Issue 199 July 04, 2016 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory
During the last weeks I encountered a recurring topic in heterodox economics, namely the infamous issue of self-labelling and self-framing and the related question of disciplinary embedding. For instance, when sending out requests for additions to the section "100 words on heterodox economics" in the Heterodox Economics Directory, I received some responses stating that the respondents do not (publicly) self-identify as "heterodox economists" as the term is supposed to carry a parochial flavor. Some weeks later, I read Frank Stilwell's piece on Heterodox Economics vs. Political Economy in the World Economics Association's Newsletter as well as the comment by Susan K. Schroeder and Lynne Chester, who advance a different view. And, finally, I am sometimes approached with respect to the economics journal rankings published on our website, which provide a ranking of economics journals taking the contestedness of the discipline into account. As these rankings emphasize the comparison of mainstream and heterodox economic journals, I am sometimes asked whether an alternative frame for comparison, e.g. an interdisciplinary collection of journals covering the whole breadth of current branches Political Economy, would provide a more adequate approach to situate heterodox economics within academic discourse.
The underlying question, how to frame one's intellectual heritage and interest, is, of course, open to several perspectives: epistemological, ontological, pedagogical or political arguments can be made in favor of one labelling or the other. And indeed, these different perspectives lead to very different conclusions: while heterodox economics obviously deals with the same subject as mainstream economics, the latter routinely ignores the former. At the same time, heterodox economic research is readily imported by an interdisciplinary community of geographers, political scientists and sociologists (see, e.g., here or here). Hence, from a traditional disciplinary perspective - where different disciplines are confined by distinct core areas of study - heterodox economics is really 'economics', while from a discursive perspective heterodox economics may seem like some kind of generalist social science, ready to diffuse its ideas in a series of discplines and traditions.
However, as labels also contribute to disciplinary identity, I wanted to remind all my dear readers, that the alleged 'parochial flavor' of heterodox economics as a label is not necessarily the fault of heterodox economists, but rather a mere by-product of a far greater academic parochialism - namely that inherent in standard economic thought. James K. Galbraith has - in his recent addition to the "100 words on heterodox economics" - explicitly adressed this problem in the following way:
"'Heterodox' in economics is the Mark of Cain. I am happy to bear it. Yet in gross terms the label is a stigma, imposed on those excluded from and by the self-declared mainstream. Todays followers of Keynes, Kaldor, Robinson, Minsky, Schumpeter, Leontief, Hirschman, Veblen, Commons, Prebisch, Georgescu-Roegen, Eisner, Pasinetti and my father (among others) are not outsiders. Instead they represent what is most worth preserving, advancing and developing in the discipline of economics. The others – for all their power over journals and appointments, and especially to the extent that they wield that power – are narrow and pretentious impostors."
Most probably, Jamie is right on this one. While 'heterodox' indeed is a mark - which is not always easy to bear, as it serves as a source of institutionalized ignorance -, it is, at the end of the day, something to be proud of. Keeping that in mind, it is maybe easier to see, why heterodoxy is so many things - not only an alternative approach to doing good economics, but also a generalist social science interested in the broader picture. So, keep up the good work - and do not care too much about how to label it ;-)
All the best,
Jakob
© public domain
5-6 December, 2016 | University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
The annual SHE Conference provides a vital forum for the discussion of alternatives to mainstream economics. The Conference provides a broad pluralistic and interdisciplinary forum to discuss issues of importance to heterodox economists.
For 2016 the SHE Conference theme is: What future for global capitalism?
Uncertainty about the future of the world economy has been reinforced by recent events such as Brexit and the failure of Europe to emerge from their economic crisis.
What does heterodox economic analysis suggest is the likely outcome, and what policy suggestions result?
Submission details:
Submissions are invited for single papers, complete sessions and symposia (comprising more than one session) relevant to the over-arching conference theme, or which discuss issues of importance from perspectives which differ from, or critically examine, mainstream economics.
Single papers:
All papers should include a 250 word abstract that clearly states the issue being addressed, its main points and argument. It should be stated, at the time of submission, if you require your paper to be refereed and if you wish your paper to be considered for a symposium.
Complete sessions:
We welcome proposals for complete sessions. Session proposals should be sent to p.kriesler@unsw.edu.au and include the following information:
Symposia:
We encourage proposals for symposia which address a single topic or issue. The SHE Conference Committee will work with symposia organisers, when constructing the conference program, to ensure a coherent list of sessions for each symposium, and schedule these so that participants can follow a symposium across more than one session. Symposium proposals should be submitted to p.kriesler@unsw.edu.au and include the following information:
Deadlines:
The SHE Conference Committee will consider all proposals for papers, sessions and symposia, and will notify you of the acceptance or rejection of your proposal.
Style Guide for Conference papers is available here. Registration details will be announced later and be available here.
Further details can be found at the conference website.
20-22 October, 2016 | Berlin, Germany
PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for submission of papers for the 20 FMM conference has been extended to 14 July 2016.
Proposals (abstract of max. 400 words) have to be submitted electronically via this web application. Please find more information on the conference website.
The submission of papers in the following areas is encouraged:
We particularly welcome submissions of papers for graduate student sessions. Graduate students who already presented a paper in previous FMM conferences are encouraged to submit to the regular sessions to improve chances for newcomers. There will also be a day of introductory lectures for graduate students prior to the opening panel on 20 October. Hotel costs will be covered for graduate student presenters (max. four nights from 19 to 23 October).
Registration details for the conference and the introductory lectures will be available on this page by mid-August. Please note that acceptance to present a paper does not imply automatic registration.
Contact: Sabine Nemitz
More details are available here: Call for Papers (pdf)
26 September, 2016 | The Great Park, Windsor, Berkshire, UK
Undoubtedly, many of the most pressing challenges of our age relate to changes in human population. Many people believe that the world is overpopulated and that population growth is causing significant social, economic and environmental harm. However, countries with low rates of population growth are struggling to cope with ageing populations and shrinking workforces.
Yet these issues receive little attention from academics, and public debate is often led by unconsidered opinion and ideological divides about the ethics of birth and death. This presents opportunities for interdisciplinary researchers to break new ground and make significant contributions to contemporary policy decisions.
This colloquium will explore different perspectives on moral issues relating to human population. Topics covered throughout the day will include: the morality of procreative decision-making, the changing shape of society, the relationship between human populations and the environment and the effect of demography on wellbeing and development. Our goal is to bring together scholars with an interest in these interrelated issues from theoretical and scientific perspectives with practitioners and policy makers, to spark debates and to stimulate collaborations. We hope to draw on a growing body of research on population and ethics in philosophy, demography, political science, anthropology, geography, sociology, ecology and reproductive health.
Keynote speaker – Sir Partha Dasgupta (University of Cambridge)
We are seeking to select up to 8 presentations, with a preference for work from early career researchers and postgraduates, that explore the following topics:
The morality of birth: Are procreative decisions moral decisions, and if so what norms and values govern then? How do these decisions interact with wider moral and political debates, or are they essentially private?
The changing shape of society: Shifting age demographics and family structures are altering the structure of our communities. How are these changes affecting the balance of responsibilities between generations and how should societies react?
Human populations and the environment: Are population controls an appropriate response to environmental change, or are consumption, technology and behaviour more important? Is it right to give priority to expanding human populations, when populations of other species are collapsing?
