Marica Frangakis, John Grahl, Anne Karrass, Jacques
Mazier, Mahmood Messkoub, Catherine Sifakis, Frieder Otto Wolf and
Diana Wehlau
Download the Registration Form and send it
to D. Wehlau at wehlau@uni-bremen.de
by 30 June 2010.
Economics
Made Fun in the Face of the Economic Crisis
10-11 December 2010 | Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
The deadline for abstracts for the Economics Made Fun Symposium is now 15 June 2010. More info at: http://www.eur.nl/fw/english/eipe/conferences/economics_made_fun/
European
Journal for the History of Economic Thought
A special issue of the European Journal for the History of Economic
Thought will be devoted to a selection of the papers presented at the
annual ESHET conference in Amsterdam. The Executive Committee of ESHET
has appointed John Davis and Harro Maas as Guest editors of the special
issue and has accepted José Luis Cardoso as Corresponding Editor
of EJHET.
It is our pleasure to invite the participants of the annual conference
that took place in Amsterdam to submit their papers for consideration
for the special issue of EJHET.
The following points serve as guidelines for submission.
- Submitted papers should contain original research that has not
been published or submitted elsewhere. Papers should be submitted
directly to John Davis and Harro Maas at the email addresses below.
Authors of submitted papers will be later on informed on how to proceed
with online submissions.
- The guest editors will strive for coherence in the volume. As
the theme of the conference was:"The Practices of Economists in the
Past and Today"We particularly encourage submissions that relate to the
theme of the conference.
- Paper submissions should reach us no later than 31 August
2010. The style (citations, emphases, references etc.) should conform
to that of EJHET. Please consult a recent issue of the journal for
guidance on this.
- Following the usual procedure of EJHET, papers will be sent to
anonymous referees; their reports should have been completed by 30
November, and they will be forwarded to authors immediately upon
receipt.
- The final revised versions of papers accepted for publication
should reach us no later than 31 January 2011. Please don't hesitate to
contact the guest editors for any question you may have. Please send
all correspondence to one of the following email addresses:
Hyman P. Minsky Summer
Seminar and Conference
The Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar and Conference (June
19¬–29) will provide a rigorous discussion of both
theoretical and applied aspects of Minsky’s economics, with an
examination of meaningful prescriptive policies relevant to the current
economic and financial crisis. A limited number of speaking slots are
still available. Topics of interest for submissions include stock-flow
modeling and policy simulations; financial fragility; reconstituting
the financial structure; asset bubbles; and employment of last resort
(ELR) and macroeconomic stability. Further information is available at www.levyinstitute.org.
International
Conference on Community and Complementary Currencies
Thirty years of community and complementary
currencies – what next?
February 16-17, 2011 | Lyon, France
LEFI and Triangle research centres of the Lyon University organize an
international conference, trilingual (English / Spanish / French) and
multidisciplinary.
The deadline for paper proposals is September 6, 2010, through
abstracts of 500 words max.
Information available in the call for papers attached to this message
and on the webpage http://triangle.ens-lsh.fr/spip.php?article1588.
Contact : cc-conf@ish-lyon.cnrs.fr
No Future:
An Inter-Disciplinary International Conference
Durham University, UK | 25-27 March 2011
From biblical apocalypse to the nihilism of the late nineteenth
century, from the Enlightenment invention of progress to the
counter-cultures of the late twentieth century, from technological
utopianism to contemporary
anticipations of environmental catastrophe, western civilization has
been consistently transfixed by the figurative potential of the future.
'No Future' seeks to connect and inter-animate these disparate ways of
thinking about the future, while at the same time questioning the basis
of the various discourses of futurity they have produced, and which
have proliferated in recent years. 'No Future' thus also implicitly
questions what it is - other than the preoccupations of the present -
that is invoked when we talk about the future.
The conference aims to stage a series of inter-disciplinary encounters
around these different senses of 'No Future', and to examine the value
and implications of adopting a 'futurist' position across and between a
range
of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Contributions may
take retrospective form, re-assessing significant moments in past
discourses of futurity such as apocalypticism, Enlightenment ideas of
progress, the persistence of the apparent dialectical unity of
utopia/dystopia, the constructions of Modernism and the Historical
Avantgarde, the symbolic projections of psychoanalytic theory. Others
might examine the disciplinary shifts that have displaced or dispersed
avantgardism in postmodernity, opening out onto such themes as
transhumanism, post-postmodern reinflections of the dialectic, and
various forms of contemporary utopianism. All of these are related to
the central question of the ideological and aesthetic implications of
any appeal to futurity, at the heart of which lies the tension between
the future as rhetorical evasion and the future as the most persistent
and deeply embedded of all heuristic devices.
Keynote speakers:
- Mikhail Epstein (Emory)
- Jean-Michel Rabaté (Pennsylvania)
- Patricia Waugh (Durham)
Plenary panels:
- Apocalyptic Futures
- Lenin and Futurity
- Bloch and Utopian Futures
Proposals for individual papers or integrated panels that engage with
any aspect of the central theme are invited. Papers should be of 20
minutes duration to allow adequate time for discussion, and proposals
for integrated panels should comprise a chair and three speakers.
Proposals that specifically engage with any of the following themes are
particularly welcome:
- Ontologies of the Future
- Forms of Utopia
- Dystopian Futures
- Aesthetics and Technology
- Eco-criticism and Ecotopia
- Gendered Futures
- Transhumanism
- Futurism(s)
- Futures of Freud
- Dialectics of the Future
- The Future of Theory
Proposals should be no longer than 250 words and should be submitted as
an attachment to alastair.renfrew@durham.ac.uk
by Friday 2nd July 2010.
Further information will be available in due course at the conference
web-site: http://www.dur.ac.uk/mlac/research/nofuture
UK HET Conference 2010
Proposals are invited for papers on any topic related to the history of
economic thought for the annual UK History of Economic Thought
conference (the 42nd edition). Please send your proposal of a maximum
of 300 words to John Vint (j.Vint@mmu.ac.uk)
or Richard van den Berg (r.van-den-berg@kingston.ac.uk)
by 31 May 2010.
Because the conference programme is this year somewhat shorter than
normally we will be able to select only a small number of papers.
Proposers will be notified by 14 June 2010. Full papers are to be
submitted by 16 August 2010.
The conference will take place from midday 16 September until late
afternoon 17 September 2010 at Kingston University, Kingston upon
Thames, near London.
Further details will be posted on the conference website: http://business.kingston.ac.uk/het2010
Upping the Anti: A Journal
of Theory and Action
UPPING THE ANTI: A JOURNAL OF THEORY AND ACTION is a radical journal
published twice a year by a pan-Canadian collective of activists and
organizers. We are dedicated to publishing radical theory and analysis
about struggles against capitalism, imperialism, and all forms of
oppression. In our first ten issues, we've published articles by and
interviews with renowned activists and intellectuals, including Aijaz
Ahmad, Himani Bannerji, Grace Lee Boggs, Ward Churchill, Michael Hardt,
John Holloway, Sunera Thobani, Andrea Smith, and many more.
We have covered a wide variety of topics including
Palestine solidarity activism, trans politics and anti-capitalism,
anti-war activism, Indigenous solidarity, contemporary feminist
organizing, and activist burnout.
In every issue, activists and organizers reflect on
the state of contemporary organizing in Canada and beyond. We publish
theoretical and critical articles, interviews and roundtables. UPPING
THE ANTI also includes a book review section where activists assess new
writing on the Left.
*CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS*
We are currently looking for story ideas for ISSUE ELEVEN, which will
be released in OCTOBER of 2010. If you have an idea for a story you
would like to see published in our journal, please send us a one page
pitch by Sunday, June 13, 2010. In addition to the pitch, please submit
a short writing sample (max 1,000 words).
In your pitch, please provide a brief description of
the topic of your investigation, your main questions, an account of how
you will address these questions, as well as a brief biographical note.
Before submitting a pitch, we encourage you to read
back issues in order to familiarize yourself with the kind of writing
that we publish. We also encourage you to have a look at the UPPING THE
ANTI writer's guide, which can be downloaded at http://uppingtheanti.org.
Pitches should be for original stories that have not
been submitted or published elsewhere. Please do not send us a pitch
that you have simultaneously sent to another publication.
Although we will consider all pitches, we are
especially interested in stories about the current economic crisis,
contemporary labour organizing, feminism and women's struggles,
dis/ability, international solidarity work, mobilization strategies,
marxism and anarchism in the 21st Century, activist interventions in
art and culture, and struggles around questions of sex and sexuality.
We will review your pitch and provide you with
feedback. After a pitch has been approved, writers are expected to
submit their story by deadline.
Deadline for first drafts for ISSUE ELEVEN is July 20, 2010.
