Issue 77: February 14 , 2009

In this issue:

Call for Papers

Assessing Heterodox Economics in a European Context – A Workshop

You are invited to submit a paper for a Workshop on

Assessing Economic Research in a European Context: the future of Heterodox economics and its research in a non-pluralist mainstream environment

26-27 June 2009, University of Bremen, Germany

Click here for detailed information.

Studies in Critical Social Science

Tequests for Manuscripts and Proposals
Series Editor: David Fasenfest
www.brill.nl/scss

In its 5th year, the series has grown with 13 books in print, 4 in press this year, and starting in September 2009 has established a relationship with Haymarket Press to publish paperback editions of each volume in the series. This peer reviewed series publishes a broad array of topics, all sharing a common critical perspective on historical or contemporary examinations of
capitalist society. Please send a brief perspective (and, if the manuscript is complete, a table of contents plus the first chapter) to me for consideration in the series. Two new series have emerged out of the original series (and also covered by our joint publication agreement), and you can learn more and get submission instruction by going to their web site:

Studies in Critical Research on Religion
Series editor: Warren Goldstein
www.brill.nl/scrr

Critical Global Studies
Series editor: Richard Dello Buono
www.brill.nl/cgs

Fourth Bi-Annual Cross-Border Post Keynesian Conference

“Financial Crisis and Reform”
Economics and Finance Department
Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY
October 9-10, 2009

The “Cross-Border” Conference has historically focused on papers and sessions from the Post Keynesian perspective and participants have come from institutions regionally located along the eastern Canada/US border. This year, however, we invite papers and sessions from all heterodox perspectives. The theme of the Conference is “Financial Crisis and Reform.” While we expect to publish a book related to the theme, papers on all topics and perspectives are welcome.
The Conference includes a keynote panel session. We are pleased to announce that confirmed speakers are Jan Kregel (United Nations and University of Missouri–Kansas City), Robert Pollin (University of Massachusetts–Amherst), and L. Randall Wray (University of Missouri–Kansas City and Levy Economics Institute).
Both complete session and individual paper proposals are encouraged. Interested contributors are requested to send proposals using the form found at the Conference website ( http://buffalostate.edu/economics/pk2009.xml ). A complete session proposal should include 3-4 papers, 1-2 discussants and a session chair. We also encourage proposals from graduate students. The deadline for proposed papers and session is April 1, 2009. The Conference committee will consider all proposals and notify you of acceptance or rejection by April 30, 2009. Presenters should submit the full paper by September 1, 2009.
Proposals (or inquiries) should be sent electronically to Prof. Joëlle Leclaire at pk2009@buffalostate.edu
Other conference information (registration, accommodation, travel, etc) can be found at http://buffalostate.edu/economics/pk2009.xml
Tours of Buffalo’s famous architecture (including buildings by Wright, Sullivan, and Richardson) and Niagara Falls will also be arranged for participants and their guests.

Globalisation and European integration: 'the nature of the beast'

Friday 5th and Saturday 6th June 2009.

The conference invites specialists from the fields of politics, international relations, international political economy and sociology to build on their experience of applying historical materialist theories in empirical settings related to global governance and regional integration, with an emphasis on the European Union (EU). Working papers designed to stimulate dialogue between invited speakers, Warwick research staff and postgraduate students will introduce workshops in this two-day event.

The conference aims to stimulate interdisciplinary exchange on the historical materialist frameworks used to investigate the relationship between global governance, regional integration and the national state, with special reference to the European Union. It will also seek to stimulate a constructive engagement, in one of its panels, between historical materialist, constructivist and post-structuralist approaches to European integration.

The conference will showcase and challenge the most promising critical theories of regionalisation and globalisation, including neo-Gramscian, Open Marxist, Regulation and World-System approaches, with the purpose of generating useful connections and intellectual exchange. It will bring together researchers thinking about the creation and reproduction of social and political authority in a variety of settings. Truly interdisciplinary in approach, it aims to break down institutional barriers by forging interpersonal relations, and searching for commonality between fields and approaches which are traditionally considered incompatible.

The participation of eminent speakers in a conference addressing issues and phenomena which are highly relevant to the social sciences, not to mention contemporary applied socio-political practice, will attract a strong inter-disciplinary academic audience from European and American universities.

Confirmed participants

Claes Belfrage; Andreas Bieler; Hans-Jürgen Bieling; Werner Bonefeld; Peter Burnham; José Caballero; Alan Cafruny; Guglielmo Carchedi; Ben Clift; Jan Drahokoupil; Otto Holman; Bob Jessop; Huw Macartney; Henk Overbeek; Magnus Ryner; Vivien A. Schmidt; Stuart Shields; Kees Van Der Pijl.

We are inviting abstracts addressing one of the conference's key themes:

Global governance, the EU and the national state:
- Sustaining or transcending international competition?
- The EU as a building-block or obstacle for global governance?
The EU and the global economy:
- The global monetary system and the single currency.
- Aid, trade and the relationship with the global South.
Social agency and European integration:
- Labour, migration and the EU: ideas, interests, and institutions in the regulation of the social question in Europe.
- Global capital and the EU: transnational elite agency and the European project.
Regionalisation beyond the EU:
- The EU in global perspective: comparative analyses of the EU and other forms of regionalisation.
- Explaining regionalism and regionalisation in America, Africa and Asia.
Engaging Critical approaches to European integration: constructivism, post-structuralism and other alternatives.

Abstracts should:
- Be no more than 250 words for a 20 minute presentation.
- Include your name, institution, level of study, department and paper title
- Address an interdisciplinary audience
- Be submitted by March 15th electronically to globeuropeconferencejune2009@googlemail.com 

Other deadlines:
Registration: 15 April 2009.
Submission of paper: 25 May 2009.

Registration fee (Friday and Saturday): £27 per delegate.
Includes refreshments, buffet lunch, and wine reception on Saturday.
Conference webpage: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/ss/beast/
Co-organisers: Andreas Tsolakis ( A.A.Tsolakis@warwick.ac.uk ) and Petros Nousios ( P.Nousios@warwick.ac.uk ).
This project is kindly funded by the American Study and Student Exchange Committee and the PAIS department at Warwick University.

Marxism and Crisis in 21st Century Capitalism

The recent collapse of financial markets, housing, commodity prices, and employment has shattered the myths of neoliberalism and market fundamentalism. But conventional accounts of the crisis, focused on the role of subprime mortgage lending, complex mortgage-backed securities, derivatives, "shadow" banking, deleveraging, and widespread fraud leaves the deeper structural issues of capital accumulation, class relations, and systemic evolution out of the picture. How should the current crisis be understood in light of Marxist theoretical conceptions of capitalist dynamics?
The current economic collapse has brought forth many questions. Is the ongoing crisis an event that is bringing about a new phase of capitalism? Will the crisis, and the responses to it, shift or disperse the geographic foci of capitalism? How do current theories of accumulation and the stages of capitalism hold up under recent events?
How will the crisis affect the globalization of capitalist power; will it reinforce or damage it? What specific role will the state play in attempting to preserve capitalist accumulation? Is a new round of nationalization and decommodification on the agenda? If so, how extensive is this likely to be? What are the probable effects of the crisis, and of governmental responses to the crisis, on the working and living conditions of workers and on their political self-organization?
How will women and minorities be affected? What is the future of relations among different sectors of the international working class, particularly between richer and poorer countries? As financial markets recoil, what direction will the economy take when a system that appeared to be invulnerable has failed? What will be the policy direction of the new rising economic powers, in particular the BRIC countries? What can be said about the current potential for revolutionary change? How will the recent attempts at social change in Latin America weather the international crisis? What are the consequences of the crisis for imperialism? Environmental crisis and capitalist accumulation are intertwined; in what new ways must existing theories of capitalist dynamics be altered to understand environmental degradation along with economic crisis?

Science & Society encourages a diversity of views, and we do not expect any sort of convergence to settled conclusions. We are, however, hoping to focus on fundamental aspects of capital accumulation and crises in 21st-century capitalism from a Marxist standpoint, rather than on current developments and reportage belonging in publications that appear more frequently. Papers should not exceed 4,500 words in length. We will ask contributors to comment on each other’s work, with eventual responses to the comments, in what will emerge as a dialog format. The deadline for the first-round papers is September 1, 2009.