Optimum demographics: Is there such a thing as an optimum population size, and how should this be determined? Are there optimum levels for other demographic features, such as growth rate or age structure, that promote wellbeing and human development?
In order to maximise the impact of this emerging field of interdisciplinary research, participants will be able to contribute their ideas to a video on population ethics that we will be producing in collaboration with the Westminster think tank Common Vision – www.covi.org.uk.
Successful applicants will have their registration fee and travel costs provided free of charge.
To submit a proposal, please send an abstract of 500 words or less outlining the content of your proposed presentation to populationethics@cumberlandlodge.ac.uk.
If you have any further questions, you are welcome to contact the Organising Committee at populationethics@cumberlandlodge.ac.uk.
This colloquium is being organised by a committee of early career researchers and post-graduate students working in collaboration with Cumberland Lodge. It is also being generously supported by the Royal Economics Society and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.
Further details and registration (via Eventbrite) are available here.
After almost a decade of outstanding economic bonanza, public finance in Latin America is under pressure again. Not only is the tax state in most Latin American countries poorly developed, but also inefficient and regressive, rendering insufficient revenue. In the wake of the double slump of global demand and international commodity prices, public finances are under intense stress again, and in almost all countries in the region governments struggle to avoid expenditure cuts or rise in public debt.
For a long time, this dependence on the economic cycle has been stressed in most of the research, which - guided by the increasing technical ability to digitally access and process financial data - has made great progress in providing comparative and detailed accounts of the dynamics of public finances in Latin America. However, these contributions are overwhelmingly one-sided and most of the research is written from a purely quantitative economic perspective. This tendency does not only imply the theoretical and methodological pitfalls of decontextualized, ahistorical theory building. It also entails the inability to provide answers to the persistent challenges of public finance in Latin America, and frequently reduces the discussion to a (public) policy issue neglecting the historical, structural or global dynamics that influence the use and misuse of public finances in Latin America. Moreover, this bias commonly crowds out non-economists to follow and participate in the discussion and delegitimizes competing methodological approaches within Economics.
This issue of Critical Reviews on Latin American Research (CROLAR, 5(3)) aims to provide a platform for alternative approaches to this topic, calling for reviews or short review essays that critically reflect the state of public finances in Latin America. In particular, the issue is interested in contributions that review recent works that go beyond standard economic approaches and offer fresh insights to the specific anomalies and challenges of public finance in the region. That is, publications that go beyond a policy or applied quantitative economist perspective and offer insights on the sociology of public finance, following or re-viewing the classical or recent contributions in fiscal sociology elsewhere (Hickel, 1976; Campbell, 1993; Leroy, 2008; Martin, Mehrotra & Prasad, 2009). Such reviewed contributions are likely to take advantage of increased digital availability of financial data, but aim to embed this information in a state-society narrative that may take into account: the role of elites in public finance, the nexus of taxation and citizenship, the importance of public finance and the (ongoing) process of state formation, the interrelation of taxation with specific processes of capital accumulation or the role of public finance in current political ideologies.
In addition, this issue of CROLAR is particularly interested in a revision of the knowledge production and the “democratization” of public finance in Latin America within recent processes of digitalization. Today, driven by the global “transparency phenomenon” (Holzner & Holzner, 2006, p. 7), international (governmental) or national initiatives of open government and open data rank high on Latin American governments’ agendas. In connection with the improved technical ability to collect, process and publish large data sets, this means that obtaining information about public finances has never been easier. Especially in the case of Latin American countries, these dynamics of digitalization promise a historical novelty: unconditional access to information and interpretation of public finances, traditionally restricted to a small group of “experts” or public bureaucrats and guarded by them in the Weberian sense of the “office secret” (Weber, 1968, p. 341). This issue of CROLAR invites authors to contribute with reviews of academic as well as non-academic publications - blogs, digital media production, or data repositories – in order to assess the alleged proclaimed potential of the “democratization” of public finance and the production of information and knowledge related to them within the dynamics of digitalization. Such contributions should provide insights beyond the technical discussion of data delivery and may place initiatives of digital fiscal transparency within a larger discussion of neoliberal forms of governance, or relate them to the discourse of public management and persistent socio-economic inequality.
As the interrelation between digitalization and public finance is a relatively unexplored research field, this issue especially welcomes reviews of works that transcend the limits of academic production, aimed at a larger audience and related to current events. Such contributions will be published in the section “Interventions” and may review works by journalists, activists, practitioners, artists and others. We are well aware that such works related to public finances may be scarse, but we encourage reviewers to reflect on such projects. In particular, this is the case of works that are not in book format, such as documentaries, blogs, websites, data repositories and artistic projects.
They can be written in Spanish, English, Portuguese or German. Ideally, the review should be in a different language than the reviewed publication or project. The formal requirements for reviews can be found at www.crolar.org.
We are looking forward to reading from you! If you are interested in writing a review or have any other suggestions or questions, please contact the editors of the volume: Jorge Atria (jaatria@uc.cl) and Constantin Groll (cgroll@zedat.fu-berlin.de).
Deadline for submissions: 31 August 2016.
For further information see this webpage.
30 September, 2016 | Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
The Department of Economic Policy at Corvinus University of Budapest and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Budapest dedicate this conference to the Cambrindge economist Nicholas Kaldor. He was born in Budapest, studied at the LSE, worked for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and advised the Labour government of Harold Wilson on taxation and economic policy. Applied to his legacy the contemporary economic and social questions will be analysed. Issues like the recent financial and economic crisis, secular stagnation, eurozone economics and income inequality will be discussed in the context of economic growth and social equity.
For registration and more details contact: kaldorconference@gmail.com
Venue: Corvinus University of Budapest, Auditorium III (1093 Budapest, Fővám tér 8.)
Coordinator: László Andor, head of Department of Economic Policy
Papers can be submitted for the parallel workshops in the afternoon sessions. As the timeframe is limited, the organising committee decides which papers can be presented.
Registration deadline: July 31, 2016
15-17 September 2016 | University of Coimbra, Portugal
PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended to the 10th of July.
All papers that present an alternative economic perspective on the conference theme 'The European Union: the Threat of Disintegration' are welcome. In particular, we encourage submissions specific to one of the workshops outlined in the programme below. Organised by the EuroMemo Group and jointly hosted with the Faculty of Economics at the University of Coimbra in Portugal
The programme will be as follows:
Thursday afternoon: The state of the Union
Friday morning: The second day will be dedicated to key themes of EU policy within six different workshops.
Friday afternoon: Plenary on policy proposals from workshops and special plenary 'Disintegration or Refoundation of the European Union?'
Saturday morning: Planning meeting: EuroMemorandum 2017 and other activities
Proposals for papers together with a short abstract (maximum 250 words) should be submitted by 10 July. If possible, please indicate the workshop which the proposal is intended for. If accepted, completed papers should be submitted by 25 August so that they can be read before the conference.
We strongly encourage participants to submit short papers (10-12 pages) and to explicitly address policy implications.
If you would like to participate in the conference and/ or submit a paper proposal, please copy the registration form into an email and reply by the 10 July 2016 to info@euromemo.eu.
Please find the call for papers here (pdf).
1-3 September, 2016 | São Paulo School of Economics, Brazil
The Brazilian Keynesian Association (AKB) organizes its IX International Conference on “Keynes's General Theory at 80: in the search of insights to overcome the Brazilian Crisis”, which will be held at the São Paulo School of Economics (EESP/FGV) in September 1-3, 2016.