Please submit all pitches and direct all queries to uppingtheanti@gmail.com
For more information
about UPPING THE ANTI, visit http://uppingtheanti.org
Western
States Graduate Workshop in Economics
October 23, 2010 | Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Economics departments in several western states are hereby calling for
paper submissions for the 2nd graduate workshop to be held on October
23, 2010 at the University of Utah. The aim of the workshop is to
provide students in economics with an opportunity to present their
research, act as discussants for their peers’ work as well as get
exposed to the work their peers are doing.
Format:
- The workshop will take place on Saturday, October 23 starting at
8:30 am. Each paper will be allocated 30 minutes – 20 minutes for
presentation and 10 minutes for remarks by a discussant.
Deadline and application procedure:
- Final papers should be received no later than October 8. 2010.
Logistics:
- Students must fund their travel expenses to Salt Lake City.
University of Utah students will host the visitors and the Department
of Economics will provide meals for the day of the workshop.
Conferences,
Seminars and Lectures
Beyond the
Headlines – The Political Economy of the Crisis
A workshop organised by the Political Economy Research Group
Tuesday 15th June, 9.00-6.00pm | John Galsworthy building JG1005 and
JG1006, Penrhyn Road campus, Kingston University, London
World capitalism has entered its worst economic crisis since the
inter-war period of the twentieth century. Is this crisis simply due to
poor regulation of the financial sector or does it reflect an intrinsic
instability in capitalism? Does it mark the end of Neoliberalism? What
economic policy conclusions are we to draw from the crisis and what
will the new rules for financial regulation, monetary policy and fiscal
policy look like? Do we need minor reforms or is capitalism itself in
question? The workshop will discuss the causes and the nature of the
present crisis as well as the future of economic policy, with a special
focus on Europe.
Timetable
9.00 Registration + coffee
9.30 Opening (TBA)
10.00-12.00 The causes and the nature of the crisis, chair: Julian Wells
- John Grahl, Middlesex University: Financial causes of the crisis
- Engelbert Stockhammer, Kingston University: Neoliberalism,
income distribution and the causes of the crisis
- Alan Freeman, Association for Heterodox Economics: The causes of
the USA's long-term economic decline
Lunch
13.30-15.30 The future of monetary and fiscal policy, chair: Paul
Auerbach
- Victoria Chick, University College London: The return of Keynes?
- Dominique Plihon, University Paris 13: The new role of central
banks in financial regulation
- Philip Arestis, Cambridge University: Current Crisis and
Economic Policy Implications
16.00-18.00 The future of economic policy in Europe, chair: Engelbert
Stockhammer
- Costas Lapavitsas, SOAS: Beggar your neighbour and thyself
- Ozlem Onaran, Middlesex University: The Crisis in Europe, East
and West
- Malcolm Sawyer, Leeds University: Can the European Union ever
have full employment?
Reception
The Political Economy Research Group. The Political Economy approach
highlights the role of effective demand, institutions and social
conflict in economic analysis and thereby builds on Austrian,
Institutionalist, Marxist, and Keynesian traditions. Economic processes
are perceived to be embedded in social relations that must be analysed
in the context of historical considerations, power relations and social
norms. As a consequence, a broad range of methodological approaches is
employed, and cooperation with other disciplines, including history,
law and other social sciences, is necessary.
Booking and further information
Download the Workshop flyer.
Cambridge
Seminar in the History of Economic Analysis
3 June 2010, 8.15 p.m | Clare Hall meeting room.
Geoff Harcourt (University of Cambridge)
and Prue Kerr (University of Notre Dame,
Western Australia)
will speak on 'The Legacy of Joan Robinson'
Presentation is followed by drinks and discussion and everyone is
invited to stay and meet the speakers.
The Easter programme also includes the following meetings:
Wednesday 16 June 2010, 5.00 p.m. Clare Hall meeting room
Richard van den Berg (Kingston University)
will speak on 'Postlethwayt and the Cantillons: the Mystery Deepens'
(Please note change of time)
Thursday 24 June 2010, 8:15 p.m. Clare Hall meeting room
Harald Hagemann (University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart)
will speak on 'The early reception of Keynes’s General Theory by
German-speaking economists'
Further information about the seminar series can be found visiting the
seminar website at
http://sites.google.com/site/camhistseminar/Home.
Contemporary
Social Movements and the Social Forum Process: From the Global to the
Local
June 21, 2010 | Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
Conference website: http://irows.ucr.edu/conferences/ussf10conf/ussf10conf.htm
Conference program: http://irows.ucr.edu/conferences/ussf10conf/ussf10confsked.htm
Eurozone
in Crisis: Reform or Exit?
Organized by Research on Money and Finance (RMF) at SOAS and the
Birkbeck Institute for
the Humanities
June 2nd, 6-8 | Rm B33, Birkbeck College, Mallet St. WC1
The event will explore themes from the widely read RMF report 'Eurozone
in Crisis: Beggar Thyself and Thy Neighbour'. It will also contribute
to the debate on the social, political and economic aspects of the
Eurozone crisis that was launched by the Birkbeck Institute for the
Humanities. Since the start of 2010 the Eurozone crisis has become
progressively deeper, threatening the existence of the euro as well as
the coherence of the
European Union. The crisis poses questions of economic malfunctioning
and austerity policies imposed on several European countries, but also
of democracy and state relations within the European Union. The
roundtable will consider these issues from a variety of radical
perspectives.
Participants include
- Costas Lapavitsas, SOAS, 'Reform or Exit from the Eurozone?''
- George Irvin, SOAS, 'Costs and Benefits of Default'
- Costas Douzinas, Birkbeck, 'The Democratic Deficit within the
Eurozone'
- Stathis Kouvelakis, King's College, 'The Eurozone Crisis as a
Crisis of the State''
- Alex Callinicos, King's College, 'Political Implications of the
Eurozone Crisis'
CHAIR: Larry Elliott, Guardian Newspaper.
The Geopolitics of
Capitalism
Speaker: Gonzalo Pozo Martin (International Socialism and Historical
Materialism journals)
International Socialism journal seminar series (www.isj.org.uk)
Tuesday 8 June, 6.30pm | School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
Russell Square Campus, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG, Room B102
(Brunei Gallery building, first floor) MAP
Free entry / All welcome
For more details contact isj@swp.org.uk
or call 0207 819 1177
Global
Development Course
7-19, June | London
Are there solutions to the problems that affect so much of the global
South? Is poverty increasing or decreasing? Is aid relevant or not?
Will things get worse or better for the South now that the rich world
is in the midst of what appears a worsening recession?
In the last few months there have been a number of books on world
poverty but economic and social development has been seen purely as a
function of the aid that we give or do not give to the South. Most such
books look at the challenges of development from some totally abstract
point of view, as if the issues were purely intellectual challenges and
no one really was affected, except in the most conceptual way.
We will be running the 21st Global Development Course in central London
from 7th to 19th June. The course is held in the evenings and at
week-ends, so that anyone who might have a full time job is able to
attend. In the last 7 years we have had over 500 participants at these
course, including personnel from all the major development agencies,
from OXFAM to Save the Children, from ActionAid to WaterAid, as well as
staff of the Department for International Development and the House of
Commons Select Committee on International Development.
Each of the 24 one-hour sessions explores a different issue:
agriculture; the environment; global financial institutions;
microfinance; migration, refugees and asylum; human rights; health;
education; aid; the United Nations systems. Our speakers are all
professionals in their different fields. We confront issues in their
stark reality. If you are working or plan to work for one of the
voluntary agencies in this country or abroad, or contemplate a change
of career, or possibly undertake further studies, this course will be
of great benefit to you.
Full details are on the Ethical Events website; www.ethical-events.org.
International Political
Economy Group (IPEG) Annual Workshop
The other side of the crisis? The International
Political Economy of democracy and human rights after the global
financial crisis
Friday 18th June 2010, hosted by the Centre for Democracy and Human
Rights, University of Salford
PROGRAMME
11.00/12.00 Annual General Meeting
12.00/13.00 Lunch
13.00-14.30 Panel 1
Chair Chris May (Lancaster)
- Adriana Nilsson (Manchester) Negotiating power through stories:
business representation of giant corporations
- Paul Cammack (MMU) title TBC
- Ian Bruff (Manchester) Neoliberalising citizenship
14.45-16.15 Panel 2
Chair Phil Cerny (Rutgers)
- Japhy Wilson (Manchester) Reshaping Economic Geography: A
Lefebvrean Critique
- Oisín Gilmore (UCL) The Enigma of Harvey: Can David
Harvey?s analysis of the crisis help the working class?