The Guest Editors for the issue are Dr. Julio Huato (Department of Economics, St. Francis College), and Dr. Justin Holt (The Gallatin School, New York University), both of whom are members of the Science & Society Editorial Board. Potential contributors should contact, and contributions sent directly to, the Guest Editors at juliohuato@gmail.com , and jh129@nyu.edu.

London School of Economics- Hellenic Observatory

CALL FOR RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSALS

THEMES
1. Inflation and Price Rigidities in Greece: causes and characteristics
2. Assessing the impact of Privatisation in Greece on the subsequent management of the enterprise(s)
3. The effect on GDP of the opening-up of Closed Professions within Greece

The LSE’s Hellenic Observatory invites researchers with a recognised interest in contemporary Greece to submit an application for funding in order to carry out a project on one of the themes highlighted above. This call has been made possible by funding generously provided by the National Bank of Greece, to which we wish to record our gratitude.

Research grants of up to GPB £10,000 will be awarded for research on one of the themes, to be undertaken normally within a period of 12 months. It is expected that a total of two projects will be selected from this Call.

All applicants must provide (a) a project proposal (of up to 8 pages), detailing the research question, the conceptual framework and methodology, the empirical data, and the expected outputs; (b) an indicative budget; (c) a copy of the CVs of all applicants; and (d) a cover letter, summarising the competencies of the applicant and/or research team in relation to the proposed research. For group applications, an additional document highlighting the structure of the team and the allocation of tasks across its members is required.

Applications should be submitted electronically by the deadline of Thursday 30th April 2009 (5pm GMT) to Hellenicobservatory@lse.ac.uk.  The subject line of the email should read “HO Call 2009” only and all application material should be in MS Word format. In their email the applicants should indicate the research theme addressed by their proposal. Applicants who are unable to submit their application in this form must contact the Hellenic Observatory office on +44 (0)20 7955 6066 at least 10 days before the advertised deadline.

Please follow the link to the Hellenic Observatory website for further details:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/pdf/HO%20Call%20for%20Research%20Project.pdf

International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy

IIPPE Workshop
Financial Crisis and Developing and Emerging Countries, 14th March 2009
Call for Abstracts

The IIPPE financialisation working group is organising a workshop on the effects of the financial crisis (credit crunch) on developing and emerging countries. The aim is to go beyond generic studies on “the developing countries”, and acquire a country and context specific insight into the channels through which heterogeneous developing and emerging countries have and will be affected by the evolving financial crisis in the developed world.

Presentations at the workshop should last between 15-20 minutes (no papers required as yet) and highlight the specific channels through which different countries are or could be affected by the crisis. These can include
- the role of financial markets and trade in the transmission mechanism
- the effect on commodity-dependent countries
- possible effects through aid and remittance flows, etc
- policy responses and economic and social protest

However, given the heterogeneity of developing and emerging countries, the mechanisms highlighted will inevitably depend on the specific situation within which each individual country is situated. Nonetheless, there is a need to identify both common origins and diverse mechanisms and outcomes as the crisis continues to unfold.

Although primarily aimed at stimulating discussion and supporting young researchers in their work on developing and emerging countries, it is hoped to disseminate papers and contributions as appropriate, possibly formally through publication.

If you are interested in presenting at the workshop, please send a short abstract or outline of the presentation (approx. 150 words) by 20th February, 2009, to both
Giovanni Cozzi: gc15@soas.ac.uk
and Annina Kaltenbrunner: ak82@soas.ac.uk 

Otherwise contact them to indicate your interest in attending the workshop or continuing to receive notice of IIPPE events. Visit http://www.iippe.org/  and/or http://www.soas.ac.uk/iippe/

Developing Theoretical Approaches in Labour Geography Department of Geography

University of Liverpool 11-12th June 2009

Following the success of the ‘Theoretical Approaches to Labour Geography’ conference held in Oslo, May 2008 in collaboration with IGU Commission on the dynamics of economic spaces; the University of Liverpool hopes to build upon the issues discussed by further developing understandings of the ‘missing links’ in labour geography and how these can be (and are being) challenged, whilst further developing the interaction of academics and members of the labour movement thus enabling theoretical approaches to be situated in a real life context.

Academics at any stage of their research are invited and we also welcome postgraduate students to attend and present papers.

We invite papers that address the theorising of labour geographies in different empirical and geographical contexts. These could engage with the following themes:

- The relations between labour and the geographies of neo-liberalisation
- Environmental politics and the labour movement
- Labour internationalism
- Theorising workers' identity and agency
- Promoting union organising at the grassroots
- Relationships between academia and the labour movement
- Community Unionism
- Unionising the informal sector
- International migration and labour market change
- Ethical production and consumption
- Labour responses to CSR
- Organising in the third sector

Abstracts
One page abstracts submitted by 31st March 2009. Please submit to Rebecca Ryland rryland@liverpool.ac.uk

Papers
Written papers submitted in advance will be circulated on the conference website and considered for publication in a journal special issue.

Confirmed keynote speakers
We are pleased to be able to announce the following keynote speakers: Jane Wills, Professor of Human Geography, Queen Mary, University of London whose research epitomises the labour geography discourse and Paul Mason,Newsnight's Economics Editor and author of 'Live Working, Die Fighting', a book on the history of the global labour movement.

International Conference on Science in Society

University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
5-7 August 2009
http://www.ScienceInSocietyConference.com 

Key themes addressed by the Conference include the social impacts of science, the values and ethics of science, the pedagogies of science, the knowledge making processes of science, the politics of science and the economics of science. At first glance, the scope and concerns of the Conference are enormous. However, in contrast to conferences with a specialist disciplinary focus, this Conference aims to explore in an interdisciplinary spirit linkages between different areas of concern and practices of investigation. We welcome presentation proposals which range from broad explorations of philosophical, theoretical, methodological and policy questions, to proposals which present finely grained evidence of the connections of science to society in microcosms of research, teaching and practice.

As well an impressive international line-up of main speakers, the Conference will also include numerous paper, workshop and colloquium presentations by practitioners, teachers and researchers. We would particularly like to invite you to respond to the Conference Call-for-Papers. Presenters may choose to submit written papers for publication in the fully refereed International Journal of Science in Society. If you are unable to attend the Conference in person, virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit a paper for refereeing and possible publication in this fully refereed academic Journal, as well as access to the electronic version of the Conference proceedings.

Whether you are a virtual or in-person presenter at this Conference, we also encourage you to present on the Conference YouTube Channel. Please select the Online Sessions link on the Conference website for further details.

The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short abstract) is 19 February 2009. Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of submission. Full details of the Conference, including an online proposal submission form, are to be found at the Conference website - http://www.ScienceInSocietyConference.com

We look forward to receiving your proposal and hope you will be able to join us in Cambridge in August 2009.  

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Conferences, Seminars and Lectures

APORDE- African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics

3 - 17 September 2009
Durban, South Africa

Supported by
the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa (the dti)
and the French Development Agency (AFD
with French Institute of South Africa (IFAS)

We are pleased to announce that the 2009 African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE) will be held in Durban (South Africa) from the 3rd to the 17th of September. Building on the success of the first two editions of APORDE, in 2007 and 2008, we are seeking applications from talented African, Asian and Latin American economists, policy makers and civil society activists who, if selected, will be fully funded.

Click here for detailed information.

SEMINAIRE ARC 2

ATTENTION CHANGEMENT DE DATE ET DE SALLE

ACCUMULATION, REGULATION, CROISSANCE ET CRISE
CEPREMAP - GERME (Paris VII) - IRISES (Paris IX)
CEPN (PARIS XIII) - MATISSE (PARIS I)

Lundi 2 Mars 2009 (15h30-18h30)
Salle à préciser

« La crise américaine et les plans de sauvetage »
15h30 -16h30
Michel Aglietta. La crise américaine et les plans de sauvetage (1)

17h-18h
Gerry Epstein. La crise américaine et les plans de sauvetage (2).