The conference will include four special sessions, one mini-course and several ordinary sessions, in which about 80 papers will be presented, after assessed and approved by the scientific committee. Prof. John McCombie from Cambridge University will lecture the mini-course and the keynote speakers at the special sessions are Gabriel Palma (Cambridge University), Louis-Philippe Rochon (University of Toronto), Roberto Frenkel (CEDES), Luiz C. Bresser-Pereira (FGV), Luiz G. Belluzzo (Unicamp), Nelson Barbosa (FGV/UFRJ) and Fernando Ferrari (UFRGS).
Suggested areas for paper submission are (followed by the members of the scientific committees in bold):
Submission details:
The deadline for submissions is 11:59 pm of July 15th, 2016, according to the date and hour (Brazilian official time BRT -0300) of the e-mail message;
Papers can be written either in English, Portuguese or Spanish;
Papers must be in Microsoft Office Word, or PDF; maximum of 25 pages (including an abstract in English and also informing the area of submission in the first page). Use font type Times New Roman, 12-point font size and single spaced lines. Candidates should attach two versions of the paper to the e-mail message: one including the name and institutional affiliation of the author(s) and an unidentified version, which will be blind reviewed by the scientific committee.
Each author can submit at most 2 (two) papers (either as author or co-author); each paper must be submitted by distinct e-mail messages.
The e-mail message with the attached versions of the papers must be sent to: associacao.keynesiana@gmail.com
In the email message, please, inform the title of the paper, author(s) name and institutional affiliation as well as the submission area
Transportation and other costs must be covered by each participant. Accommodation can be provided by the organisers, depending on available funding.
For further information, please contact Prof.Nelson Marconi (FGV-SP): nelson.marconi@fgv.br or associacao.keynesiana@gmail.com
16-18 September, 2016 | Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan
One of the aims of this conference is to celebrate the 80 years anniversary of the publication of The General Theory by John M. Keynes. As usual in the September conference any papers on Economic Theory and Policy, especially on Abenomics, Input Output Studies, Economic Theory, Economic Policy, Empirical Studies and Topics in History of Economic Thought are invited.
Submission of Abstract
For those who want to join and present a paper at our September conference, please send your abstract( between 200 words and 500 words) with your name, your affiliation and contact address to confyagi@meiji.ac.jp until 25 July, 2016.
We will send you the notification of acceptance, basically within one week after recieving your submission in order that the participants can prepare for their travel to Japan.
VISA application
For those who need documents for VISA application, could you please send your e.mail to confyagi@meiji.ac.jp until the end of June.
Topics
A is usual in our September conference, we will accept any papers on Economic Theory and Policy, especially on
Contact:
Prof.Takashi Yagi (Meiji University): yagi8@meiji.ac.jp
Further information is available here.
3-4 November, 2016 | City University London, UK
Recent years have seen a growth in innovative research on finance across the humanities and social sciences. Following on from the success of the ‘social studies of finance’ approach and the new literature on ‘financialisation’, scholars are taking up the challenge of theorising money and finance beyond the conceptual constraints of orthodox economic theory, with different research agendas emerging under various new monikers. This two-day conference aims to bring these approaches into closer dialogue. In particular, it seeks to identify new synergies between heterodox political economy and various sociological, historical, and philosophical perspectives on the intersections of finance and society.
The conference is organised by the journal Finance and Society (with support from the Department of International Politics at City University London), together with the Social Studies of Finance Network at the University of Sydney (with support from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney).
Confirmed keynotes
Confirmed roundtables
Finance and social theory
Finance and political economy
Themes on which we encourage contributions include
Contributions are invited in two formats
Paper submission
Please submit abstracts and proposals by 1 August 2016 to both Amin Samman (amin.samman.1@city.ac.uk) and Martijn Konings (martijn.konings@sydney.edu.au).
The conference organisers aim to publish a selection of the papers as special issues in Finance and Society and other prominent peer-reviewed journals. Participants who would like to be considered for these should aim to submit a draft of an original paper by 1 October 2016.
We have limited funding, with priority given to graduate students. Please indicate in your email if you want to be considered for this.
A PDF version of the call for papers available here.
24-26 March, 2017 | University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended to the 1st of August.
Organizers and advocates for local and global social justice are the lifeblood of solidarity movements worldwide that disrupt historic projects of exploitation, violent dispossession and social fragmentation. Social and economic inequality is a global challenge of the 21st century. The Global North’s Occupy and anti-austerity movement spoke back to the 2008 financial crisis. They now confront the urgent, mass scale migrations of peoples from the Global South to the North, fleeing a colonial legacy deprivations, militarization, wars and land grabs. Settler societies are also experiencing Indigenous re-centerings, from #IdleNoMore to the Truth and Reconciliation process, and the #BlackLivesMatter cry to enfranchise African diasporas.
It is now increasingly recognized that rising levels of inequality are linked to poverty, discrimination, illness, environmental degradation, and social unrest. It is further recognized that inequality, in turn, is conditioned by and contingent on a range of other factors, including citizenship rights, gender, race, ethnicity, age, location, and education.
But despite this recognition, social movements contesting inequality face serious problems of organization, strategy and tactics. Recent years have shown the limits of traditional trade unionism, occupy and assembly movements, vanguards and new electoral parties alike. They have also shown that anti-racism, anti-violence, LGBTQ and migrant rights movements, to name a few, face major challenges organizing in the face of violence, xenophobia, marginality, impoverishment and under threat of criminalization. Across the board, movements have to reckon with the unprecedented levels of surveillance of the digital networks which have become an important part of their organizing practices.
This conference therefore asks what forms of organization might, in today’s conditions, be most useful to movements for equality. It especially seeks contributions willing to explore new possibilities for the organization of equality struggles.
Organizing Equality is an international conference hosted by members of the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Initiative for the Study of Social and Economic Inequality at the University of Western Ontario, and planned for 24 – 26 March 2017. Its goal is to bring organizers, scholars, public educators, artists, media producers and advocates together from around the globe to build local and global capacity, share theories, strategies, experiences, and insights about efforts to address inequality and develop new kinds of theory/practice to guide and build future struggles. Our goal is to strengthen connections regionally, nationally and internationally, and to develop new forms of knowing, thinking and acting together between and across politics, sectors and communities of interest. To this end, we solicit scholarly presentations, organizing and dialogue sessions, workshop proposals, art performances/installations, radical media teach-ins and more, addressing a wide variety of themes related to the worldwide struggle for equality.
These themes include, but are not limited to (Proposals due 1 August 2016):
Proposals for papers and sessions should be limited to 250 words. The deadline for the submission of abstracts for 20-minute presentations is 1 August 2016. Please include with your paper or session proposal, your name, e-mail address, institutional or group affiliation, and a short CV or biography. Abstracts should be e-mailed to the organizing committee at: organizingequality@uwo.ca.
For further information and conference updates, please visit the conference website: www.organizingequality.com.
Travel bursaries are available for participants from the global south. Please indicate in your submission if you would like to be considered for financial assistance.
2-4 December, 2016 | Providence College, Rhode Island, US
Plenary Speakers:
Pope Leo XIII formally initiated Catholic social teaching 125 years ago with the release of Rerum Novarum, which among other things, explained the Church’s position on the relationship between labor and capital. Following its release, the Church has been vigilant in addressing changing times and social conditions. We also celebrate the 35 anniversary of one such document: Pope John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens.