- TBC
16.30-18.00 Panel 3
Chair Adam Morton (Nottingham)
- Phoebe Moore (Salford) Work and labour, and the crisis of
passive revolution
- Huw Macartney (Manchester) Neoliberalism reconstituted: the
politics of the EU level crisis
- Phil Cerny (Rutgers) The New Politics of Financial Regulation:
Confusion and Possibility
LOCATION:
DIRECTIONS:
The University of Salford campus is
less than a mile and a half (3 km) from Manchester City Centre.
Information on directions, trains, buses and parking can be found here:
http://www.salford.ac.uk/travel/
For more information contact, Dr Stuart Shields (stuart.shields@manchester.ac.uk),
Centre for International Politics, Politics, School of Social Sciences,
University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Researching undocumented
migrants: the fieldwork experience
Tuesday May 25th 2010, 4 – 5.30pm | Room D104, Social Science
Building, City University London
Presentation by Professor
Alice Bloch , co-author of ‘No
right to dream': The social and economic lives of young undocumented
migrants in Britain (Paul Hamlyn Foundation 2009).
This presentation will explore and reflect on some of the key issues
that influenced and affected the research process and the fieldwork
experiences in a qualitative study of young undocumented migrants in
England. A number of areas will be examined including: carrying out
research with potentially vulnerable and sometimes hidden groups, the
role of researchers with language skills, access, trust, sampling and
representation.
This is the fourth seminar in our 'Researching asylum seekers, refugees
and migrants' series.
This event is free of charge but places are limited so please let us
know if you are coming by emailing icar@city.ac.uk
US Social
Form: Another World is Possible, Another US is Necessary
June 22-26, 2010 | Detroit, Michigan
For more information, visit: http://www.ussf2010.org/
What Does Marxist-Humanism
Mean for Today? Celebrating the Centenary of Raya Dunayevskaya
(1910-1987)
Friday, July 2, 6:30 p.m. | Corboy Law Center, 25 East Pearson, Room
0211
Sponsored by Department of Sociology at Loyola University, Chicago, USA
and and the U.S. Marxist-Humanists
As the global crisis of capitalism deepens, so too does the search for
alternatives to it. This brings to life the contributions of Raya
Dunayevskaya, an uncompromising critique of capitalism in both its
“free market” and statist forms. Born in Ukraine in 1910,
she was Leon Trotsky’s Russian-language secretary during his
exile in Mexico. After breaking from him, she developed the analysis of
the USSR as a “state-capitalist” society, published the
first English translation of parts of Marx’s Economic and
Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, and from the 1950s through the 1980s
developed the philosophy of Marxist-Humanism in a number of
pathbreaking works. Join us for a discussion of how her ideas speak to
issues now being debated by feminists, critical race theorists, and
many others searching for new pathways to liberation.
Convenor: Lauren Langman, Sociology, Loyola University
Chair: Marilyn Nissim-Sabat, author, Neither Victim nor Survivor:
Thinking Toward a New Humanity
Speakers:
- Peter McLaren, author, Life in Schools, University of
California, Los Angeles
- David Schweickart, author, After Capitalism, Loyola University
- Sandra Rein, author, Reading Dunayevskaya: Engaging the
Emergence of Marxist-Humanism, University of Alberta
- Ba Karang, writer for Africa-Links, West Africa
- Kevin Anderson, author, Marx at the Margins, University of
California at Santa Barbara
- Peter Hudis, co-editor, The Rosa Luxemburg Reader, Loyola
University
The World
Peace Congress 2010
July 9-11, 2010 at the Royal Hills Resort and Spa in Nakhonnayok
Province, Thailand.
The World Peace Congress is an Assembly devoted to achieving the
worldwide Renunciation of War through passage of Amendments to
Constitutions, Globally and by UN Declaration. This year, the Congress
will meet in Thailand to continue the task of fostering Co-respective
and Co-operative Peace between Peoples. The Congress emerged three
years ago to resist the tide of rising violence among nations, regions,
and individuals around the planet—and in fervent embrace of
harmony amongst peoples. Each year, the Congress brings together people
from all creeds and cultures to further this common cause.
During previous sessions in Salt Lake City, Utah (USA, 2007) and in
Bangalore, India (2008/2009), the Congress has examined how patriarchy,
militarism, scientism, and Eurocentrism serve to incite conflict and
hostility.
To respond to these forces, the Congress has articulated an Array of
Resolutions that call for collective respect for, and activism on
behalf of, gender, race, culture, children, family, tradition,
community and environment. To realize the ideals outlined in the
Resolutions, the 2010 Congress will design Projects to achieve tangible
change via Grassroots Action. These projects will constitute the basis
for unified action among peoples, independent of political bodies and
governments, to foster micro-initiatives that are focused locally and
globally. The intended result is a network of Peace Initiatives around
the world, in neighborhoods and communities, in full awareness of the
“Co-Respecting Spirit of Human Variety as it dwells elsewhere,
and Everywhere,” as stated in the Preamble to the
Congress’s Resolutions.
For its 2010 session, the Congress will convene during July 9-11
at the Royal Hills Resort and Spa in Nakhonnayok Province, Thailand.
Further information about the World Peace Congress may be found at the
organization’s website: <http://worldpeacecongress.info/>.
Event organizers may be contacted at: worldpeacecongress@gmail.com.
Job Postings for Heterodox
Economists
De Anza
College
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA, USA, is looking for an economics
instructor (full time, tenure track position).
For more information, visit https://www.fhdajobs.net/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1273701787544
European
Parliament
The Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament wishes to
recruit 7 POLITICAL ADVISERS to work in our Secretariat in
Brussels.
Candidates should be specialised in one of the following working areas:
- European budget
- European law
- Social affairs
- Economics
- Financial services
- Constitutional issues
Deadline for application is June 3rd.
For more details, download the position announcement.
Conference Papers, Reports
and Articles
Economic Crises, Marx's
Value Theory, and 21st Century
By Cyrus Bina, Radical Notes, May 9, 2010. Read the article here.
The Vicious
Circle of Debt and Depression—It Is a Class War
By Ismael Hossein-zadeh (Professor of Economics, Drake University)
Download the article.
Heterodox Journals
Economic
Systems Research, 22(1): March 2010
Journal website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/09535314.asp
-
Probabilistic Modeling Of Workforce-Based Disruptions And
Input-Output Analysis Of Interdependent Ripple Effects / Mark J. Orsi;
Joost R. Santos
-
A Carbon Footprint Time Series Of The Uk - Results From A
Multi-Region Input-Output Model / Thomas Wiedmann; Richard Wood; Jan C.
Minx; Manfred Lenzen; Dabo Guan; Rocky Harris
-
Uncertainty Analysis For Multi-Region Input-Output Models - A
Case Study Of The Uk's Carbon Footprint / Manfred Lenzen; Richard Wood;
Thomas Wiedmann
-
Regional Short-Run Effects Of Trade Liberalization In Brazil /
Mauricio V. L. Bittencourt; Donald W. Larson; David S. Kraybill
-
Evaluating Supply-Side And Demand-Side Shocks For Fisheries: A
Computable General Equilibrium (Cge) Model For Alaska / Chang K. Seung;
Edward C. Waters
Feminist Economics, 16(2):
April 2010
Journal website: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713700748~link=cover
Articles
- Men's Unpaid Work and Divorce: Reassessing Specialization and
Trade in British Families / Wendy Sigle-Rushton
- Cultural Factors in Women's Labor Force Participation in Chile /
Dante Contreras; Gonzalo Plaza
- Women, Real Estate, and Wealth in a Southern US County,
1780-1860 / Catherine McDevitt
- Gender Wage Discrimination and Poverty in the EU / Carlos
Gradín; Coral del Río; Olga Cantó
- Affirmative Action and Corporate Compliance in South Korea /
Joonmo Cho; Taehee Kwon
Book Reviews
- Imagining Economics Otherwise: Encounters with
Identity/Difference S. Charusheela
- Feminism, Economics and Utopia: Time Travelling through
Paradigms / Bronwyn Winter
- Assets, Livelihoods, and Social Policy / Carmen Diana
Deere
- Discretionary Time: A New Measure of Freedom / Valeria
Esquivel
- Policy for a Change: Local Labour Market Analysis and Gender
Equality / Tracey Warren
Calls for Papers
- A Special Issue: Critical and Feminist Perspectives on Financial
and Economic Crises
- A Special Issue: Gender and Economics in Muslim Communities
Historical
Materialism, 18(1): 2010
- Beyond Abstraction: Marx and the Critique of the Critique of
Religion / Toscano, Alberto
Symposium on Giovanni Arrighi's 'Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the
Twenty-First Century'
- Editorial Introduction to the Symposium on Giovanni Arrighi's
Adam Smith in Beijing / Campling, Liam
- Adam Smith in Beijing: A World-Systems Perspective / Chase-Dunn,
Christopher
- Karl Marx between Two Worlds: The Antinomies of Giovanni
Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing / Walker, Richard
- Giovanni Arrighi in Beijing: An Alternative to Capitalism? /
Panitch, Leo
- Beijing between Smith and Marx / Pradella, Lucia
- Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing: Engaging China / Christiansen,
Flemming
Intervention
- Trapped inside the Box? Five Questions for Ben Fine / Lebowitz,
Michael A.