18h-18h30
Discussion générale sur les deux exposés introduite par Pascal Petit

Voir si des textes seront disponibles sur le site www.arc2.org

Séminaire à venir:
6 / Avril / 2009 www.arc2.org
Demi-journée autour de « Scénarios et politiques de sortie de crise »
Organisation : B. Théret 

The Second World Peace Congress

February 27- March 1st, Bangalore, India.
Website: http://www.worldpeacecongress2008.net/

The first World Peace Congress, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from August 24-26, 2007, began with the Agenda of fostering dialog that transcended boundaries of Geography, Gender, Ideology, Ethnicity, Language, Philosophy, Religion, Culture, and Politics (see www.congress2007.net for more information). It assembled over 40 distinguished panelists from all across the globe and different walks of life and duly completed its set task of drafting Key Resolutions across Three Days of intense deliberations that would provide the future basis for moving forward in its Quest of Peace.

Congress 2008/09, slated for February 27- March 1, 2009, and to be held in Bangalore, India, is its destined follow-through. Once again thhe Congress will bring together scholars, activists, artists, people from different walks of life committed to the goal of Peace, and will attempt to embody, in concrete, Grassroots Projects , scattered worldwide, the Resolutions proffered by Congress 2007. The Objective of this set of Meetings is to set up an Institutional basis for co-respective and co-operative Peace between Peoples, unmediated by state, government, or politics, understood in their traditional sense.

The Final Goal of these efforts is equally clear: to achieve, as a binding precept, the Universal Renunciation of War as a means/end of Social and Political Policy, now and forever. Congress 2008/09 welcomes all those who share such a Vision to join us in helping enshrine this Idea via Dialog, Discussion and Conversation, now and in the future.
For more information on participating in Congress 08/09 please write to worldpeacecongress@gmail.com

Marx Memorial Library- Spring 2009 Lecture Series

Marx and the Environment

9th February 09: Limits to Growth in the Economy

David Leal will consider the consequences of world-wide capitalist collective labour – immensely productive but immensely energy consuming – and ask whether we are still confident that technological advances are making socialism and abundance possible.

23rd February 09: Marxism and Ecology

David McLellan will discuss whether Marxism and ecology are incompatible or whether, on the contrary, Marxism can contribute to solving the most important crisis facing our world.

9th March 09: China: Facing the Green Challenge

Jenny Clegg will discuss the challenges facing China as it sets out to achieve a greener development – challenges both at the local levels and in the international context where it finds itself engaged in a trial of strength with the US over the renewal of the Kyoto Protocol.

23rd March 09: Marx on Nature and Human Nature

Lawrence Wilde starts from the point that the young Marx considered himself to be both a humanist and a naturalist – and these positions are hugely relevant to the dilemmas facing us under late capitalism.

All lectures begin at 7pm
Admission £1, Concessions 50p

Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0DU. Nearest tube: Farringdon. Buses: 63, 55, 243.

Tel. 020 7253 1485 email: info@marx-memorial-library.org
website: www.marx-memorial-library.org

“Post-Keynesian analyses and modelling” working group

Centre of Economics of Paris North (U. of Paris 13)

Forthcoming seminars and conferences
(revised, 29 january 2009)

1) Friday 23 January 2009, 14h-17h, MSH* :
Edwin Le Heron, financial crisis and banking behaviour in a Post Keynesian stock-flow consistent model

2) Friday 13 February 2009, 14h-17h00, MSH*:
G. Zezza, "Income distribution and sustainable growth"

3) Friday 20 February 2009, 14h-17h, MSH*:
G. Fontana, a) “neowicksellian approach to the natural rate of interest and monetary policy” and b) 'Money, uncertainty and Time', Routledge.

4) Friday 3 April 2009, 14h-17h, MSH*
L.P. Rochon, B. Vallageas & C. Gnos , on the circuitist approach to monetary and financial issues

5) Tuesday 7 Avril 2009, 14h, campus de Villetaneuse, Amphi B**
L.P. Rochon, on the Post Keynesian approach to the reform of the international monetary system.

6) Friday 10 April 2009, 14h-17h, MSH*:
L.P. Rochon, on monetary policy issues.

7) Friday 29 May 2009, 14h-17H, MSH*
Phillip Arestis, “Current financial crisis and regulatory implications”

* Location of the MSH: http://www.univ-paris13.fr/CEPN/acceder_a_la_msh10.pdf
** Location of Amphi B: see “7” in the map http://www.univ-paris13.fr/upn/campv.htm

Visit the CEPN website (soon in English): http://www.univ-paris13.fr/CEPN/cepn.htm

Groupe de travail ‘Analyses et modélisations Post-Keynésiennes’

Centre d’Economie de Paris Nord (Université Paris 13)

Séminaires et conférences à venir
(liste révisée le 29 janvier 2009)

1) vendredi 23 Janvier 2009, 14h-17h, MSH* :
Edwin Le Heron, « Crise financière et comportement bancaire dans un modèle Post-keynésien stock-flux cohérent »

2) vendredi 13 février 2009, 14h-17h00, MSH*:
G. Zezza "Income distribution and sustainable growth"

3) vendredi 20 février 2009, 14h-17h, MSH*:
G. Fontana, a) sur l'approche néowicksellienne du taux d'"intérêt naturel" et de la politique monétaire, et b) sur son livre: 'Money, uncertainty and Time', Routledge, 2008.

4) vendredi 3 avril 2009, 14h-17h, MSH*
L.P. Rochon, B. Vallageas et C. Gnos : L'apport de la méthode du circuit pour l'analyse des questions monétaires et financières

5) mardi 7 avril 14h 2009, campus de Villetaneuse, Amphi B**
L.P. Rochon, Approche post keynesienne de la réforme du système monétaire international.

6) vendredi 10 avril 14h-17h : MSH*
L.P. Rochon, sur la politique monétaire

7) vendredi 29 mai, 14h-17H, MSH*
Phillip Arestis, “Current financial crisis and regulatory implications”

* Plan d’accès à la MSH: http://www.univ-paris13.fr/CEPN/acceder_a_la_msh10.pdf
** Plan d’accès Amphi B (voir ‘7’ sur le plan): http://www.univ-paris13.fr/upn/campv.htm

Visitez le site web du CEPN: http://www.univ-paris13.fr/CEPN/cepn.htm

The CES Critical Economics Summer School

The Centre for Social Studies, Associate Laboratory of the University of Coimbra, is launching The CES Critical Economics Summer School to bring together in annual meetings economists and other students of social sciences to discuss topics of common interest.
This series of summer schools aims at promoting a venue for critical research on the economy and in economics. The school is primarily intended for advanced graduate and post-doctoral researchers as well as young scholars. Young researchers will then have the opportunity to attend lectures and discuss their work with distinguished scholars in the selected fields of research.
The course will take the form of morning lectures where the guest speakers are invited to give two lectures. In the afternoons young researchers present their work to be discussed by all participants.
2009 CES Critical Economics Summer School
The institutional foundations of the economy: property, markets and public policy Coimbra, July 6-9
The first edition is devoted to the institutional foundations of the economy. It will bring on board the institutionalist and the feminist perspective on two basic economic institutions – property and markets. Particular attention will be given to the relation between these institutions and public policy, specifically, to how those institutions are shaped, and permanently reshaped, by public policies. The speakers are invited to discuss four main topics:
1) The foundations of the economy: the institutionalist and the feminist perspective.
2) Rights, property and property rights.
3) The limits of the market and institutional impurity.
4) Public policy and institutional change.
Guest lecturers include Daniel W. Bromley from the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Julie A. Nelson from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and John O'Neill from the University of Manchester.
CES Lecturers include José Castro Caldas, Vítor Neves, José Reis, Tiago Santos Pereira.
Interested graduate students and post-docs are encouraged to apply by submitting a curriculum vitae and a two-page abstract of the proposed paper together with the contact details of the author (Name, affiliation, email address) to summer2009@ces.uc.pt.
Deadline for submissions is April 1st 2009. Acceptance will be communicated by email by May 1st 2009.
The summer school will be held at the hotel Quinta da Geia, located in Aldeia das Dez. It offers the perfect ambience for critical economics with a view to the extraordinary sightseeing of the Serra da Estrela.
The registration fee: 50 € for students and 150 € for non-students
Accommodation costs + meals for the four days of the conference: 350 €
The organization may subsidize a reduced number of students. The decision will be based on the interest of the proposed communication and subject to proof of student condition.
Organizing commitee:
José Castro Caldas, Vítor Neves, Ana Cordeiro Santos, João Tolda
Further practical information will be given in due course.
For further information, email summer2009@ces.uc.pt.
See http://www.ces.uc.pt/cessummerschool/pages/en/critical-economics.php