In the spirit of this tradition, this conference will consider how the Church should respond to new developments in economic relationships in these anniversary years, especially in relation to labor, capital, and technology. We are interested in paper proposals that address issues such as:
We encourage submissions from academics and researchers in areas such as Theology, Philosophy, Business, Economics, and Sociology; as well as from leaders in business and technology.
1-2-page proposal by 16 September 2016 to: David A. Zalewski: zalewski@providence.edu
20-21 April, 2017 | Aalborg University, Denmark
Conference Theme: Economics at the edge!
Traditional economics failed to predict the financial crisis, and traditional theory cannot provide an adequate analysis of the current economic stagnation in Europe. To develop policy we need to explore and use theories that are more realistic in their content than the mainstream understanding and that are, as such, located at the edge of traditional theory. Here Post-Keynesian theory can be a prime candidate. In theoretical work, the general equilibrium approach has built in too many limitations to serve as an adequate foundation. SFC models lie on the edge, but have interesting potential. Economics students have become increasingly critical of traditional theory which they regard as quixotic. This calls for new theoretical directions and other ways to work with economics than that provided by the mainstream. Pluralism and problem-based learning can make economics interesting and relevant to students.
The conference in Aalborg in 2017 will focus on these three areas - theoretical alternatives and ideas for economic policy, SFC and other new approaches to modelling, and pluralism in economics teaching – with the aim of exploring them all the way to the edge.
Keynote speakers: Eckhard Hein, Peter Skott, Malcolm Sawyer, Sheila Dow, Stephen Kinsella, Jesper Jespersen
Organisation
View the conference organizing committee at the home page of the research group Mamtep.
Call for papers
Abstract submission to pkc17@business.aau.dk before December 15th 2016.
Further details will be available at: www.pkconference.aau.dk
15 September, 2016 | Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan
Workshop venue
Both the workshop and the conference will take place at the following location: Meiji University (Surugadai Campus), 1-1 Kandasurugadai, Chiyodaku, Tokyo, 101-8301, Japan.
Aim and Topics
This workshop provides a forum for discussing and developing new financial and economic theories in order to assess the impacts of Abenomics on and via the financial markets. The aims are to explore the broader consequences of the reforms and how they affect financial markets, but also society, economic prosperity and their lessons for other countries. Theoretical or empirical papers dealing with any of these aspects are particularly welcome:
Submission, Registration and Important Dates
Those wishing to present a paper at the workshop are invited to send a full paper or a detailed abstract to alexis.stenfors@port.ac.uk.
Workshop Organising Committee
Further details about the workshop are available here. The workshop is organised with financial support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
12-13 July, 2016 | McGrath Centre, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, UK
The Cambridge Journal of Economics was first published in March 1977. The journal has been publishing papers from the full range of heterodox perspectives for four decades providing a forum for theoretical, applied, policy relevant, interdisciplinary, history of thought and methodological work. It has throughout had a strong emphasis on realistic analysis, the development of critical perspectives, the provision and use of empirical evidence and the construction of policy.
Therefore a conference is being held to mark the first forty years of the Journal and look ahead to the next forty.
Location: McGrath Centre, St Catharine's College
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
The conference will run over two days, starting around 09:00 on 12 July and running until approx 18:00 on 13 July, with a conference dinner on 12 July.
Download the CONFERENCE PROGRAMME HERE.
The conference programme will cover a number of themes, including:
There was a Call for Papers issued in association with this conference, this is now closed (www.cpes.org.uk/callforpapers40years).
REGISTRATION, COST AND BOOKING
All attendees must register for the conference. The conference is being sponsored by the Cambridge Journal of Economics and so the registration fees are subsidised. The cost of attending the conference for both days (including the Conference Dinner, on the Tuesday evening, 12 July) is £150, with a student rate of £50. To book a place at the conference please complete the ticket booking section below.
Accommodation is NOT included in the conference registration cost. It is suggested that delegates should book their accommodation as soon as they register. Please see suggestions for accommodation below.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Please note in the event you need to cancel your registration a full refund can be arranged up to 50 days after the original booking date, providing it is before 4 July 2016.
ST CATHARINE’S COLLEGE
The conference is taking place at St Catharine’s College with the parallel sessions spread across a number of rooms. To see a map of the College showing the rooms that will be used please CLICK HERE.
ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation for the conference can be booked directly with St Catharine’s College, when booking please use the Promotional code: ‘CJE40TH’.
Other Cambridge College Rooms can also be booked online at: http://www.universityrooms.com/en/city/cambridge/home
Alternatively, there are a number of hotels nearby, including those listed below:
Further Conference Enquiries:
If you have any queries regarding the conference please contact Philippa Millerchip on pm436@cam.ac.uk.
30 August – 3 September, 2016 | Budapest, Hungary
The conference will host more than 500 academics, researchers and practitioners who will present their latest work through over 40 special sessions and 200 shorter paper presentations, in addition to contributions from twenty keynote speakers.
Programme of the 5th International Degrowth Conference is available here.
All the calls, the submissions and the registration to the conference are closed. But you are still invited to join the Budapest Degrowth Week or to relocalize the conference.
For the first time, in parallel to the conference, an open festival “Budapest Degrowth Week” will feature practical workshops, panel and participatory discussions, and also concerts, artistic performances and interactive tours throughout the city. Local residents and the international Degrowth community members are invited to participate in more than 100 events hosted in several venues.
See an overall programme of the Degrowth Week here.
Degrowth has emerged over the last 10 years. This “bomb word” has been used to inspire in-depth debates on whether infinite growth in a finite world is desirable or even possible. The main goal of the Budapest Degrowth conference and week is on one hand to question the limits to growth in understanding the challenges faced by society and on the other hand to implement dialogue about solutions on different levels.
Please find more information on our Website, also on our Press Package (where you can also find information for media pass) or our Welcome Pack. We are also looking for hosts in Budapest!
All the best and see you soon in Budapest,
Your Budapest Degrowth conference team
14-15 July, 2016 | Public Policy Center, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
This two day seminar focuses on patterns of contestation, protest, alternative forms of political participation, and how each of these have had an impact upon contemporary policymaking in political economy. This is part of the ESRC Seminar Series: Understanding the post-crisis landscape: assessing change in economic management, welfare, work and democracy. The seminar focuses on a range of questions related to the relationship between democratic participation, protest, and political economy outcomes. How are changing forms of protest re-defining the contemporary political economy? To what extent are we witnessing new political actors created through the activity of anti-austerity protest? How have policymakers responded to new forms of protest and dissent in the current age of austerity and anti-austerity?
Entry is free and welcome to all, but please register beforehand by writing an email to: Sam Warner: SJW160@student.bham.ac.uk
Further information can be found here.
PROGRAMME
Thursday 14 July
9.45 Introduction, Professor Vicenç Navarro, Director, JHU-UPF Public Policy Center
10.15 What hope for democracy in the crisis stage of neoliberal capitalism?
11.30 tea/coffee
11.45 Against austerity: understanding the wave of anti-austerity protest
13.15 LUNCH
14.15 The struggle for social reproduction
3.45 tea/coffee
4.00 Studying resistance
5.30 Panel: reflections on strategies and experiments for change
6.30 END
Friday 15 July
10.00 Communicating grassroots struggles
11.00 Comparing housing movements
12.30 LUNCH
13.30 Theorising resistance and the role of the party
4.00 tea/coffee
4.15 Linking protest to policy and politicians?
5.15 Closing discussion: how to influence, who to influence, should we be aiming to influence?
6.00 END
3-5 November, 2016 | Düsseldorf, Germany
Conference Theme: Transformation – Acceleration – Formability
The Research Institute for Societal Development holds its anual conference with this years‘ topic „Transformation – Acceleration – Formability“ from the 3rd to 5th of November in Düsseldorf, Germany. The conference consists of a pre- and a main conference. The pre-conference from the 3rd to 4th November involves the five following tracks and is especially directed at young researchers and scientific advisors to policy institutions and NGOs:
The main conference includes Key note speeches i.a. by Prof. Gesine Schwan (Humboldt Governance Trialogue), Prof. Dirk Messner (German Institute of Developmental Policies) and Prof. Uwe Schneidewind (Wuppertal Institute).