Review Articles
- Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict and the
Chávez Phenomenon; Bush vs. Chávez: Washington's War on
Venezuela; Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies
of the Chávez Government / Kingsbury, Donald V.
- Correspondence: The Foundation of the Situationist International
(June 1957-August 1960); All the King's Horses; 50 Years of
Recuperation of the Situationist International / Kinkle, Jeff
- The Social Structures of the Economy / Dufour,
Frédérick Guillaume
- The Degradation of the International Legal Order? The
Rehabilitation of Law and the Possibility of Politics / Knox, Robert J.
Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism
- Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism / Arthur, Christopher
J.
Industrial
and Corporate Change, 19(3): June 2010
Journal website: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/page/3924/5
Articles
- David G. McKendrick and James B. Wade / Frequent incremental
change, organizational size, and mortality in high-technology
competition
- S. K. Majumdar, O. Carare, and H. Chang / Broadband adoption and
firm productivity: evaluating the benefits of general purpose
technology
- Charles A. O Reilly, III and Brian G. M. Main / Economic and
psychological perspectives on CEO compensation: a review and synthesis
- Vinit Desai / Do organizations have to change to learn?
Examining the effects of technological change and learning from
failures in the natural gas distribution industry
- Boris Groysberg and Linda-Eling Lee / Star power: colleague
quality and turnove
Special Section: Markets for Technology and Ideas
- Andrea Fosfuri and Marco S. Giarratana / Introduction: Trading
under the Buttonwood—a foreword to the markets for technology and
ideas
- Ashish Arora and Alfonso Gambardella / Ideas for rent: an
overview of markets for technology
- Joshua S. Gans and Scott Stern / Is there a market for ideas?
- Marco Ceccagnoli, Stuart J.H. Graham, Matthew J. Higgins, and
Jeongsik Lee / Productivity and the role of complementary assets in
firms demand for technology innovations
- Keld Laursen, Maria Isabella Leone, and Salvatore Torrisi /
Technological exploration through licensing: new insights from the
licensee s point of view
- Iain M. Cockburn, Megan J. MacGarvie, and Elisabeth Müller
/ Patent thickets, licensing and innovative performance
- Mariko Sakakibara / An empirical analysis of pricing in patent
licensing contracts
- Markus Reitzig, Joachim Henkel, and Ferdinand Schneider /
Collateral damage for R&D manufacturers: how patent sharks operate
in markets for technology
The Journal
of Philosophical Economics, III(2): 2010
Journal website: http://jpe.ro/?id=revista&p=6
-
Malthus’s idea of a moral and
political science / Sergio Cremaschi
- Financial stability requires
macroeconomic foundations of macroeconomics / Sergio Rossi
- Towards a critical realist-inspired
economic methodology / Bjørn-Ivar Davidsen
- Because I said so: the persistence of
mainstream policy advice / Nathaniel Cline, Kirsten Ford, Matías
Vernengo
- Schumpeter’s theory of
leadership: a brief sketch / Panayiotis Michaelides, Ourania Kardasi
- The internal consistency of perfect
competition / Jakob Kapeller, Stephan Pühringer
- On technological change and stage
evolution in the works of Seneca and Adam Smith / Christos P. Baloglou
- Commentary on black political economy
/ Curtis Haynes, Jr.
- A Review of Christian Arnsperger,
Full Spectrum Economics. Towards an Inclusive and Emancipatory Social
Science, Routledge, 2010, 277 pp. / Irina Zgreabãn
- A Review of Jean François Ponsot and Sergio Rossi (eds), The
Political Economy of Monetary Circuits: Tradition and Change in
Post Keynesian Economics, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan,
2009, 264 pp. / Rémi Stellian
Local
Economy, 25(2): March 2010
Journal website.
Viewpoints
- Education, Education, Education: The End of an Era? / Deian
Hopkin
- Has the UK Missed an Opportunity in Its Stimulus Package? /
David Walburn
Features
- Housing-led Regeneration and the Local Impacts of the Credit
Crunch / Kenneth Gibb; Anthony O'Sullivan
- The Incompatibility of Economic Development Policies for Rural
Areas in England / Nigel Curry
- Limits to 'The Learning Region': What University-centered
Economic Development Can (and Cannot) do to Create Knowledge-based
Regional Economies / Susan Christopherson; Jennifer Clark
- Impact of the Recession on the Property Market in Northern
Ireland: Contractual Non-Compliance / A. Adair; J. Berry; M. Haran; M.
G. Lloyd; W. S. McGreal
In Perspectives
- Saving a Town-centre Project in the Recession: How Bury Council
in Greater Manchester used Smart Financing through a Limited Liability
Partnership / Mark Sanders
- In Pursuit of the 'Third Mission': Strategic Focus on Regional
Economic Development by a Business School in the USA / Pamela R. Cash;
Joyendu Bhadury; Donald L. McCrickard; James K. Weeks
- 2010 Surely will be Better: How Public Policy and Economic
Development Organizations in the USA Have Responded to the Recession /
Louise Anderson
- Richmond, Virginia, Shifts Strategies to Meet the Recession
Head-on / Sara Dunnigan
Revue
Française de Socio-Économie, n° 5: May 2010
Journal website:
http://dedi.cairn.info/NL/NewsHTM/newsletter_RFSE_005.htm
Les politiques de quantification
Bruno Tinel / Éditorial. Économie et pluralisme :
l'Association française d'économie politique (Afep)
Dossier : Les politiques de quantification
- Fabrice Bardet /Les politiques de quantification. Introduction
au dossier
- Albert Ogien / La valeur sociale du chiffre. La quantification
de l'action publique entre performance et démocratie
- Isabelle Bruno /La déroute du « benchmarking social
». La coordination des luttes nationales contre l'exclusion et la
pauvreté en Europe
- Bilel Benbouzid / L'enquête de victimation
américaine : de l'étude compréhensive à
l'analyse des facteurs de risque (1965-1985)
- Jean-Jacques Helluin / Comparer les performances des villes. Le
Programme des indicateurs pour les villes du monde de la Banque
mondiale
- Pascale Phélinas / Mesurer l'emploi, le chômage et
le sous-emploi rural dans une économie en voie de
développement
- Jean-Claude Barbier / Évaluation des politiques publiques
et quantification en France : des relations ambiguës et
contradictoires entre disciplines
- Aisling Healy / Dispositifs de connaissance et action publique
en région : les Observatoires régionaux de l'emploi et de
la formation. Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur versus Rhône-Alpes
- Alexandra Bidet / Dessiner le marché, démultiplier
le calcul. Les rationalisations matérielle et formelle dans la
téléphonie au tournant des années 1980
Hors-dossier
- Nathalie Berta / Les marchés de permis négociables
de SO2 et CO2 : des premiers pas délicats
- Claude Didry /Au-delà de la dichotomie
marché-institutions : l'institutionnalisme de Douglass North
face au défi de Karl Polanyi
Note critique
Comptes rendus d'ouvrages
Science & Society,
74(3): July 2010
Jounrnal website:
http://www.scienceandsociety.com
Symposium:
CAPITALISM AND CRISIS IN THE
21ST CENTURY
Guest Editors: Justin Holt and Julio Huato
Editorial Perspectives: Economic Crisis, Logorrheia, and The Enduring
Marxist Vision
Introduction / Justin Holt and Julio Huato
ARTICLES
- The End of the "End of History": The Structural Crisis of
Capitalism and the Fate of Humanity / Minqi Li
- Marxism, Crisis Theory and the Crisis of the Early 21st Century
/ William K. Tabb
- Neoliberalism, the Rate of Profit and the Rate of Accumulation /
Ergodan Bakir and Al Campbell
- Credit Crunch: Origins and Orientation / Paul Cockshott and Dave
Zachariah
- The Final Conflict: What Can Cause a System-Threatening Crisis
of Capitalism? / David M. Kotz
- Capitalism, Crisis, Renewal: Some Conceptual Excavations / David
Laibman
- The World Economic Crisis and Transnational Corporations / Jerry
Harris
- Marx and the Mixed Economy: Money, Accumulation, and the Role of
the State / Ann Davis
- Rising Profitability and the Middle-Class Squeeze / Edward N.