Seminaire Du CEPN

Vendredi 20 février 2009
de 14 à 17h
à la MSH Paris Nord
(salle de Conférences-voir plan sur site)
http://www.univ-paris13.fr/CEPN/cepn.htm
THÉORIE WICKSELLIENNE DU TAUX D’INTÉRET NATUREL ET POLITIQUE MONÉTAIRE
Giuseppe FONTANA
Professor of Monetary Economics, University of Leeds 
 
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Job Postings for Heterodox Economists

Program Director

The Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA) and its Norwegian affiliate, the International Summer School at the University of Oslo, seek a Program Director for their two Norway-based study-abroad programs. These integrated and interdisciplinary programs are "Scandinavian Urban Studies Term," offered every fall, and "Divided States of Europe," offered each spring. The programs are based in Oslo, Norway and serve American undergraduate students.

Responsibilities include role as primary faculty with extensive teaching duties, overall program leadership/administration, and spokesperson for the program in Norway and the U.S. The Program Director has part-time administrative support. This is a full-time, full year position requiring the program director to be qualified for employment in Norway. The deadline
for applications is February 27, 2009.

Further information about the two programs:
http://www.hecua.org/norway.php
http://www.hecua.org/scand_dse.php

Further information about the position: Director Einar Vannebo,
International Summer School (ISS), phone # 22 85 70 82, or einarv@iss.uio.no
The official job announcement including salary and qualifications:
http://www.admin.uio.no/opa/ledige-stillinger/2009/vitenskapelige/norwayprogramdirectorISS-2009-1032.html  
 
Prospective applicants resident in the US can also contact: Sarah Pradt,
Director of Programs, HECUA. Phone # 651 287 3307, e-mail: spradt@hecua.org

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United)

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) is seeking a Research Coordinator to support worker-led research on the restaurant industry, to be used to support policy campaigns to improve working conditions for restaurant workers. This position offers an unusual opportunity to join a dynamic team of workers and others organizing for improved working conditions in the nation's largest private sector industry.
Click here for detailed information.

The International Institute for Labour Studies

The International Institute for Labour Studies at the International Labour Office in Geneva (Switzerland) is recruiting:

An Econometrician/Statistician:
https://erecruit.ilo.org/public/hrd-cl-vac-view.asp?jobinfo_uid_c=20748&vaclng=en


A Senior Development Economist:
https://erecruit.ilo.org/public/hrd-cl-vac-view.asp?jobinfo_uid_c=20755&vaclng=en


A Senior Economist (Quantitative Analysis of Social Impacts of Globalisation):
https://erecruit.ilo.org/public/hrd-cl-vac-view.asp?jobinfo_uid_c=20756&vaclng=en


International Institute for Labour Studies Route des Morillons 4
CH-1211 Geneva 22
Switzerland
Tel.: +41 22 799 6128
Fax: +41 22 799 8542
http://www.ilo.org/inst 


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Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles

“Too Big To Fail: A Bailout Hoax,”

“Too Big To Fail”: A Bailout Hoax
How Schemes to Rescue Wall Street Gamblers Are Prolonging this Recession
Auction-off Insolvent Banks’ Assets, Not Owner-Occupied Homes
By Ismael Hossein-zadeh

Using the “too big to fail” scare tactic, the U.S. government has kept a number of terminally ill Wall Street gamblers on an expensive life-support system that is estimated to cost taxpayers $8.5 trillion [1]. In light of the fact that (according to IRS Data Book) there were 138 million taxpayers in 2007, this figure represents a burden of $61,594.20 per tax payer. Or, to put it differently, it represents a burden of $28,333.33 per man, woman and child for the entire U.S. population.
Click here to download the paper.

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Heterodox Journals and Newsletters

Journal of Post Keynesian Economics

Volume 31 Number 2 / Winter 2008-9 of Journal of Post Keynesian Economics is now available on the mesharpe.metapress.com web site at http://mesharpe.metapress.com.

This issue contains:

Keynes and the reform of the capitalist social order
Fernando J. Cardim De Carvalho

Financial economics at 50: an oxymoronic tautology
M. C. Findlay, E. E. Williams

Exchange rate regime proposal for emerging countries: a Keynesian perspective
Fernando Ferrari-Filho, Luiz Fernando De Paula

Inflation targeting and Keynes's political economy
George Argitis

Testing the neoclassical long-run and the Keynesian short-run effects of investment on output and growth in India
Tarlok Singh

North-South Ricardian trade and growth under the balance-of-payments constraint
Hiroaki Sasaki

Missing details and conspicuous absences: from the Treatise to the General Theory
Antonio Carlos Macedo e Silva

What is spurious correlation? a reply to Díaz and Osuna
Andrew Kliman

Understanding spurious correlation: a rejoinder to Kliman
Emilio Díaz, Rubén Osuna

Local Economy

Volume 24 Issue 1  is now available online at www.informaworld.com

Special Issue:Special Edition: Full Employment During a Recession: Can Localism Square the Circle?

This new issue contains the following articles:

Welfare to Work – From Special Measures to 80 Per Cent Employment
Author: Paul Convery

Action to Reduce Worklessness: What Works?
Authors: Anne E. Green; Chris Hasluck

The ‘Welfare Market’ and the Flexible New Deal: Lessons from Other Countries
Author: Dan Finn

Tensions in Localising Welfare to Work to Britain's Cities
Authors: Matthew Crighton; Ivan Turok; Charles Leleux

Governing the Skills Agenda: Insights from the Sheffield City-Region
Authors: Martin Jones; David Etherington

City Strategy in a Devolved Setting
Authors: Donna-Louise Hurrell; Carol Hayden

Building the Manchester of the Future
Authors: Mike Emmerich; Baron Frankal

NYC Business Solutions: Linking Economic and Workforce Development in New York City
Author: Robert W. Walsh

Imaginative Economics

Economics cannot but be reliant upon the imagery it uses, and naturally the whole breadth of human experience is drawn upon for economic knowledge to be communicated, bringing geological, meteorological, plant and animal imagery to bare - as when the landscape shifts, the climate changes, cash flows, green shoots are seen, and animal spirits return.

But how deliberate a process is this? I suspect that for many economists, the words used and the thoughts that lie behind them are neither here nor there, because what really count are the underlying facts. Yet, if, as author Owen Barfield suggests, 'interior is anterior', those very facts are nothing but the product of the imaginative experience. Something of this thought is to be found in George Soros's idea of reflexivity - that the facts are not independent of the way one thinks about them.
When economics meets metaphysics, then its aspiration to represent the scientific method is tested. Can one contemplate a science of the imagination? Certainly the economics of mathematical modelling looks less scientific when the key variable is missing - the conscious, creative, irrational human being. The publication this month of The Romantic Economist by Richard Bronk, may serve to show that some other path is viable than the one along which humanity has been blithely proceeding.