The conference will be held in German language.
Click here for further information regarding participation and fees.
Click here if you want to be directed to the pre-conference section.
Job Title: Junior Professorship
The Faculty III – School of Economic Disciplines – of the University of Siegen is seeking for a PhD candidate or equivalently qualified.
The successful candidate will teach in the new Master programme "Pluralism in Economics" and is expected to participate in the Institute's key research areas such as "Governance", "Media and Digitalisation" and "Middle Class".
Requirements:
Further details about the job advert can be found here (only in German).
In honour of the great critical economist Mark Blaug (1927-2011), from 2014 the Foundation for European Economic Development (FEED) is financing and awarding an annual student essay prize.
Details of the 2016 Prize Competition
Eligible essays for the prize must be critical discussions of any aspect of modern economics.
Rather than applying economics to a particular problem, eligible essays must reflect critically on the state of economics itself, as Mark Blaug did in many of his works. Critical reflections may include the assumptions adopted, the suitability of the concepts deployed, the mode of analysis, the role of mathematical models, the use of econometrics, real-world relevance, the presumed relationship between theory and policy, the unwarranted influence of ideology, the use (or otherwise) of insights from other disciplines, and so on.
The required language is English. Eligible essays are by university undergraduates, or by graduates who obtained their Bachelor’s degree no earlier than 1 January 2015. There is no residential or geographical restriction.
Undergraduate dissertations must be converted to essay format and reduced to 6,000 words (inclusive of references and appendices) or less. Author names, affiliations and email must be placed on the first page, below the title of the essay.
Up to two prizes will be awarded each year, depending on the quality of the best papers. The respective awards will be £500 and £300. FEED will reserve the right to award no prize, or one prize only, if there are inadequate essays of quality. The prizes will be judged by a committee of leading scholars.
Essays should be submitted by email to g.m.hodgson@herts.ac.uk by 1 October 2016. The awards will be made in late 2016 or early 2017.
Tony Lawson: Social positioning and the nature of money
Faruk Eray Düzenli: Surplus-producing labour as a capability: a Marxian contribution to Amartya Sen’s revival of classical political economy
Siobhan Austen, Therese Jefferson, Rachel Ong, Rhonda Sharp, Gill Lewin, Valerie Adams: Recognition: applications in aged care work
Emiliano Brancaccio, Giuseppe Fontana: ‘Solvency rule’ and capital centralisation in a monetary union
Teodoro Dario Togati: How can we explain the persistence of the Great Recession? A balanced stability approach
W. D. McCausland, I. Theodossiou: The consequences of fiscal stimulus on public debt: a historical perspective
John S. L. McCombie, Marta R. M. Spreafico: Kaldor’s ‘technical progress function’ and Verdoorn’s law revisited
Alfred Kleinknecht, Zenlin Kwee, Lilyana Budyanto: Rigidities through flexibility: flexible labour and the rise of management bureaucracies
Nan-Ting Chou, Alexei Izyumov, John Vahaly: Rates of return on capital across the world: are they converging?
Nelson H. Barbosa-Filho: Elasticity of substitution and social conflict: a structuralist note on Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century
Tomas Nielsen Rotta, Rodrigo Alves Teixeira: The autonomisation of abstract wealth: new insights on the labour theory of value
Elodie Bertrand: Coase’s choice of methodology
Antonio Bianco: Hicks’s thread (out of the equilibrium labyrinth)
Greg Clarke, Ron Martin, Peter Tyler: Divergent cities? Unequal urban growth and development
Ron Martin, Peter Sunley, Peter Tyler, Ben Gardiner: Divergent cities in post-industrial Britain
Susanne A. Frick, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose: Average city size and economic growth
Steve Fothergill, Donald Houston: Are big cities really the motor of UK regional economic growth?
Ian R. Gordon: Quantitative easing of an international financial centre: how central London came so well out of the post-2007 crisis
Graham Haughton, Iain Deas, Stephen Hincks, Kevin Ward: Mythic Manchester: Devo Manc, the Northern Powerhouse and rebalancing the English economy
David Etherington, Martin Jones: The city-region chimera: the political economy of metagovernance failure in Britain
Robert Sroka: TIF for that: brownfield redevelopment financing in North America and Calgary’s Rivers District
Roderik Ponds, Gerard Marlet, Clemens van Woerkens, Harry Garretsen: Taxi drivers with a PhD: trickle down or crowding-out for lower educated workers in Dutch cities?
Nicola Daniele Coniglio, Raffaele Lagravinese, Davide Vurchio: Production sophisticatedness and growth: evidence from Italian provinces before and during the crisis, 1997–2013
Robert Huggins: Capital, institutions and urban growth systems
Yasuhiro Sakai: J. M. Keynes on probability versus F. H. Knight on uncertainty: reflections on the miracle year of 1921
Kenshiro Ninomiya: Financial structure, financial instability, and inflation targeting
Toshio Watanabe: Net worth ratio, bank lending and financial instability
Emmanouil Marios L. Economou & Nicholas Kyriazis: The emergence and the development of the Achaean federation: lessons and institutional proposals for modern societies
Robert Philipowski: Spiteful behavior can make everybody better off
Mitsuharu Miyamoto: Diversification of Japanese firms: how hybrid organizations evolved through corporate governance reform
Mayumi Tabata: The collapse of Japanese companyist regulation and survival of the upstream industry: developing East Asian production linkage
Wooseok Ok: The Korean exception: service outsourcing by manufacturing firms and the role of institutions
Hiroshi Nishi: Structural change and transformation of growth regime in the Japanese economy
Hironori Tohyama & Yuji Harada: Diversity of institutional architectures underlying the technological system in Asian economies
Matthias Rothe and Bastian Ronge: The Frankfurt School: Philosophy and (political) economy: A thematic introduction by the editors
Manfred Gangl: The controversy over Friedrich Pollock’s state capitalism
Rick Kuhn: Henryk Grossman and Critical Theory
Werner Bonefeld: Negative dialectics and the critique of economic objectivity
Frank Engster: Subjectivity and its crisis: Commodity mediation and the economic constitution of objectivity and subjectivity
Karsten Olson: Historical-sociology vs. ontology: The role of economy in Otto Kirchheimer and Carl Schmitt’s essays ‘Legality and Legitimacy’
A. Kiarina Kordela: Materialist Epistemontology: Sohn-Rethel with Marx and Spinoza
Peter Temin: The American Dual Economy
Sasha Breger Bush: Risk Markets and the Landscape of Social Change
Paul Bowles & Baotai Wang: Does U.S. Pressure Lead to Changes in China’s Exchange Rate?