Wolff
Science & Society,
74(4): October 2010
Editorial Perspectives: Once Again on Reform, Revolution and Socialism
ARTICLES
- The Center Cannot Hold: The Struggle for Reform in the Communist
Party, 1957-58 / Jerry Harris
- Rethinking Historical Materialism: The New Edition of The German
Ideology / Wei Xiaoping
- Mistranslations of "Schein" and "Erscheinung": The Structure of
Chapter 1 of Capital, Volume I / Igor Hanzel
COMMUNICATIONS
- Economic Crisis: Scenarios of Post-Crisis Development /
Aleksandr Buzgalin and Andrey Kolganov
- Union Solidarity, Collective Struggle and the Caterpillar Labor
Dispute, 1991-1998 / Victor G. Devinatz
- Nanotechnology and the Developing Critique of Scientism Lee-Anne
Broadhead and / Sean Howard
BOOK REVIEWS
- Julio García Luis, ed., Cuban Revolution Reader: A
Documentary History of Fidel Castro's Revolution / Margaret Randall
- Michael Eldred, Social Ontology: Recasting Political Philosophy
Through a Phenomenology of Whoness / Tony Smith
- Steve Ellner, Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict,
and the Chávez Phenomenon; Gregory Wilpert, Changing Venezuela
by Taking Power: The History and Policies of
- the Chávez Government / John L. Hammond
- Sophie Mousset, Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A
Biography of Olympe de Gouges / Joan Roelofs
- Bil Fletcher, Jr., and Fernando Gaspin, Solidarity Divided: The
Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice / Kurt
Stand
- Fred Goldstein, Low-Wage Capitalism: Colossus with Feet of Clay
/ Gregory Elich
- Julia Mickenberg and Philip Nel, Tales for Little Rebels: A
Collection of Radical Children's Literature /Paul C. Mishler
Heterodox Newsletters
Development
Viewpoint 52
Could
Urban Poverty in Egypt Be Grossly Underestimated? by Sarah Sabry
(Department of Development Studies, SOAS): Click
here
to download.
The Centre for Development Policy and Research's other
thought-provoking, diversified Development Viewpoints are available on
http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/
GDAE
Newsletter: May 2010
GDAE Awards Prizes to Agarwal, Kahneman
Out in Front on Capital Controls and Foreign Investment
Kevin P. Gallagher has helped shift
the policy debate on foreign investment and the value of government
controls on speculative capital. Based on research for his new
U.N.
paper on capital controls and the limitations placed on their use
by U.S. trade and investment agreements, ...
Lessons from NAFTA: Interview with Gallagher and Wise
Gallagher and Ghosh on Reforming the IMF and World Bank
Food Fights
Timothy A. Wise contributed to the
ongoing debates over food and agricultural policies with his article,
"The
True Cost of Cheap Food," in Resurgence magazine.
China and Latin America: Deepening the Research
Kevin P. Gallagher will be in Beijing
this summer as a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, where he
will examine the development implications for China of the proposed
US-China bilateral investment treaty.
Globalization Program in the News:
In addition to Gallagher's previously
mentioned commentaries in
Financial
Times and
Foreign
Policy, Timothy Wise's work on corporate concentration in
agriculture and the impacts of US agricultural policies were widely
cited, including on
Grist.com.
Recent Publications on:
- What's
Left for Latin America to do with China? by Kevin Gallagher, NACLA
Report on the Americas, May/June 2010.
- US
trade agreements threaten emerging markets' financial stability by
Kevin Gallagher, Financial Times Economists Forum, May 11, 2010.
- Obama's
"New" Trade Policy: What Happened to Multilateralism? by Kevin
Gallagher, Policy Innovations, Carnegie Council, March 22, 2010.
- "Policy
Space to Prevent and Mitigate Financial Crises in Global Trade and
Investment Agreements," by Kevin P. Gallagher, UNCTAD/G-24
Discussion Paper, 2010.
- Capital
Controls and Trade Agreements, United Nations G-24, Policy Brief
No. 55
- Would
the Real IMF Please Stand Up? by Kevin Gallagher, Financial Times
Economists Forum, April 21, 2010.
- Going
Beyond Immigration Policy by Timothy A. Wise, Foreign Policy in
Focus, May 5, 2010.
- Agribusiness
and Food Crisis: A New Thrust at Anti-Trust by Timothy A. Wise, TripleCrisis
Blog, March 22, 2010.
- "The
True Cost of Cheap Food: The globalisation of the food market has made
food cheap, but who is benefiting?" by Timothy A. Wise, Resurgence,
Issue 259, March/April 2010. Also available in Spanish.
- "Hogging
the Gains From Trade: The Real Winners from U.S. Trade and Agricultural
Policies" by Timothy A. Wise and Betsy Rakocy, GDAE Policy Brief
10-01, February 2010.
Reader the full GDAE newsletter
here.
IWPR News: May 2010
Institute for Women's
Policy Research
- Latina Immigrants in Phoenix Face Vulnerabilities at a Crucial
Time
A fact sheet released by the Institute
for Women's Policy Research reveals that Latino/a immigrants in Phoenix
face a range of social and economic vulnerabilities that often affect
women more than men. According to IWPR's original analysis of the U.S.
Census Bureau's American Community Survey, nearly three in ten Latina
immigrants live below the federal poverty line compared with
approximately two in ten Latino immigrants, and the median income of
Latina immigrants working full-time is substantially lower than their
male counterparts' ($20,979 compared with $25,460). Latina immigrants
are also much less likely than their male counterparts to be in the
labor force (48 percent of women compared with 84 percent of men). [
Continue Reading] [
See the fact sheet]
Levy News:
May 2010
WYNNE GODLEY, 1926–2010
Distinguished Scholar
Wynne
Godley, longtime head of the Levy Institute’s Macro-Modeling
Team, died on May 13 at the age of 83. Much of his work focused on the
strategic prospects for the US, UK, and world economies, and the use of
accounting macroeconomic models to reveal structural imbalances.
Professor emeritus of applied economics at the University of Cambridge,
and a member of the British Treasury’s panel of “six wise
men” in the 1990s, Godley was, in the words of the
London
Times, “the most insightful macroeconomic forecaster of his
generation.”
The Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar and
Conference (June 19–29) will provide a rigorous discussion of
both theoretical and applied aspects of Minsky’s economics, with
an examination of meaningful prescriptive policies relevant to the
current economic and financial crisis. A limited number of speaking
slots are still available. Topics of interest for submissions include
stock-flow modeling and policy simulations; financial fragility;
reconstituting the financial structure; asset bubbles; and employment
of last resort (ELR) and macroeconomic stability. Further information
is available at
www.levyinstitute.org.
NEW PUBLICATIONS
nef e-letter: May 2010
PKSG
The talks to the seminar on 11 May on “Dogmatic and Pragmatic
Keynesianism” are now available at http://www.postkeynesian.net/keynes.htm
Policy Pennings
Heterodox Books and Book
Series
Agrofuels:
Big Profits, Ruined Lives and Ecological Destruction
By François Houtart. Foreword
by Walden Bello. Translated by Victoria Bawtree
May 2010 | Pluto Press | £17.99
only £13.99 on the Pluto
site
Shows that agrofuels, once heralded as a solution to climate change, do
more harm than good due to the capitalist system in which they are
produced.
'This book presents the issue of agrofuels within the global context of
the capitalist economy, stressing the role played by the oligopolies in
promoting 'green energy'. Agrofuels provide no solution for the climate
and they are marginal to the energy crisis. Above all they serve the
interests of capitalist accumulation. This is the best book so far
written on the subject.' - Samir Amin, Director of the Third World
Forum in Dakar
Crack
Capitalism
By John Holloway
May 2010 | Pluto Press | £17.99
only £13.99 on the Pluto
site
A clear and accessible guide to moving beyond capitalism that shows
that radical change can only come from exploiting 'cracks' in the
system.
Civilizing the Economy: A
New Economics of Provision
By Marvin T Brown
Cambridge University Press | May 2010 | Hardback $95
The book addresses the core problem of modern economics, property
relations, and offers a civic alternative. It show what would happen if
we treated labor, land, and money as providers of wealth rather than as
commodities. It restores a civic foundation for our global economy. It
outlines how citizens could construct systems of provision that would
be just and sustainable, Check it out: www.civilizingtheeconomy.com
Development
and Globalization: A Marxian Class Analysis
By David F Ruccio
Routledge | September 28th 2010 | paperback $50.36
Publisher website: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415772266/
Series: Economics
as Social Theory
Since the mid-1980s, David F. Ruccio has been developing a new
framework of Marxian class analysis and applying it to various issues
in socialist planning, Third World development, and capitalist
globalization. The aim of this collection is to show, through a series
of concrete examples, how Marxian class analysis can be used to
challenge existing modes of thought and to produce new insights about
the problems of capitalist development and the possibilities of
imagining and creating noncapitalist economies.