Yet nor should the technical be eshewed, in favour of mere psychologising. From an associative perspective this technical element is better represented by the concreteness of accounting than the abstraction of mathematising. The current issue of Associate! (see below), visits both ends of the spectrum, passing from the etherealisation of money to the actuality of accounting conventions.
Arthur Edwards
1) Forthcoming Events
- Making Credit Less Crunchy: 12 Feb & 19 Mar / Rudolf Steiner House, London
- The Colours of Money: 20-22 February / Viroqua, USA
- Inner and Outer Aspects of Associative Economics: 27 Feb - 1 Mar / Auckland, New Zealand. 13-15 March / Melbourne, Australia
- The Colours of Money: 3-5 April / Stroud, England

2) Associate! Feb 09 - Stateless Money
Lead:The Etherealization of Money. Tom Greco
A Sign of Our Time: The Largest Entity Principle. Thomas Selling.
Feature: Leaning on The IASB. Glenn Kessler
Archive: Ageing Money. Rudolf Steiner.
21 Policies: Accounting
Glossary: Wages
Friends Page: The Pensions Rut
AE Hero: Differentiated Money
Accounting Corner: Fair Value Accounting
The Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin provides an overview of what is going on around the world in the associative economics movement. The bulletin is viewable as a webpage here.
The FAE Bulletin for February is also visible at:
http://www.cfae.biz/fae-bulletin/09feb/

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Heterodox Books and Book Series

Radical Economics and Labour

Edited by Frederic Lee, Jon Bekken
University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA, Albright College, USA

To celebrate the centenary of the most radical union in North America - The Industrial Workers of the World - this collection examines radical economics and the labor movement in the 20th Century. The union advocates direct action to raise wages and increase job control, and it envisions the eventual abolition of capitalism and the wage system through the general strike.

http://www.routledge-ny.com/books/series/Routledge_Advances_in_Heterodox_Economics 

January 2009: 196pp / HB: 978-0-415-77723-0: £70.00 – 20% discount available
The contributors to this volume speak both to economists and to those in the labor movement, and point to fruitful ways in which these radical heterodox traditions have engaged and continue to engage each other and with the labor movement. In view of the current crisis of organized labor and the beleaguered state of the working class—phenomena which are global in scope—the book is both timely and important. Representing a significant contribution to the non-mainstream literature on labor economics, the book reactivates a marginalized analytical tradition which can shed a great deal of light on the origins and evolution of the difficulties confronting workers throughout the world.
This volume will be of most interest to students and scholars of heterodox economics, those involved with or researching The Industrial Workers of the World, as well as anyone interested in the more radical side of unions, anarchism and labor organizations in an economic context.
Contents Iv Notes on Contributors: x Introduction. Radical Economics and the Labor Movement by Frederic S. Lee and Jon Bekken: 1 Chapter 1. Senex’s Letters on Associated Labour and the Pioneer, 1834: A Syndicalist Political Economy in the Making by Noel Thompson: 40 Chapter 2. Peter Kropotkin’s Anarchist Economics for a New Society by Jon Bekken: 79 Chapter 3. Some Notes on Anarchist Economic Thought by Mathew Forstater: 98 Chapter 4. The Economics of the Industrial Workers of the World: Job Control and Revolution by Frederic S. Lee: 142 Chapter 5. Economic Science and the Left: Thoughts on Sraffa’s Equations and the Efficacy of Organized Labor by Tony Aspromourgos: 179 Chapter 6. John Kenneth Galbraith’s New Industrial State 40 Years Later: A Radical Perspective by Spencer Pack: 216 Chapter 7. A Radical Critique and Alternative to U.S. Industrial Relations Theory and Practice by Richard McIntyre and Michael Hillard: 284 Chapter 8. Labor during Transition: A Radical Institutional Approach by John Marangos: 317 Chapter 9. Offshore
Production and Global Labor Arbitrage: A New Era of Capitalism? by Claude Pottier: 345 Chapter 10. Financialization, Employability and their Impacts on the Bank Workers’ Union Movement in Brazil (1994-2004) by Maria Alejandra Caporale Madi, José Ricardo Barbosa Gonçalves and José Dari Krein
For more information including a table of contents, or to order your copy, please visit www.routledge.com/9780415777230. Download the flyer and the library form.

How Should Research be Organised?

By Donald Gillies
http://www.collegepublications.co.uk/other/?00009 

This book presents detailed criticisms of existing systems for organising research, and outlines a new approach based on different principles. Part 1 criticizes the research assessment exercise (RAE) which has been used in the UK from 1986 to 2008. It is argued that the RAE is both very costly, and likely to reduce the quality of research produced.
The UK government has decided that, from 2009, the RAE should be replaced by a system based on metrics. In Part 2 this system is criticized and it is argued that it is certainly no better, and probably worse, than the RAE. In Part 3 of the book, the proposed alternative system is outlined, and it is argued that it would produce better quality research at a much lower cost than either the RAE or the system based on metrics. The arguments are illustrated by a variety of examples of excellent research, taken from different fields. These include Einstein's discovery of Special Relativity, Fleming's discovery of penicillin, Frege's introduction of modern mathematical logic, and Wittgenstein's work
on his masterpiece: Philosophical Investigations.

The Author: Donald Gillies is Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London. For a podcast interview about the book:
www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/gillies

New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work

Kevin Doogan
In this stimulating and highly original work, Kevin Doogan looks at contemporary social transformation through the lens of the labour market. Major themes of the day - globalization, technological change and the new economy, the pension and demographic timebombs, flexibility and traditional employment - are all subject to critical scrutiny.

We are often told that a new global economy has emerged which has transformed our lives. It is argued that the pace of technological change, the mobility of multinational capital and the privatization of the welfare state have combined to create a more precarious world. Companies are outsourcing, jobs are migrating to China and India, and a job for life is said to be a thing of the past. The so-called 'new capitalism' is said to be the result of these profound changes Kevin Doogan takes issue with these widely-accepted ideas and subjects the transformation of work to detailed examination through a comprehensive analysis of developments in Europe and North America. He argues that precariousness is not a natural consequence of this fast-changing world; rather, current insecurities are manufactured, emanating from neoliberal policy and the greater exposure of the economy to market forces.

New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work, is published by Polity ( www.polity.co.uk ), paperback ISBN 978 0 7456 3325 1, £16.99, hardback ISBN 978 0 7456 3324 4, £55.

La théorie économique néoclassique

Microéconomie, macroéconomie et théorie des jeux
Emmanuelle BÉNICOURT, Bernard GUERRIEN

La théorie néoclassique est la théorie dominante en économie. Elle est à l’origine d’innombrables publications, qui utilisent abondamment les mathématiques, ce qui rend souvent difficile sa compréhension et, surtout, l’évaluation de sa portée. Bien qu’elle mette l’accent sur les choix individuels, ses modèles se distinguent les uns des autres essentiellement par les formes d’organisation des échanges qu’ils supposent. Une attention toute particulière est donc portée à ces formes d’organisation, qui sont un préalable indispensable aux développements mathématiques. La théorie peut être comprise sans elles, et c’est là l’essentiel. Certaines formules mathématiques et démonstrations sont cependant données, dans le corps du texte ou en annexe, pour faciliter la réflexion de ceux qui sont amenés à s’en servir.
La théorie néoclassique relève pour l’essentiel de ce que l’on a coutume d’appeler la microéconomie. Elle entretient toutefois certains liens avec la macroéconomie et la théorie des jeux, liens dont ce livre rend compte. Certains développements récents ayant trait à des questions telles que l’asymétrie d’information, les coûts de transaction, les relations en réseau, l’efficience des marchés financiers, sont également présentés, bien qu’ils puissent être considérés comme étant à la frontière de la théorie néoclassique.

http://www.editionsladecouverte.fr/catalogue/index.php?ean13=9782707154224 

The Challenge of Eurocentrism

The Challenge of Eurocentrism: Global Perspectives, Policy and Prospects Edited by Rajani Kannepalli Kanth
Palgrave Macmillan – available April 2009
http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/product.aspx?isbn=023061227X

This volume brings several leading scholars as well as new voices together to offer a comprehensive critique of, and alternatives to Eurocentrism and Modernism in received theory. In his two most recent books, Breaking with the Enlightenment and Against Eurocentrism, Rajani K. Kanth has developed a comprehensive and transcendent critique of Eurocentrism thereby deepening and enlarging the scope of the term as well as of its critique. In the present volume he assembles a team of 13 authors drawn from Economics, Philosophy, Mathematics, Political Science, Sociology and Cultural Studies.

The volume is organized in three parts. Part One "Received Theory, Science and Eurocentrism" challanges Eurocentrism in the History of Mathematics and Science and in Economic Theory. Part Two "Perspectives on Africa and South and East Asia" take on the problem of Eurocentrism in Economic Development. Part Three "Perspectives on West Asia, the Americas, and the West" reflect on American and European History, on Cultural Bongage as well as Pan-African and Afro-Asian alternatives and critiques. Kanth himself contributes an Introduction, a chapter, as well as a Postface that outline his current thinking on the issue.