Liam Campling, Jens Lerche: Introduction to the Special Issue The Political Economy of Agrarian Change: Essays in Appreciation of Henry Bernstein
Capps Gavin, Liam Campling: An Interview with Henry Bernstein
Bridget O’laughlin: Bernstein’s Puzzle: Peasants, Accumulation and Class Alliances in Africa
Jairus Banaji: Merchant Capitalism, Peasant Households and Industrial Accumulation: Integration of a Model
Terence J. Byres: In Pursuit of Capitalist Agrarian Transition
Gavin Capps: Tribal-Landed Property: The Value of the Chieftaincy in Contemporary Africa
Barbara Harriss-White: From Analysing ‘Filières Vivrieres’ to Understanding Capital and Petty Production in Rural South India
Miguel Carrión Álvarez & Dirk Ehnts: Samuelson and Davidson on ergodicity: A reformulation
Rod O’Donnell: Second contribution to the ENE critique: Reply to Davidson, part 1
Sergio Cesaratto: The state spends first: Logic, facts, fictions, open questions
Jordan Brennan: United States income inequality: The concept of countervailing power revisited
Fernando J. Cardim De Carvalho: Looking into the abyss? Brazil at the mid-2010s
Leila E. Davis: Identifying the “financialization” of the nonfinancial corporation in the U.S. economy: A decomposition of firm-level balance sheets
Marcus E. Green & Serap A. Kayatekin: Editors' Introduction
Oded Nir: Lukács Today: Totality, Labor, and Fantasies of Revenge
Jason Rodriguez: The Work of Social Work: NGOs and the Fetishization of Work in Bodhgaya, India
Chamsy el-Ojeili & Dylan Taylor: Across and Beyond the Far Left: The Case of Gilles Dauvé
Faruk Eray Düzenli: Did Marx Fetishize Labor?
José María Durán: Artistic Labor and the Production of Value: An Attempt at a Marxist Interpretation
Chto Delat: Is a New Monumentality Possible Today? Documents of an Artistic Experience of Chto Delat Collective
Editorial Perspectives: Many, Many Ways to Talk about Socialism
Stephen Maher: Escaping Structuralism’s Legacy: The Renewal of Theory and History in Historical Materialism
Guido Starosta, Gastón Caligaris: The Commodity Nature of Labor-Power
Giulio Palermo: Post-Walrasian Economics: A Marxist Critique
Chris Byron: Essence and Alienation: Marx’s Theory of Human Nature
A. W. Zurbrugg: Revisiting Marxism and Anarchism
August H. Nimtz: Another “Side” to the Marxism Versus Anarchism “Story”: A Reply
Paul Raekstad: Understanding Anarchism: Some Basics
David Laibman: Marxist-Anarchist Dialog: A Two-Way Learning Curve
Tim Bartley, Niklas Egels-Zandén: Beyond decoupling: unions and the leveraging of corporate social responsibility in Indonesia
Mary C. Brinton, Eunmi Mun: Between state and family: managers’ implementation and evaluation of parental leave policies in Japan
Sascha Münnich: Readjusting imagined markets: morality and institutional resilience in the German and British bank bailout of 2008
Stefano Pagliari, Kevin Young: The interest ecology of financial regulation: interest group plurality in the design of financial regulatory policies
Roi Livne, Yuval P. Yonay: Performing neoliberal governmentality: an ethnography of financialized sovereign debt management practices
Thomas Franssen, Olav Velthuis: Making materiality matter: a sociological analysis of prices on the Dutch fiction book market, 1980–2009
Ragip Ege, Herrade Igersheim & Charlotte Le Chapelain: Transcendental vs. comparative approaches to justice: a reappraisal of Sen's dichotomy
Rodolfo Signorino: How to pay for the war in times of imperfect commitment: Adam Smith and David Ricardo on the sinking fund
Verena Halsmayer & Kevin D. Hoover: Solow's Harrod: Transforming macroeconomic dynamics into a model of long-run growth
Craig Smith: All in the best possible taste: Adam Smith and the leaders of fashion
Alexander Douglas: Contrived desires, affluence, and welfare: J.K. Galbraith's Pigovian redistribution argument reconsidered
Serhat Kologlugil: Thorstein Veblen's Darwinian framework and gene-culture coevolution theory
Richard C. Koo: The other half of macroeconomics and the three stages of economic development
William R. Neil: Polanyi and the coming US president election
Clive L. Spash: The political economy of the Paris Agreement on human induced climate change
John B. Benedetto: Zucman on tax evasion and the U.S. trade deficit
Ricardo Restrepo Echavarría, Carlos Vazquez, Karen Garzón Sherdek: The resource curse mirage
Paul Spicker: Economics as practical wisdom
Erik Andersson: Everyday futures: Financial market stability in the performative social present
Edited by Louis-Philippe Rochon & Sergio Rossi | 2016, Edward Elgar
This important new book introduces students to the fundamental ideas of heterodox economics, presented in a clear and accessible way by top heterodox scholars. It offers not only a critique of the dominant approach to economics, but also a positive and constructive alternative. Students interested in an explanation of the real world will find the heterodox approach not only satisfying, but ultimately better able to explain a money-using economy prone to periods of instability and crises.
Key features of this textbook include:
Students of economics at all levels can use this textbook to deepen their understanding of the heterodox approach, the fundamental roots of the 2008 global financial crisis and the need to rethink economics afresh.
Link to the book is available here.
By Eiman O. Zein-Elabdin | 2016, Edward Elgar
This book examines the treatment of culture and development in the discipline of economics, thereby filling a conspicuous gap in current literature. Economics has come a long way to join the ‘cultural turn’ that has swept the humanities and social sciences in the last half century. This volume identifies some of the issues that major philosophies of economics must address to better grasp the cultural complexity of contemporary economies.
This book is an extensive survey of the place of culture and development in four theoretical economic perspectives—Neoclassical, Marxian, Institutionalist, and Feminist. Organized in nine chapters with three appendices and a compendium of over 50 interpretations of culture by economists, this book covers vast grounds from classical political economy to contemporary economic thought. The literatures reviewed include original and new institutionalism, cultural economics, postmodern Marxism, economic feminism, and the current culture and development discourse on subjects such as economic growth in East Asia, businesswomen entrepreneurs in West Africa, and comparative development in different parts of Europe.
Zein-Elabdin carries the project further by borrowing some of the insights from postcolonial theory to call for a more profound rethinking of the place of culture and of currently devalued cultures in economic theory. This book is of great interest for those who study Economic development, International relations, feminist economics, and Economic geography
Link to the book is available here.
Edited by Juan E. Santarcángelo, Orlando Justo, Paul Cooney | 2016, Palgrave
The global crisis is considered by many economists, scholars, and policymakers to be the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It resulted in the threat of total collapse of many large financial institutions, the bailout of banks and other businesses by national governments, and significant downturns in stock markets around the world. However, the economic and social impact of the crisis was not the same in all countries and regions. Several economic analyses have emerged that attempt to account for the main features of the crisis, highlighting the contribution made by different heterodox schools of thought. These approaches, among which we can underline the Post-Keynesians and various Marxian interpretations, not only provide strong criticisms of the dominant neoclassical theory, but also propose conclusive analyses to understand the complexities of the current social reality. One of the regions that has a longstanding tradition of heterodox economics and has been less affected by the global financial crisis is Latin America. The countries of this region were able to achieve annual growth rates of around 4% for the period 2003–2013, 48% higher than the average annual GDP growth rate registered in the period 1990–2002.