The book consists of fifteen essays, plus an introductory chapter
situating the author’s work in a larger intellectual and
political context. The topics covered range from planning theory to the
role of the state in the Nicaraguan Revolution, from radical theories
of underdevelopment to the Third World debt crisis, and from a critical
engagement with regulation theory to contemporary discussions of
globalization and imperialism.
Elements of Ecological
Economics
By Jan Otto Andersson, Ralf Eriksson
March 2010 | Routledge | Paperback: 978-0-415-47381-1 | 164pgs | $44.99
Publisher website: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415473811/
Elements of Ecological Economics provides a comprehensive introduction
to the field of ecological economics, an interdisciplinary project
trying to give answers to the problems of global warming (the
greenhouse effect) and the overuse of the seas (e.g. overfishing). The
book also explores closely related issues of global welfare and justice.
The book covers topics including:
* The general policy perspective required by
sustainability
* Economic growth in a historical perspective
* Sustainability conceptions and measurement within
ecological economics
* Economics and ethics of climate change
* Global food security
* The state of the seas on earth and locally (the
Baltic Sea).
Epic Recession: Prelude to
Global Depression
By Jack Rasmus
May 2010 | Pluto Press | £17.99
on the Pluto
site
A fresh perspective on the economic crisis that argues that we are
experiencing a recession on an unprecedented scale
'Extensive research, thoughtful analysis and articulate writing have
created a great book. Jack Rasmus doesn't just talk about the economic
catastrophe of the last two years he identifies the problems, the root
causes of the problems and offers sound and insightful solutions. Epic
Recesssion should be required reading for anyone who has a
responsibility in formulating public policy. Not that they would adopt
any or all of Rasmus' alternative program, but at least they couldn't
say they weren't warned.' - Chuck Mack, International Vice-President,
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Financial Alchemy in Crisis:
The Great Liquidity Illusion
By Anastasia Nesvetailova
May 2010 | Pluto Press | £13.99 on the Pluto
site
A bold and radical analysis of the financial meltdown that exposes the
world financial system as no more than a Ponzi scheme.
'There has always been a tendency to confuse money and wealth.
Anastasia Nesvetailova shows that, from the beginning of securitisation
until the crisis, this confusion transferred to the creation of the
bewildering array of new financial instruments. The belief that these
instruments were creating wealth was based on an illusion: that these
innovations were creating liquidity, while in fact, from a systemic
perspective, they were reducing it. The illusion was in part fostered
by far-reaching changes in the concept of liquidity itself.
Nesvetailova gives a lucid analysis of these important matters as she
takes us through the complex story of the changes which combined to
bring about the crisis.' - Victoria Chick, University College London
Global Finance in Crisis:
The Politics of International Regulatory Change
Edited by Eric Helleiner, Stefano Pagliari, Hubert Zimmermann
Routledge, November 2009 | Paperback: 978-0-415-56438-0 | $35.96
Publisher website: http://tandf.msgfocus.com/c/1lvx6TW0YIahxEDLe
This highly accessible book brings together leading scholars to examine
current changes in international financial regulation. They assess
whether the flurry of ambitious initiatives to improve and strengthen
international financial regulation signals an important turning point
in the regulation of global finance. The text:
- Examines the kinds of international reforms have been
implemented to date and patterns of international regulatory change.
- Provides an analysis of change across a number of financial
sectors, including the regulation of hedge funds, derivatives, credit
rating agencies, accounting, and banks.
- Offers an explanation of contemporary regulatory developments
with reference to inter-state power dynamics, domestic politics,
transgovernmental networks, and/or transnational non-state forces.
Providing the first systematic analysis of the international regulatory
response to the current global financial crisis, this ground-breaking
volume is vital reading for students and scholars of international
political economy, international relations, global governance, finance
and economics.
Handbook of Alternative
Theories of Economic Growth
Edited by Mark Setterfield (Trinity College, Hartford, US,
Cambridge University, UK and Laurentian University, Canada)
May 2010, Edward Elgar | 488 pp, Hardback 978 1 84720 402 8 $229.00 |
on-line discount $183.20 |
This book is also available as an ebook 978 1
84980 558 2
Publisher website: http://www.e-elgar.co.uk/Bookentry_main.lasso?id=12814
Comprising specially commissioned essays, the Handbook provides a
comprehensive overview of alternative theories of economic growth. It
surveys major sub-fields (including classical, Kaleckian, evolutionary,
and Kaldorian growth theories) and highlights cutting-edge issues such
as the relationship between finance and growth, the interplay of trend
and cycle, and the role of aggregate demand in the long run.
Contributors: R.A. Blecker, G. Duménil, A.K. Dutt, J. Felipe, P.
Flaschel, D.K. Foley, J. Foster, B. Gibson, A. Greiner, D. Gualerzi, E.
Hein, J.E. King, H.D. Kurz, M. Lanzafame, M. Lavoie, M.A.
Léon-Ledesma, D. Lévy, G.T. Lima, J. McCombie, J.S.
Metcalfe, T.R. Michl, J.C. Moreno Brid, C.W.M. Naastepad, T.I. Palley,
E. Pérez Caldentey, A. Razmi, M. Roberts, N. Salvadori, S.
Seguino, M. Setterfield, P. Skott, S. Storm, T. van Treeck
Download a book flyer.
Industrial Relations in
Education: Transforming the School Workforce
By Bob Carter and Howard Stevenson
December 2009 | Routledge | Hardback: 978-0-415-41454-8
This book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach drawing not only on
education research but also from the fields of industrial sociology,
management studies and labour process theory to locate the reform
agenda within a wider picture relating to teachers, their professional
identities and their experience of work. In doing so the book draws on
critical perspectives that seek to challenge orthodox policy discourses
relating to remodeling... Read More
Introducing
Microeconomic Analysis: Issues, Questions, and Competing Views
Edited by Hassan
Bougrine, Ian Parker, Mario Seccareccia
2010 | Emond
Montgomery Publications | Softcover 336 pages | $49.00
Website: www.emp.ca/micro.
What key questions should students consider in order to gain a firm
understanding of the essentials of economics? Touching on both the
theoretical and real-world aspects of topics typically discussed in
introductory and intermediate level microeconomics courses, this timely
collection of debates features contributions by respected economists
from Canada and beyond.
Students will be engaged by this thought-provoking approach to
issues such as the role of consumers and advertising, the nature of
markets, privatization and regulation, poverty, the intersection of
economics with the environment, foreign ownership, and much more
— all presented in lively and accessible language.
For a review copy, contact mthompson@emp.ca.
The companion Macroeconomics volume is also available. Visit www.emp.ca/macro
for more information.
Karl
Polanyi: The Limits of the Market
By Gareth Dale (Brunel University)
July 2010 | Polity Press | 320 pp | ISBN 0745640729
'This book is a complex and sophisticated analysis of a complex and
sophisticated thinker. It is a fair and detailed exposition of all of
Polanyi's writings and a careful evaluation of the major criticisms of
him.' -- Immanuel Wallerstein
'Gareth Dale has produced an invaluable guide to Polanyi’s
writings, ranging from Political Philosophy to Economic History and
Anthropology. It is well-researched and organized with a systematic
review and evaluation of critiques.'-- Kari Polanyi Levitt
Power, Profit and Prestige:
A History of American Imperial Expansion
By Philip S. Golub
May 2010 | Pluto Press | £13.99 on the Pluto
site
Shows how an embedded culture of force, expansion and US primacy has
shaped American foreign policy and prevented democratic transformation.
'Philip Golub brilliantly depicts the long American journey to global
ascendancy that is now being eroded by decline, and challenged by
emergent rivals, especially China. This sophisticated, deeply informed,
and beautifully constructed book is essential reading for all wishing
an understanding of world politics in the early 21st century.' -
Richard Falk
Routledge Advances in Social
Economics Series
Edited by John B. Davis
- Community Finance: Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion
By Pamela Lenton and Paul Mosley
Forthcoming, December 2010 | Hardback:
978-0-415-46039-2
This book presents a detailed picture
of the impact of financial measures against poverty in various cities
and draws conclusions for policy. It will be required reading for all
those interested in anti-poverty policy, financial markets and
community development in Britain and internationally, whether as
sponsors, CDFI managers, members of NGOs or researchers.
Read More
- The Economics of Social Responsibility: The World of Social
Enterprises
Edited by Carlo Borzaga and Leonardo
Becchetti
May 2010 | Hardback: 978-0-415-46576-2
This book provides a new interpretation of social enterprises as
entrepreneurial organizations that pursue social objectives and are
successful due to the non-self-seeking motives of their members.
Read More
- Elements of an Evolutionary Theory of
Welfare: Assessing Welfare When Preferences Change
By Martin Binder
April 2010 | Hardback: 978-0-415-56298-0
Recent work in behavioral economics
has questioned traditional measures for welfare. This book asks whether
a different measure for individual welfare can, and should, be found.