The other contributors are Arun Bala, Amit Basole, Rajesh Bhattacharya, Ravi Batra, Firat Demir, Mat Forstater, John Hobson, Nick Hostettler, George Joseph, Fadhel Kaboub, Kho Tung-yi, Rajiv Malhotra and Ali Mazrui. Many of the chapters are modified versions of paperrs presented at a Festschrift celebration of the Life and Work of Rajani Kannepalli Kanth, a Special Event held at the Chicago Meetings of the American Economics Association, in 2007.

Can We Afford the Future?

The Economics of a Warming World
By Frank Ackerman
According to many scientists, climate change is a growing threat to life as we know it, requiring a large-scale, immediate response. According to many economists, climate change is a moderately important problem; the best policy is a slow, gradual start, to avoid spending too much. They can't both be right.
In this book, Frank Ackerman, Senior Research Fellow at GDAE, offers a refreshing look at the economics of climate change, explaining how the arbitrary assumptions of conventional theories get in the way of understanding this urgent problem. The benefits of climate protection are vital but priceless, and hence often devalued in cost-benefit calculations. Preparation for the most predictable outcomes of global warming is less important than protection against the growing risk of catastrophic change; massive investment in new, low carbon technologies and industries should be thought of as life insurance for the planet.
Ackerman makes an impassioned plea to construct a better economics, arguing that the solutions are affordable and the alternative is unthinkable. If we can't afford the future, what are we saving our money for?
For information on how to order the book, visit
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/other_books/can_we_afford_future.htm
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Status Quo is not an Option
Your Grandchildren’s Lives are Important
We Need to Buy Insurance for the Planet
Climate Damages are too Valuable to Have Prices
Some Costs are Better than Others
Hot, it’s Not: Climate Economics According to Lomberg
Much Less Wrong: The Stern Review vs its Critics
Climate, Equity and Development
What is to Be Done?
Praise for Can we Afford the Future?
“Frank Ackerman provides the much-needed ammunition for advocates of strong climate policy to debunk the conclusion that stabilizing our future climate is ‘too expensive.’”
Stephen H. Schneider, Stanford University
“This book is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the major economic debates around the major new long-term change of our times – global warming. Frank Ackerman has done us all a great service with this very accessible critical survey of the varied and complicated issues involved.”
Jomo Kwame Sundaram, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development
“This is a clear, readable first book for the non-economist, to start understanding the economics around climate change, and the various differing arguments by economists…”
John Mashey (unsolicited customer review on amazon.com)

Advances in Austrian Economics

Click here for detailed information about the series.

- Explorations in Austrian Economics
Edited by: Roger Koppl

- The Evolution of Consumption Theories and Practices
Edited by: Marina Bianchi

- Cognition and Economics
Edited by: Elisabeth Krecke Carine Krecke Roger Koppl

- Evolutionary Psychology and Economic Theory
Edited by: Roger Koppl

- The Dynamics of Intervention Regulation and Redistribution in the Mixed Economy
Edited by: P. Kurrild-Klitgaard

- Austrian Economics and Entrepreneurial Studies
Edited by: Roger Koppl
- Advances in Austrian Economics
Edited by: Peter J. Boettke Steven Horwitz

- Advances in Austrian Economics
Edited by: Peter J. Boettke David L. Prychitko

Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology

Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology
Warren J. Samuels Jeff E. Biddle Ross B. Emmett

Click here for detailed information.

Currencies, Capital Flows and Crises: A post Keynesian analysis of exchange rate determination

By John T Harvey
Series: Routledge Advances in Heterodox Economics
http://www.amazon.com/Currencies-Capital-Flows-Crises-determination/dp/0415777631/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234503537&sr=8-1  

List Price: $125.00
Breaking from conventional wisdom, this book provides an explanation of exchange rates based on the premise that it is financial capital flows and not international trade that represents the driving force behind currency movements. John T. Harvey combines analyses rooted in the scholarly traditions of John Maynard Keynes and Thorstein Veblen with that of modern psychology to produce a set of new theories to explain international monetary economics, including not only exchange rates but also world financial crises. In the book, the traditional approach is reviewed and critiqued and the alternative is then built by studying the psychology of the market and balance of payments questions. The central model has at its core Keynes’ analysis of the macroeconomy and it assumes neither full employment nor balanced trade over the short or long run. Market participants’ mental model, which they use to forecast future exchange rate movements, is specified and integrated into the explanation. A separate but related discussion of currency crises shows that three distinct tension points emerge in booming economies, any one of which can break and signal the collapse. Each of the models is compared to post-Bretton Woods history and the reader is shown exactly how various shifts and adjustments on the graphs can explain the dollar’s ups and downs and the Mexican (1994) and Asian (1997) crises.

http://www.routledge-ny.com/books/Currencies-Capital-Flows-and-Crises-isbn9780415777636 

Future Directions for Heterodox Economics

John T. Harvey and Robert F. Garnett, Jr., Editors

A comprehensive survey of the current state—and future direction—of heterodox economic thought
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=171896 
Twenty-first-century economists will have to understand and improve a post-Cold War world in which no single economic theory or system holds the key to human betterment.
Heterodox economists have much to contribute to this effort, as a wave of pluralism spawns new lines of research and new dialogues among non-mainstream economists. Future Directions for Heterodox Economics showcases a range of contributions to contemporary economic theory and policy, bringing together essays that range from mathematical to philosophical, critical to positive, and pro-market to socialist and making innovative connections between formerly separate theoretical traditions—Marxian, Austrian, feminist, ecological, Sraffian, institutionalist, and post-Keynesian. Unlike any previous collection, this volume shows the surprising extent to which pluralism is engendering controversy, critical dialogue, and innovative new directions within heterodox economics.

Ontology and Economics

Tony Lawson and His Critics
Edited by Edward Fullbrook
http://www.amazon.com/Ontology-Economics-Routledge-Advances-Heterodox/dp/0415476135/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234503596&sr=1-1  
About the Book
This original book brings together some of the world's leading critics of economics orthodoxy to debate Lawson's contribution to the economics literature. The debate centres on ontology, which means enquiry into the nature of what exists, and in this collection scholars such as Bruce Caldwell, John Davis and Geoffrey Hodgson present their thoughtful criticisms of Lawson's work while Lawson himself presents his reactions. Of course many social scientists disagree with him, but Lawson’s arguments are so powerful that few economists now feel that his case can be ignored. Bringing Lawson head-to-head with eleven of his most capable critics, this is a book of intellectual drama. More than that, it is a collection of fine minds interacting with each other and being changed by the process.
This book is particularly useful for students and researchers concerned primarily with methodology and future development of economics. It is also relevant to the concerns of philosophers of science and to all social scientists interested in methodological issues.

http://www.routledge-ny.com/books/Ontology-and-Economics-isbn9780415476133 

Table of Contents
Introduction (Edward Fullbrook) Foreword (Tony Lawson) 1. Some Comments on Lawson’s Reorienting Economics: Same Facts, Different Conclusions (Bruce Caldwell) 2. Critical Realism
in Economics (Bjørn-Ivar Davidsen) 3. The Nature of Heterodox Economics (John B. Davis) 4. Reorienting Economics Through Triangulation of Methods (Paul Downward and Andrew
Mearman) 5. Irrelevance and Ideology (Bernard Guerrien) 6. On The Problem of Formalism In Economics (Geoffrey M. Hodgson) 7. Finding a Critical Pragmatism in Reorienting
Economics (Bruce R. McFarling) 8. (Un)Real Criticism (David Ruccio) 9. Feminism and Realism (Irene van Staveren) 10. Conjectural Revisionary Ontology (Jack Vromen)