The aim of this book is to explain how the global financial crisis affected Latin America, analyze the main transmission channels that helped the crisis to spread in the region, and understand why this one was not as severe as other crises have been in the past. Hence, the purpose of this book is to combine different heterodox traditions with analysis of how the global crisis affected Latin America.
Link to the book is available here.
By Sandy Brian Hager | 2016, The University of California Press
Who are the dominant owners of US public debt? Is it widely held, or concentrated in the hands of a few? Does ownership of public debt give these bondholders power over our government? What do we make of the fact that foreign-owned debt has ballooned to nearly 50 percent today? Until now, we have not had any satisfactory answers to these questions. Public Debt, Inequality, and Power is the first comprehensive historical analysis of public debt ownership in the United States. It reveals that ownership of federal bonds has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of the 1 percent over the past three decades. Based on extensive and original research, Public Debt, Inequality, and Power will shock and enlighten.
The book has been published as part of the University of California Press's Open Access Programme and can be downloaded for FREE via this link.
By Joshua Clover | 2016, VersoBooks
Award-winning poet Joshua Clover theorizes the riot as the form of the coming insurrection.
Baltimore. Ferguson. Tottenham. Clichy-sous-Bois. Oakland. Ours has become an “age of riots” as the struggle of people versus state and capital has taken to the streets. Award-winning poet and scholar Joshua Clover offers a new understanding of this present moment and its history. Rioting was the central form of protest in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and was supplanted by the strike in the early nineteenth century. It returned to prominence in the 1970s, profoundly changed along with the coordinates of race and class.
From early wage demands to recent social justice campaigns pursued through occupations and blockades, Clover connects these protests to the upheavals of a sclerotic economy in a state of moral collapse. Historical events such as the global economic crisis of 1973 and the decline of organized labor, viewed from the perspective of vast social transformations, are the proper context for understanding these eruptions of discontent. As social unrest against an unsustainable order continues to grow, this valuable history will help guide future antagonists in their struggles toward a revolutionary horizon.
Link to the book is available here.
Edited by Turan Subasat and Mugla Sitki | 2016, Edward Elgar
The Great Financial Meltdown reviews, advocates and critiques the systemic, conjunctural and policy-based explanations for the 2008 crisis. The book expertly examines these explanations to assess their analytical and empirical validity. Comprehensive yet accessible chapters, written by a collection of prominent authors, cover a wide range of political economy approaches to the crisis, from Marxian through to Post Keynesian and other heterodox schools.
This interrogation of economic policy in light of the financial crisis is essential reading for real-word economists. To those seeking to understand the current economic stagnation and failings of the system, it offers an enlightening exposition of contemporary political economy.
Link to the book is available here.
By Ron P. Baiman | 2016, Palgrave
This book is in equal parts a treatise on morality and economics, a critique of neoclassical orthodoxy, a brief for replacing mainstream economics with a radical political economics, and an argument for the abandonment of neoliberal capitalism in favor of democratic socialism. It includes a detailed proposal for a "demand and cost" alternative to "supply and demand" analysis and an in-depth technical critique of both neoclassical "high theory" and "applied microeconomic analysis" demonstrating that these are not only infeasible or immoral, but have directly contributed to public policy disasters. Further, the book suggests that only a moral economics in the form of radical political economy can address the looming economic and environmental crises of today’s world.
Baiman begins with an introduction to morality and ethics in both general sciences and in economics in particular. He then guides readers through evidence of how neoclassical economics has not only failed to remain objective and value-free, but has become an ideology of apologetics protecting an immoral system. In addition to breaking down real-world examples to demonstrate his assertions, Baiman analyzes a theoretical Utopia design exercise. He concludes by arguing that the only form of economics that supports widely shared human values—such as social equity, democracy, and solidarity—is so-called "radical economics", and that all true economics science should be directed toward achieving more socially productive economic activity. An invaluable guide to morality and economics, this book will appeal to researchers and teachers looking to change the way we think about economics, policy, and society.
Link to the book is available here.
By Robert Latham | 2016, Routledge
Burgeoning national security programs; thickening borders; Wikileaks and Anonymous; immigrant rights rallies; Occupy movements; student protests; neoliberal austerity; global financial crises – these developments underscore that the fable of a hope-filled post-cold war globalization has faded away. In its place looms the prospect of states and corporations transforming a permanent war on terror into a permanent war on society. How, at the critical juncture of a post-globalization era, will policymakers and power-holders in leading states and corporations of the Global North choose to pursue power and control? What possibilities and limits do activists and communities face for progressive political action to counter this power inside and outside the state?
This book is a sustained dialogue between author and political theorist, Robert Latham and Mr. V, a policy analyst from a state in the Global North. Mr. V is sympathetic to the pursuit of justice, rights and freedom by activists and movements but also mindful of the challenges of states in pursuing security and order in the current social and political moment. He seeks a return to the progressive, welfare-oriented state associated with the twentieth century. The dialogue offers an in-depth consideration of whether this is possible and how a progressive politics might require a different approach to social organization, power and collective life.
Exploring key ideas, such as sovereignty, activism, neoliberalism, anarchism, migration, intervention, citizenship, security, political resistance and transformation, and justice, this book will be of interest to academics and students of Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, Geography, Media and Communication, and Cultural Studies.
Link to the book is available here.
Might we draw your attention towards a newly launched MSCA European Joint Doctorate (MSCA-EJD) called "GEM-STONES" on Globalisation, Europe, Multilatealism - Sophistication of the Transnational Order, Networks and European Strategies".
At this early stage, this collective doctoral research programme focussed on the EU's capacity to purposefully manage complex international regimes, is offering 15 PhD very generous Marie Curie PhD fellowships. These fellowships are offered in the fields of Internagional & European Law; Political Science & EU Studies; as well as International Relations & Conosrative Regionalism. Please feel free to find more information on the program's webpage at:
All applications are to be submitted ONLINE through the program's webpage at gem-stone.eu.
The deadline for applications is September 15th 2016 (17:00 - Brussels Time).
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Background & Details
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GEM-STONES is an integrated research and PhD fellowship programme involving 8 degree awarding partner universities, 6 non-academic internship destinations and a publishing house.
Its common research agenda is rooted in the shared observation that the proliferation of international institutions increases the complexity of the global system; whereas managing the latter efficiently and fairly constitutes both a necessity and a challenge for the European Union. In response to this shared observation, and with the support if the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, GEM-STONES will hire 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESR = PhD fellows) who, with the help of their co-supervisors and non-academic mentors, will investigate the EU's:
Said 15 available positions include
Further details can be found at: gem-stones.eu
The University Siegen provides a new master programme in which students learn about alternative approaches so that they can reflect economic relationships from the diverse perspectives. It is possible to focus either on Political Economics or on Management and Environmental Design. The teaching language will be German. Applications for the winter semester 2016/17 are invited.
Please visit this homepage for more details.
A fully funded PhD position is made available by the Business School of University of Hertfordshire to start from Sept-Oct 2016 at a very short notice.
Those who are interested in this opportunity should contact Hulya Dagdeviren (h.dagdeviren@herts.ac.uk) via email by 8th of July 2016 with a concise PhD proposal (1-2 page) and a copy of their CV.
Janine Berg and Valerio De Stefano: Want to improve crowdwork? Regulate it
In this issue:
Download the issue as pdf here
The Minskys is an economics blog created by graduate students from the Levy Economics Institute. Posts are written and reflect the views and interests of each individual member. Our goal is to provide a platform where “out of the box” economic topics is made approachable to everyone. The blog has no official connection to the Levy Economics Institute.