Read More
- Global Social Economy: Development, work
and policy
Edited by John B. Davis
September 2009 | Hardback: 978-0-415-77809-1
This volume expands on the standard
economic framework of 'global economy' by looking at the way in which
economic life is framed by society and social relationships and
investigates how social values influence and help determine economic
values.
Read
More
Routledge Foundations of the
Market Economy
Edited by Mario J. Rizzo and Lawrence J. White
Series website:http://tandf.msgfocus.com/c/1lN2Nih4JYT5Rhpr8
- Mind, Society, and Human Action: Time and Knowledge in a Theory
of Social Economy
By Richard Wagner
February 2010 | Hardback: 978-0-415-77996-8
Economics originated as a branch of
the humane studies that was concerned with trying to understand how
some societies flourish while others stagnate, and also...
Read More
- Entrepreneurship and Economic Progress
By Randall Holcombe
December 2009 | Paperback: 978-0-415-78023-0
Entrepreneurship is the engine of economic progress, but mainstream
economic models of economic growth tend to leave out the
entrepreneurial elements of the economy. This...
Read More
- Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An
Austrian Perspective
By Steven Horwitz
November 2009 | Paperback: 978-0-415-56957-6
In the past, Austrian economics has been seen as almost exclusively
focused on microeconomics. Here, Steven Horwitz constructs a systematic
presentation of what Austrian macroeconomics would...
Read More
Social Regionalism in the
Global Economy
Edited by Adelle Blackett and Christian Lévesque
Forthcoming! July 2010 | Routledge | Hardback: 978-0-415-48052-9
The book attempts to take a fresh, interdisciplinary approach to
addressing labour regulation by drawing upon insights from industrial
relations, comparative capitalism, and new governance schools of
thought. It stands for the proposition that an interdisciplinary study
of regional regulation holds the potential to offer a fuller account of
social regionalism... Read More
Strategic Competition,
Dynamics, And The Role of The State: A New Perspective
By Jamee K. Moudud (Sarah Lawrence College, US)
July 2010, Edward Elgar | c 192 pp | Hardback 978 1 84542 923
2 $99.00 | on-line discount $89.10
View New
Directions in Modern Economics series books
This book investigates the policy implications of a long-run cyclical
growth model in the tradition of Sir Roy Harrod. Emphasizing the role
of Keynesian uncertainty, it shows that the growth model is anchored in
a new interpretation of the Oxford Economists’ Research
Group’s microeconomic analysis and a variant of the stock-flow
consistent framework. By extending Sir Roy’s insights, the book
discusses taxation and public investment policies and the relevance of
capital budgeting for raising the Harrodian warranted growth path.
Contents: Foreword by Anwar M. Shaikh 1. Introduction 2. The
Microfoundations of Long-Run Growth: Controversies on Capacity
Utilization and Competition 3. A Review of the Literature on Growth 4.
A Model of Disequilibrium Dynamics 5. Warranted Growth and the Role of
the State 6. Conclusion: The Relevance of Microfoundations and Politics
Bibliography
Technocapitalism: A Critical
Perspective on Technological Innovation and Corporatism
By Luis Suarez-Villa
Temple University Press | Oct. 2009 | Cloth $54.50
A new version of capitalism, grounded in technology and science, is
spawning new forms of corporate power and organization that will have
major implications for the twenty-first century. Technological
creativity is thereby turned into a commodity in new corporate regimes
that are primarily oriented toward research and intellectual
appropriation. This phenomenon is likely to have major social,
economic, and political consequences, as the new corporatism becomes
ever more intrusive and rapacious through its control over technology
and innovation.
In his provocative book Technocapitalism,
Luis Suarez-Villa addresses this phenomenon from the perspective of
radical political economy and social criticism. Grounded in the premise
that relations of power influence how human creativity and technology
are exploited by the new corporatism, the author argues that new forms
of democratic participation and resistance are needed, if the social
pathologies created by this new version of capitalism are to be
checked.
Considering the new sectors affected by
technocapitalism, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology,
bioinformatics, and genomics, Suarez-Villa deciphers the common threads
of power and organization that drive their corporatization. These new
sectors, and the corporate apparatus set up to extract profit and power
through them, are imposing standards, creating business models, molding
social governance, and influencing social relations at all levels. The
new reality they create is likely to affect most every aspect of human
existence, including work, health, life, and nature itsel
The Global
Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century
Edited by Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall (Editors)
May 25, 2010 | Montreal, Global Research Publishers. Centre for
Research on Globalization (CRG)
For
further information as well as ordering information, click here
The Power
of Economic Ideas: The origins of macroeconomic management in Australia
1929–39
By Alex Millmow
May 2010 | ANU Press | ISBN 9781921666261 $24.95 (GST inclusive) | ISBN
9781921666278 (Online)
Publisher website: http://epress.anu.edu.au/keynes_citation.html
(on-line edition is available here)
If anyone wants a hard copy of the book, they can acquire it from
the author, Alex Millmow (a.millmow@ballarat.edu.au)
personally at the cost of $20Aus with worldwide delivery.
Heterodox Book Reviews
Davidson
on Stiglitz on Skidelsky's "Keynes: The Return of The Master"
The following letter from Paul Davidson on the Stiglitz review of
Robert Skidelsky's "Keynes: The Return of The Master" is forthcoming in
the 27 May issue of the London Review of Books:
The Non-Existent Hand
Joseph Stiglitz criticises Robert Skidelsky, Keynes’s biographer,
for not understanding Keynes’s theory, but in doing so reveals
his own imperfect understanding (LRB,
22 April). The basis of his complaint is Skidelsky’s
distinction between risk and uncertainty. Risk, Skidelsky explains,
exists when the future can be predicted on the basis of currently
existing information (e.g. probability distributions calculated from
existing market data); uncertainty exists when no reliable information
exists today about the future outcomes of current decisions, because
the economic future can be created by decisions taken today. According
to Stiglitz, this is a distinction without a difference, and
‘little insight’ into the causes of the Great Recession is
gained from Skidelsky’s emphasis on uncertainty as opposed to
risk.
But this is not what Keynes believed. The classical economics of
Keynes’s time presumed that today’s economic
decision-makers have reliable information regarding all future
outcomes. I have labelled this the ‘ergodic axiom’. By
contrast, Keynes argued that ‘unfortunate collisions’
occurred because the economic future was very uncertain. ‘By very
uncertain,’ he wrote, ‘I do not mean the same thing as
“very improbable”.’ No reliable information existed
today for providing a reliable forecast of future outcomes.
This is the very proposition that Stiglitz denies. All that is needed
to provide better insight into the workings of the market, he thinks,
is ‘small and obviously reasonable change in assumptions’;
for example, that reliable information about the future does exist but
that different individuals have access to different information. The
only necessary policy is ‘transparency’: to make complete
information about the future available to all. The classical ergodic
axiom is correct, provided one accepts that not everyone has access to
all the information that exists.
For Keynes the inability of firms and households to ‘know’
the economic future is essential to understanding why financial crashes
occur in an economy that uses money and money contracts to organise
transactions. Firms and households use money contracts to gain some
control over their cash inflows and outflows as they venture into the
uncertain future. Liquidity in such an economy implies the ability to
meet all money contractual obligations when they fall due. The role of
financial markets is to assure holders of financial assets that are
traded on orderly markets that they can readily convert these liquid
assets into cash whenever additional funds are needed to meet a
contractual cash outflow commitment. In Keynes’s analysis, the
sudden drying up of liquidity in financial markets, occasioned by
sudden drops of confidence, explains why ‘unfortunate
collisions’ occur – and have occurred more than a hundred
times in the last 30 years, according to Stiglitz.
By contrast, Stiglitz implicitly accepts the orthodox view that all
contracts are made in real terms, as if the economy were a barter
economy. Consequently people’s need for liquidity is irrelevant.
Stiglitz indicates that he and Bruce Greenwald have explained that
financial markets fail ‘because contracts are not appropriately
indexed’, i.e., contracts in our economy are denominated in money
terms rather than ‘real’ terms. He suggests that if only
such contracts were made in real, rather than monetary, terms we would
not suffer the ‘unfortunate collisions’ of economic crisis.
If only we lived in a classical world, where contracts would be
denominated in real terms! But in a money-using economy, this is
impossible.
Paul Davidson, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, New
York
Heterodox Web Sites and
Associates
Richard D.
Wolff's Website and Blog
My website - www.rdwolff.com- in addition to carrying
all of my work has added a new section on Economy and Psychology that
contains both podcasts and blogs on the intersection of these two
disciplines involving collaborative discussions between myself and Dr.