Work Time Regulation as Sustainable Full Employment Strategy

The Social Effort Bargain
By Robert LaJeunesse
 

About the Book
Robert LaJeunesse looks beyond the 20th century policies of shortening the work week. He writes a careful, convincing critique of both reducing work hours and traditional full employment policies. In focusing on the effort bargain, the author instead advocates a policy of work time regulation that is not only appropriate for a 21st century post- industrial economy, but speaks to concerns about balancing work and family, environmental sustainability, stabilizing incomes and prices, and social and economic well being.
Through its unique conceptualization of employment relations as a social effort bargain, this book proposes that governments can achieve egalitarian and sustainable macroeconomic objectives by regulating work hours. Most importantly, work time regulation offers the capability for citizens living in an age of abundance to define themselves as something other than paid employees. Work time reform represents a first step in a process of enlightenment in which workers will create an identity through the whole of their relationships at work, home, community, and at play. There is certainly a role for government in fostering the pursuit of "loftier ideals" subsequent to a redistribution of work time, but the first precondition for enhanced human development is greater socioeconomic participation, which means more paid work for some and less for others.
In addition to students and researchers in economics, sociology, and political science, this book will be of interest to policy makers, policy analysts, labour unionists, environmentalists, and other social reformers.

http://www.routledge-ny.com/books/Work-Time-Regulation-as-Sustainable-Full-Employment-Strategy-isbn9780415460576 

Table of Contents
Introduction 1. The Origins of the Work Fetish 2. Rethinking the Growth Imperative 3. Why Work Time? 4. Price Stability and Political Palatability 5. The Social and Environmental Sustainability of Work Time Regulation 6. Employment Effects of Work Time Regulation 7. A Proposal for Work Time Reform
 

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Heterodox Book Reviews

The Euro: Its Origins, Development and Prospects

Chris Mulhearn and Howard R Vane, _The Euro: Its Origins, Development and Prospects_. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2008. xii + 243 pp.
£60/$115 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1-84720-051-8.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Jerry Mushin, School of Economics and Finance, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Click here to download the review.

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Heterodox Graduate Program and PhD Scholarships

MA in Technology Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia

The one-year Masters program in Technology Governance is a technology-focused special graduate degree in Innovation Policy, Industrial Policy and Development Economics. Theoretically, it presents a realistic alternative to mainstream ("Standard Textbook") Economics. It is taught entirely in English – partially in modules (intensive week-long classes) and partially by overarching courses and workshops; also, there are many excursions and practical visits. The program culminates in a thesis that is to be completed by the end of the academic year.
Because of its specific focus and trans-disciplinary approach, the MA is equally interesting as a first graduate degree right after undergraduate education, as an additional graduate degree after a less trans-disciplinary one, and as an early- or mid-career professional degree for those working in technology government fields, such as ministries, development and promotion authorities, and private companies and NGOs dealing with the subject matter.
Seven good reasons to apply to the Technology Governance program:
- studying in one of the most successful new EU member countries with one of the most developed ICT infrastructures worldwide – home of Skype and eVoting
- studying in one of the top "funky towns" of the world, a UNESCO world heritage site with beaches and skiing tracks alike
- studying at one of the leading technical universities in the region
- a specialized, recognized MA degree within one academic year
- very low costs compared to similar degree programs
- lectures by top international scholars and thinkers and award-winning lecturers in the field –
Carlota Perez, Erik S. Reinert, and Jan Kregel among them
- possibility to study a semester at partner universities all over Europe
Do you have a Bachelor's degree and a good command of the English language? Do you also have adequate basic knowledge in economics, history, and technology? Then Technology Governance might be a perfect opportunity for you to immerse yourself in this special field of interest.
For further information, visit our website: www.technologygovernance.eu.

PhD Studentship

Assessing the Role of Structural Drivers in the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: A Case Study of the Link Between Socio-Economic
Indicators and Prevalence Patterns
Supervisor: Dr Deborah Johnston, Department of Economics (SOAS)
Co-Supervisor: Dr Justin Parkhurst, Health Policy Unit (LSHTM)
UNAIDS estimates three out of four HIV/AIDS deaths occur in sub Saharan Africa. Many prevention activities, such as education and subsidized condom access, assume that HIV transmission is driven by poverty and ignorance. However, population-based studies of HIV prevalence often find that prevalence increases with both wealth and education. The Tanzanian HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey 2003-2004 (THIS) found the poorest 20% of households had a prevalence rate of 3.4%, while the richest 20% had one of 10.5%. However, surveys of HIV/AIDS prevalence are not large in number, are often limited in terms of the socio-economic data they include and have also been subject to relatively little scrutiny.
This research aims to provide an empirically-based investigation of the hypothesised links between broader structural factors and HIV transmission in a sub-Saharan African setting (possibly Tanzania). It will do so by generating two kinds of information: on the detailed statistical relationships between these structural indicators and patterns of behaviour which are assumed to be linked to HIV transmission. The project aims to go beyond simple assumptions of a universal link between structures such as wealth and education and HIV to instead investigate how particular structural elements manifest themselves in patterns of behaviour in given contexts - patterns of behaviour that may be more or less conducive to the spread of HIV at a population level.
Candidates should have an undergraduate and masters level degree in Economics, Sociology, Development Studies or similar. They should have good quantitative skills and experience in the analysis of social and micro-level data. Ideally, they should have some knowledge or experience with African development issues and have an interest in the social epidemiology of HIV.
The successful candidate will be able to assess SOAS expertise in economic theory, fieldwork methodology, data analysis and language training. LSHTM would provide support with understanding of epidemiological and public health information, as well as expertise on health and behaviour.
Key References
Bujira, J., Class Relations: AIDS and Socio-Economic Privilege in Africa. (2006). Review
of African Political Economy, No. 7, pp 113-129.
Johnston, D. Bias, not error: Assessments of the economic impact of HIV/AIDS in sub
Saharan Africa, Feminist Economics, (2008) forthcoming November.
Gupta, G.R., Parkhurst, J.O., Ogden, J.A., Aggleton P. & Mahal, A. Structural Approaches to
HIV Prevention, The Lancet: 52-63 (2008)
Hallman, K. Gendered oocio economic conditions and HIV risk behaviours among young
people in South Africa. African Journal of AIDS Research 4 (1): 37-50.
Further details about the project may be obtained from:
Supervisor: Dr Deborah Johnston; dj3@soas.ac.uk
http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff31196.php
Co-Supervisor: Dr Justin Parkhurst; justin.parkhurst@lshtm.ac.uk
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/parkhurst.justin
Further information about PhDs at SOAS is available from:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/research/degrees/research-degrees.html
Application forms and details about how to apply are available from:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/admissions/pg/howtoapply/postgraduate-application.html
Scholarships Officer: scholarships@soas.ac.uk
Additional Application Requirements
In addition to the standard application form, applicants should provide the following
information: a statement of not more than 1000 words explaining their suitability for the
Studentship. This should be sent to the Scholarships Officer by e-mail:
scholarhsips@soas.ac.uk
Applicants should be available for interview.
Closing date for applications is 25 February 2009

Internship Program for Grad Students in Economics

Economics for Equity and the Environment Network (E3) is inviting applications to its summer graduate student internship program. E3 Network is a national network of economists developing and applying new arguments for environmental protection. Economists in our network emphasize social equity in their research. Our goals are to 1) to improve economic research on equity and the environment; and 2) to involve economists more pro-actively in environmental policy debates, through dialogue and cooperation with environmental advocates, decision makers, and the media. For more information about E3 Network, please visit our website at www.e3network.org.

Every summer, E3 Network pays for graduate students in economics to work with non-governmental organizations on environmental issues during the summer months. NGOs benefit from the expertise of the interns' training in economics and gain a better appreciation for the role economics can play in environmental protection. Graduate students gain insights into the real world issues confronting the environmental community and explore possible avenues for their research and professional development. Past interns have been placed with the Natural Resources Defense Council, International Rivers Network, Union of Concerned Scientists, Clean Air-Cool Planet, New Voice for Business, Environmental Law and Policy Center, the Global Development and Environment Institute, as well as others. We anticipate that this year's stipend will be $5000 for 8 weeks of full-time work.

You can meet out past interns and learn about their exciting summer projects at http://www.e3network.org/internship.php.

The deadline for applications is March 15, 2009. Graduate students who are interested in applying should send the following materials via email to Kristen Sheeran, director of E3 Network (director@e3network.org) by the deadline.