Link to the blog is available here.
Dear all,
Some of you may have read my chapter on ‘teaching heterodox economic concepts’ available through the Economics Network website. If not, please see here: http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/handbook/heterodox/
This was first published in 2007 and I have been invited to write an updated version.
When I wrote the first version, I got invaluable help from this list in finding cases of modules (units/courses) which were either ‘orthodox-plus’, ‘heterodox’ or ‘parallel perspectives’. For clarification, ‘orthodox-plus’ are modules which are organised around mainstream/orthodox/neoclassical principles but with scope for little twists or insertions of critical material. ‘Heterodox’ modules might be, for example, Post Keynesian, or they could combine (in one way or another) different non-mainstream perspectives. Finally, ‘parallel perspectives’ modules deal with a series of issues from different perspectives. So for example in the chapter I discuss modules which address a series of basic micro questions from an ‘orthodox’, then a ‘heterodox’ perspective. ‘Competing’ or ‘contending perspectives’ is a variant on this approach.
I should like to ask for help again: I should be very grateful if you could please send me examples of the above, with some commentary. For example, see here: http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/handbook/heterodox/62
I’m also aware of several programmes (eg, in the UK, those of UWE, Goldsmiths, Greenwich, and Kingston’s MA) which have a heterodox or parallel perspectives structure. I should like to hear of more.
If you have evaluated these programmes or modules (outside the typical student evaluation process) that would be especially helpful to me.
Many thanks in advance.
Best,
Andrew Mearman (email: A.J.Mearman@leeds.ac.uk)
Professor Keith Cowling (7 July 1936 – 16 June 2016)
Keith Cowling was one of Europe’s leading industrial economists and a long standing advocate of industrial policy. He was also renowned for being highly critical of the state of contemporary capitalism, believing that its monopolistic tendencies led to recession and stagnation and was prone to abuse of corporate power. He conducted this critique by uniquely combining both neoclassical and heterodox approaches to economics, but with an empirical rigour that gained him the wide respect of the economics profession.
Born in Scunthorpe in 1936, the son of a train driver, Keith was a triallist in his teens at Scunthorpe United. From Scunthorpe Grammar School, he started studying Agricultural Sciences at Wye College, a branch of the University of London, but there his interests moved away from agricultural science to agricultural economics.
After completing a doctorate in agricultural economics at the University of Illinois in Chicago, Keith began his academic career in 1961 at the University of Manchester. He quickly progressed, and was promoted to Senior lecturer only 4 years later. It was at Manchester where Keith met his future wife Barbara, who worked as a data input clerk. In those days, econometric models were estimated using the University’s mainframe computer, and researchers would bring their data cards to be keyed into the machine, often collecting the results the following day. It was during these regular visits that their relationship blossomed. In 1966, Keith moved to the new University of Warwick and it was here that he switched his research interests towards the developing field of industrial economics. In 1970 he was appointed the Clarkson Chair in Industrial Economics in the newly formed economics department, at the youthful age of 33.
In the early 1970s, economics at Warwick was vibrant, although the department was some way from being one of the world’s leading faculties (which it proudly is today). Keith played a significant early role in this transformation. First, as Head of Department (1975-1978), he was instrumental in persuading the University to invest in new Professorships and to making some astute star appointments, which sowed the seeds of the department’s development. Secondly, his own research career was also flourishing, with notable seminal papers on Price-Cost Margins and Market Structure (co-written with his PhD student, Michael Waterson) in 1976, and in 1978, a paper (with Dennis Mueller) estimating the high social costs of market power in the US and the UK, argued as largely a result of ‘wasteful’ advertising expenditure by corporate firms trying to stifle competition and maximise profits at the expense of consumers. Indeed, the wider impact of advertising was a long term interest for Keith, and – in what he always regarded as his favourite paper - with John Brack, he empirically demonstrated how ‘excessive’ advertising tended to distort work-leisure choices in the US, with workers undertaking longer working hours so as satisfy their (advertising-induced) materialistic desires. Outside Warwick, Keith was an early President of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE) and founding editor of the International Journal of Industrial Organization. Such was his growing reputation, that he reluctantly turned down an opportunity to take up (future Nobel Laureate) Oliver Williamson’s vacant Chair at Yale.
At this time, Keith began to take a stronger interest in the relationship between a country’s industrial structure and its macro-economic dynamics. He was particularly influenced by Baran and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital (1966) leading to his own Monopoly Capitalism (1982), where he demonstrated that both rising industrial concentration and industry profit margins were likely to have adverse distributional consequences, reducing effective demand and leading to recession. With another PhD student, Roger Sugden, this analysis was extended to the global economy, where the activities of transnational corporations were considered as exacerbating the problem, often re-locating (or threatening to relocate) production off-shore, leading to de-industrialisation and undermining local development. In his framework, understanding economic governance processes was critical in achieving outcomes in the wider public interest. Keith was thus keen to explore alternative possibilities for industrial development. Along with Roger (Sugden) and others, in the mid-1990’s he founded the European Union Network for Industrial Policy (EUNIP). In this regard, Keith saw the potential in so-called ‘non-hierarchical’ and more co-operative modes of production, specifically in regional clusters or industrial districts of independent small and medium sized firms, such as in the successful Emilia Romagna region of Northern Italy.
As a person, Keith was charismatic and forceful. As an academic, he was always engaging and open to new ideas, always listening and offering instead his careful thoughtful perspective. Because of this, he was able to work productively with a wide variety of people over many years, and in some cases, with others who may have held different views. He was also an inspirational teacher and an extremely supportive PhD supervisor, where he gave students’ work the utmost scrutiny, offering criticism and praise in appropriate measure. Many of his former PhD students have gone on to have highly successful careers as either academic and/or professional economists in their own right. Despite retiring in 2003, Keith continued to conduct research, recently co-editing a book (with David Bailey and Phil Tomlinson) exploring new possibilities for UK industrial policy. He went into the Department at Warwick most days until late last year.
Although Keith was not keen on working within the established order, he nevertheless sought a significant role in University governance, in the development of Coventry following its deindustrialisation, and in national politics through his role in an informal “think tank” set up by John Smith, then Labour Leader of the Opposition, together with closet Labour supporters in industry. Thus Keith was held in high regard by so many people, not only in economics, but also across academia and in policy circles. Outside academia, he was a keen Coventry City football supporter, and enjoyed walking as a pastime. He leaves behind his wife Barbara, son Marc (Professor of Entrepreneurship at Brighton), and daughters Lee and Lucy.
The Association for Social Economics (ASE) seeks a new editor or editorial team for the Review of Social Economy (RoSE) to begin on the 1st January 2017.
For over seventy years, RoSE has published high-quality peer-reviewed work on the many relationships between social values and economics. The Association is looking for an individual or a team of individuals who have a vision for the future development and direction of the journal. Inquiries and proposals, which must include a letter of interest (maximum of 3 side of A4) and a CV should be sent to:
Prof. Giuseppe Fontana (G.Fontana@lubs.leeds.ac.uk), President of the Association for Social Economics, Economics, Univ. of Leeds (UK) and Univ. of Sannio (Italy), by September 1st, 2016. Phone interviews will be held in late September 2016.
Further details and information for the post are available at:http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pdf/RRSE-Editor-Advert.pdf