Harriet Fraad, a practicing psychotherapist. Latest series of podcasts
is on "Economy and Family."
Spring 2010 Issue of Radical Teacher (#87) is called "Teaching in Bad
Times" and carries several articles on teaching heterodox economics
today including my own "Teaching Capitalism's Crisis" (pp. 10-18).
Heterodox
Graduate Programs
Berlin
School of Economics and Law
Masters in International Economics
The Master's in International Economics provides students with a
critical understanding of current debates in economics. The programme
has a strongly international approach and aims to integrate an
understanding of theoretical controversies, historical developments and
contemporary policy disputes. It also includes an interdisciplinary
component reflecting the importance that social and political
institutions play in shaping economic developments.
This 18 month programme begins in October each year and is taught
entirely in English. Applications should be submitted by 31 May (15
June for applicants with a German first degree). For details see:
www.hwr-berlin.de/en/study-at-hwr-berlin/study-programmes/international-economics/
Masters in Political Economy of European
Integration
The creation of the European Union as a new political entity beyond
nation states poses new challenges to the protection of nature, the
regulation of labour and money as basic dimensions of integration.
These challenges result from the obstacles to internal integration and
social cohesion within Europe as well as Europe’s role in an
increasingly multipolar and economically globalised world. The masters
programme aims to provide students with an understanding of those
challenges and of the policy mechanisms and policies at the European
level which address the issues. It is a special profile of this
programme that it has a strong focus on political economy.
This 18 month programme begins in October each year and is taught
entirely in English. Applications should be submitted by 31 May (15
June for applicants with a German first degree). For details see:
www.hwr-berlin.de/en/study-at-hwr-berlin/study-programmes/political-economy-of-european-integration/
Heterodox Economics in the
Media
Going
Beyond Immigration Policy
by Timothy A. Wise, Foreign Policy in Focus, May 5, 2010
Democratic Party leaders recently introduced their latest proposal
to reform U.S. immigration policy. The proposal, which is given
little chance of passage in a polarized election year, offers carrots
and sticks in an attempt to bring some semblance of order to a broken
and outdated policy that has left nearly 12 million people in the
United States without legal documents.
The carrots are few and shriveled: an arduous path to U.S.
citizenship for those already in the country. The sticks are
large: a further crackdown on border enforcement and increased policing
to catch and punish those without papers. No combination of carrots and
sticks will address the immigration issue unless reform efforts also
take up the agricultural, trade, and labor policies that feed
migration.
Industrial livestock firms such as Smithfield and Tyson are among
the big winners from the range of U.S. policies, which serve them both
inside the United States and across the border in Mexico. …. read more
In the
Century of "Black Swans", Modern Economics Deserves "Creative
Destruction"
By Vladimir A. Masch, The Huffinton Post, May 12, 2010. Read
the article here.
See also Masch's other article in the Huffington Post here.
Queries from Heterodox
Economists
Restore
RESD Now
The Administration of University of Massachusetts Lowell has recently
decided to dismantle the department
of Regional Economic and Social Development (RESD). The department
was launched in 1997 as part of an initiative to broaden and deepen the
University’s impact on regional development. It has been an
outstanding example of how the public university can both learn from
and place itself in the service of the regional economy. In 2010, after
a dozen years in operation, RESD can claim outstanding success in
graduate and undergraduate teaching, academic research and funding, and
outreach to the regional community. However, it has been under attack
from the UMass Lowell Administration and on March 30, 2010, Chancellor
Martin T. Meehan announced that as of July 1, 2010 RESD will be
dismantled.
A website as part of the campaign to 'Restore RESD Now' www.restoreresd.org has been
constructed and the site is still being populated with relevant
material.
Please visit the site and sign the petition.
Save ISAE
and ISFOL
Italian government has decided in the current budgetary manoeuvring to
cancel two fundamental public research bodies (ISAE, ISFOL).* It is a
way to prevent people to say the truth about national economic system
or international real situation (they are doing the same with media).
Indeed, cancelling them does not reduce significantly public
expenditure.
APPEAL AGAINST THE ABOLITION OF ISAE
Having had the opportunity of appreciating the valuable works of ISAE
and the high professional quality of its individual researchers,
Deeming ISAE’s institutional analyses of the economy and
political measures constantly of great relevance and scientific rigor
as well as remarkably useful for the economic community and policy
makers alike,
Considering that the abolition of ISAE would be clearly a great loss
for the national community,
We ask the Parliament and government to reconsider as early as possible
the inconveniency of such a measure that depletes a relevant human and
scientific capital and deprives public opinion, policy makers, and
international organizations of an independent reference authority.
Petition site: http://www.isae.it/inglese/bpg/default.asp
*ISAE and ISFOL are two independent and public research bodies so
they guarantee the freedom of the research. The Institute for Studies
and Economic Analyses (Istituto di Studi e Analisi Economica - ISAE) is
a public research Institute that conducts analyses, research projects
and forecasts suited to economic and social policy decisions (for
further details see www.isae.it).
The Institute for the development of worker training (Istituto per lo
sviluppo della formazione professionale dei lavoratori (Isfol) carries
out and promotes analyses for the development of workers' training and
of social and labour market policies (for further details see www.isfol.it).
For Your Information
Wynne Godley (1926-2010)
Wynne Godley, who has died at the age of 83, achieved fame
for his stringent attacks on the monetarist doctrines of the
Thatcherites - he once dismissed their policies as "a gigantic con
trick".
His dire warnings in the late 1970s that unemployment would rise to 3m
in the 1980s earned him the title "Cassandra of the Fens" and were
derided - until they came true.
Then, after years in the wilderness, with his research grant cut and
academics giving him the cold shoulder, he returned to the
establishment fold as one of the Treasury's independent forecasters.
It was a tribute to his intellectual strength that he came through such
setbacks to produce some of the most novel and insightful analysis of
economies of his generation. What made his achievements all the more
singular was that he had started his career as a professional musician.
Financial Times, May 14th, 2010:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/daa15506-5ee3-11df-af86-00144feab49a.html
Keen,
Roubini and Baker win Revere Award for Economics
Steve Keen (University of Western Sydney), receiving more than twice as
many votes as his nearest rival, has been judged the economist who
first and most cogently warned the world of the coming Global Financial
Collapse. He and 2nd and 3rd place finishers Nouriel Roubini (New York
University) and Dean Baker (Center for Economic and Policy Research)
have won the inaugural Revere Award for Economics. It is named in
honour of Paul Revere and his famous ride through the night to warn
Americans of the approaching British army.
Keen, Roubini and Baker have been voted to be, more than all others,
the three economists who if the powers of the world had listened to,
the Global Financial Collapse could have been avoided. More than 2,500
people voted—most of whom were economists themselves from the
11,000 subscribers to the real-world
economics review. With a maximum of three votes per voter, a total
of 5,062 votes were cast. [read more]
ClassCrits: Progressive
Lawyers meet Heterodox Economists
ClassCrits 2010 Workshop: http://www.law.buffalo.edu/baldycenter/ClassCrits2010/
Related blogs:
G.C.
Harcourt: The Crisis in Mainstream Economics (audio)
Valedictory Lecture by Geoff Harcourt are now available here. May 12, 2010 at SOAS, University of
London
Historical Materialism
Conference, Toronto (video)
In and Out of Crisis: Authors Meet
Critics (video): Click here
to watch video
Part 1: the authors of In and out of Crisis:
- Greg Albo teaches political economy at York University, Toronto.
- Sam Gindin is the Visiting Packer Chair in Social Justice at
York University, Toronto.
- Leo Panitch teaches political economy at York University, is
co-editor of The Socialist Register and author of Renewing Socialist
Democracy, Strategy and Imagination.
Part 2: the critics, followed by q+a:
- Johanna Brenner is coordinator of women's studies at Portland
State University in Portland, Oregon and author of Women and the
Politics of Class.
- David McNally teaches political science at York University in
Toronto.
Marx and the Global South: Click here
to watch video
Presentations by:
- Vijay Prashad: George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian
History and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College,
Hartford. Prashad is the author of The Darker Nations: A People's
History of the Third World (The New Press, 2008).
- Kevin Anderson: Professor of Sociology and Political Science at
University of California-Santa Barbara. Anderson is the author of Marx
at the Margins.
- Ananya Mukherjee Reed: Associate Professor, Political Science,
International Development Studies, York University, Toronto.
The Malthus
Myth: Population, Poverty and Climate Change (video)
Ian Angus, editor of Climate
and Capitalism, author of The
Global Fight for Climate Justice, Anti-capitalist Responses to Global
Warming and Environmental Destruction. Ian is also Associate Editor
of Socialist Voice.
Watch the video (This was recorded at the Socialism 2010:
Socialism or Barbarism Conference in Toronto.)