Curriculum vita
One letter of reference
A two-page statement of your research interests and how they relate to E3 Network's mission.

Kristen Sheeran Ph.D.
Executive Director
Economics for Equity and the Environment Network
a program of Ecotrust
721 NW Ninth Avenue, Portland, OR 97209
T (503) 467.0811| F (503) 222.1517 | www.e3network.org

The University of Texas at Arlington

http://www.uta.edu/diversity/faculty/faculty-resources

The University of Texas at Arlington invites applications and nominations for Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Fellowships. In support of the university’s strategic plan priority to “promote a culturally diverse and inclusive university community,” the fellowship program will contribute to this priority by inviting post doctoral (and terminally degreed—e.g., MFA) and doctoral candidates who have completed their coursework, comprehensive exams, and other requirements and are in the dissertation writing phase. Candidates must have defended the dissertation proposal. Doctoral or other terminal degree candidates will be invited to the university for 9 months. Post doctoral candidates are invited for 9 months, with opportunity for renewal. Participants may be considered for tenure-track faculty positions as appropriate.
Program goals are to:

* Establish relationships with scholars from other institutions, with the goal of enhancing relationships between other scholars and faculty, staff, and students at UT Arlington.
* Support and enhance the campus climate of diversity and inclusion.
* Increase the number of role models for students from underrepresented minority groups in particular and majority groups as well.
* Identify potential candidates for tenure-track faculty positions.

Eligibility
The fellowship programs are open to all areas of study (see www.uta.edu). U.S. citizens or permanent residents from underrepresented minority groups who meet the following criteria may apply:

* Graduate students in the final year of their dissertation or completion of their terminal degree.
* Postdoctoral students or terminally degreed students (e.g., MFA) who have completed their dissertation or terminal degree between July 31, 2008 and July 31, 2009.
* Professionals transitioning to academic careers having appropriate credentials (e.g., PhD, MFA, or other appropriate terminal degrees).

Awards
Beginning in the Fall 2009, UT Arlington will award three in-residence fellowships. The duration of the dissertation fellowships is through May 2010. Postdoctoral fellowships run from the fall of 2009-2010 through May 2010, but are renewable.

Stipends and Allowances
Fellows will receive an annual stipend of $30,000 USD and a research allowance of $2,000 USD. The university will also provide a medical and dental benefits package.

Application Procedure
1. A fellowship application (which would include a personal statement and reason for applying to UT Arlington).
2. A curriculum vitae.
3. An official transcript from institution granting terminal degree.
4. Statement of research goals.
5. Three letters of reference from individuals familiar with applicant’s scholarly or creative work.
6. Submission of one of the following:

* defended dissertation proposal (doctoral students who have not yet defended the dissertation)
* statement of how the applicant’s professional experience prepares her or him for a faculty position (for professionals entering academe after a period of receiving terminal degree).

Deadlines
All materials must be received by February 15, 2009. Applicants will be notified of decisions by March 31, 2009 and commitments must be made by April 30, 2009. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. Materials will not be returned.

Email requests for an application or questions to FacultyFellowships@uta.edu

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For Your Information

Trade, Agricultural Expansion, and Climate Change in the Amazon Basin

GDAE is launching a new research project to assess the socio-economic and environmental consequences of trade-led agricultural expansion – particularly soybean cultivation – in the Amazon. Part of the institute’s Globalization and Sustainable Development Program, the research is being led by GDAE Senior Research Fellow María del Carmen Vera-Díaz, who has just joined the institute. Vera-Díaz is an ecological economist who recently completed her Ph.D in Geography and Environment at Boston University. From 1999 to 2003, she worked as a researcher at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) in Belém (Brazil).
Soybean production is one of the main economic forces driving the expansion of the agricultural frontier in the Amazon Basin. The expansion of soybean cultivation has important implications for the regional and global economy, rainforest and biodiversity conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the livelihoods of communities of indigenous people and smallholders. Key to that expansion is a series of infrastructure projects designed to reduce transportation costs, which has increased the economic viability of soybean production in the Amazon Region. Foreign demand, particularly from China, is a significant driver of soybean expansion in Brazil, Bolivia, and other producing countries in the region.
Vera-Díaz will build on her dissertation research, in which she modeled the likely impacts of infrastructure projects on land use in the Amazon Basin. Her analysis uses spatial-econometric techniques to estimate the change in the returns to land with the completion of different infrastructure projects in the region. Combining ecological and economic data with satellite imaging and GIS analysis, Vera-Díaz offers a detailed mapping of the sensitive forests that these infrastructure improvements transform into potentially profitable agricultural lands. The research can allow governments, international agencies, and non-governmental organizations to anticipate the threats posed by the rapid expansion of agro-export production to the local environment and communities and to global climate change.
For more on the Amazon Project, see:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/amazon_project.html
For more on GDAE’s Sustainable Rural Development Program:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/community_control.html
For more on GDAE’s Globalization and Sustainable Development Program:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/globalization.html 

2009 HETSA Prizes

The History of Economic Thought Society of Australia is calling for applications for the award of the 2009 HETSA Prizes

There are three categories of prizes

*Best PhD dissertation;

*Best masters thesis, where the degree was completed entirely by research; and

*Best masters/graduate diploma/honours thesis, where the degree was completely partly by thesis

A prize of $300 will be awarded to the winner in each category, provided that the best entry is deemed to be of sufficiently high standard to merit an award.


Closing date for entries is April 1, 2009

The prizes will be awarded to the candidates who, in the opinion of the judges, submitted the best thesis, or dissertation, in the field of history of economic thought at an Australian or New Zealand tertiary institution in the relevant category. Any submission for a prize should be made within two years of the candidate receipt of the nominated degree. Candidates must submit their examiners reports as evidence of their eligibility for the prize.

All submission must contain two copies of the thesis, examiners reports and a covering letter with full contact details of the applicant. Entries will be judged by a prize committee appointed by the Chief Executive Officer of the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia.
Entries, consisting of two copies of the thesis, should be sent to

Dr Alex Millmow
Chief Executive Officer of HETSA
School of Business
University of Ballarat
P.O. Box 663, Mt. Helen
Victoria, Australia,
3353

Economists are the forgotten guilty men

Academics - and their mad theories - are to blame for the financial crisis. They too deserve to be hauled into the dock
Anatole Kaletsky
In the search for the “guilty men” responsible for the near-collapse of the global economy, one obvious group of scapegoats has escaped blame: the economists.
By “economists” I do not mean the talking heads (myself included) employed by the media and financial institutions to “explain”, usually after the event, why share prices or currencies have gone up or down. Nor do I mean the forecasters whose computers churn out scientific-looking numbers about what will happen to growth or inflation, but whose figures are revised so drastically whenever something “unexpected” happens - as it always does - that their forecasts are really nothing more than backward-looking descriptions of recent events.
What I mean by “economists” are the academic theorists who win Nobel prizes, or dream of winning them.
To see why these seemingly obscure academics deserve to be hauled out of their ivory towers and put in the dock of public opinion, consider why the bankers, politicians, accountants and regulators behaved in the egregious ways that they have. It may be true that all bankers are greedy, all politicians venal, all regulators blind and all accountants stupid. But such personal failings do not explain their behaviour in the past few years. After all, bankers do not like losing money and politicians do not like losing power. All these “guilty men” behaved as they did because they thought it made sense. (cont.)

Capitalism Hits the Fan

I hope that you may find a new film that I made with the Media Education Foundation (MEF) interesting and useful. Called “Capitalism Hits the Fan,” it is aimed at colleges, universities, and also high schools for instructional use, but it can serve other purposes as well. You can get a sense of it at www.capitalismhitsthefan.com.
The dvd can be ordered now and will be shipped by month’s end. It is also possible to view the full-length version (just under an hour) freely, albeit in low resolution, at the
MEF website: http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=139.  While the institutional prices are high, individuals can order the dvd for $ 19.95.
The dvd contains both the full-length version and a shorter 35-minute version.

You may be especially interested in the critical analytical approach to explaining the causes of the current crisis, in the critique of Keynesian stimulus-cum-reregulation “solutions,” and in the sketch of an alternative solution.
Your comments and criticisms would be welcome.

Rick Wolff

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