The explanation of complex issues usually requires techniques that imply some sort of abstraction... more The explanation of complex issues usually requires techniques that imply some sort of abstraction. In economics, and popular discourse in general, dichotomies are an example of such devices. Be it the opposition between monetary and real phenomena, free trade and protectionism, or idealism and materialism, dichotomies are pervasive heuristic techniques. Students taking introductory courses in economics come with preconceived ideas that are, in many senses, shaped by dichotomies, which makes them a useful but tricky teaching tool. In this article, we outline a way to make use of this to transcend these priors and foster critical thinking, using one of the prominent dichotomies, that between the market and the state.
International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2018
In this article we examine different ways for making the concept of alienation relevant and inter... more In this article we examine different ways for making the concept of alienation relevant and interesting for undergraduate students in relation to the present-day concerns regarding distributive dynamics and inequality, especially in the USA. We find inspiration for this in the theoretical and practical importance of alienation in Marx's critique of capitalism and how it is entwined with distribution. We first look at sources of alienation in the contemporary US economy, before deriving an analytical framework for its analysis using Marx's characterisation. We then offer different ways for making the concept of alienation accessible to students in the classroom, using examples from popular culture and linking them back to broader capitalist dynamics.
AFTER TEN YEARS OF ECONOMIC contraction, many of the citizens of Puerto Rico fi nd themselves wat... more AFTER TEN YEARS OF ECONOMIC contraction, many of the citizens of Puerto Rico fi nd themselves watching the secular decomposition of a reality that in its heyday was painted by many as one of relative socio-economic welfare. The latest economic downturn of the island, which predated the so-called global “great recession” by two years, has confi rmed that the current colonial economy could not achieve certain objectives of the economically more advanced economies. When compared to its own historical record and that of the United States, the performance of the economy of Puerto Rico is not an example of socio-economic convergence or of a process leading to “developed capitalism”:
Manuel S. Almeida's book, Dirigentes y dirigidos: para leer los Cuadernos de la cárcel de Ant... more Manuel S. Almeida's book, Dirigentes y dirigidos: para leer los Cuadernos de la cárcel de Antonio Gramsci, presents the reader with a helping hand to cross a sea that seems to be constituted by dispersed and unrelated topics in the renowned work of the Italian thinker. To do this, the author provides us with an interpretive key that, in his opinion, captures the common thread that runs through the complex body of work that is under scrutiny. For Almeida, the immense theoretico-political body of work that Gramsci left is fragmentary only on the surface. He proposes that Gramsci's engagement with the different modalities in which the relations between the leaders and the led, the governing and the governed, are expressed, is the topic that the diverse themes in the notebooks have in common.
This article seeks to be a contribution to heterodox teaching initiatives by focusing on curricul... more This article seeks to be a contribution to heterodox teaching initiatives by focusing on curriculum building and institutional opportunities and constraints at John Jay College, the City University of New York. The article first focuses on the need for alternative curriculums in the context of the global crisis and the crisis of economics as a discipline. Then, after some historical context to John Jay College in which opportunities arose to develop a heterodox program, the focus is on the core of the current economics curriculum and its contrasts with the mainstream. Finally, there is a discussion of institutional constraints.
In this symposium on overdetermination, Mark S. Silverman proposes that in Knowledge and Class th... more In this symposium on overdetermination, Mark S. Silverman proposes that in Knowledge and Class the concept is deployed in two distinct but related ways that Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff fail to notice and which have important consequences in our appreciation of knowledge production. Specifically, in Silverman's view, the implication that no outcomes can be predicted in advance does not necessarily follow from the recognition “that an entity's very being is constituted by the entire network of relations it has with all other entities.” Meanwhile, Hyun Woong Park proposes that the inconsistencies that Resnick and Wolff highlight in Louis Althusser's use of overdetermination are merely apparent and that, on the contrary, they have to be seen not as inconsistencies between essentialist and antiessentialist moments but as the development of a congruent scaffold. Resnick and Wolff reply by questioning Park's and Silverman's shared need to anchor themselves in some sort or another of determinism.
production is organised as a whole. Exploitation is rooted in the way capitalist social relations... more production is organised as a whole. Exploitation is rooted in the way capitalist social relations of production are set up. Ending exploitation of the precariat, as is the case with any other workers, therefore requires a change in these social relations of production. These criticisms should not, however, distract from the high importance of the book and its significant contribution to current discussions about how to resist ongoing neoliberal restructuring. This is a must-read book for both labour academics and activists.
The latest downturn of capitalism began as a financial crisis. The first signs of the financial c... more The latest downturn of capitalism began as a financial crisis. The first signs of the financial crisis emerged in the US in the summer of 2007 with an increase in mortgage delinquencies followed by an effort by the central banks to inject liquidity2 into the world financial system. March 2008 marked the beginning of the collapse with the major investment bank Bear Stearns facing failure and being acquired by JP Morgan Chase with backing from the Federal Reserve (Fed). This was followed by the takeover of Indymac Bank in July by the ...
Most economic analysis of the latest capitalist crisis suffer from the same problem: they are eco... more Most economic analysis of the latest capitalist crisis suffer from the same problem: they are economic. With this I want to imply my understanding of economics not only as a product of capitalism, but also its ideology. This discipline, in both its liberal/keynesian or conservative/neoclassical versions that dominate the discipline, advocates solutions that to a certain degree always share the same result: labor is subsumed to the interests of capital. From the postwar capital-labor accord that is currently seen as a possible template for correcting the present situation, to the actual government interventions under Obama's presidency, what we see are public policies that basically want to revive the dynamics of growth and accumulation, dynamics that are part of what brought the economic crisis upon us. My talk will give examples as to how the appropriation of the tools of the mainstream by progressives and radicals who work as economists helps to reproduce capitalist ideology ...
The explanation of complex issues usually requires techniques that imply some sort of abstraction... more The explanation of complex issues usually requires techniques that imply some sort of abstraction. In economics, and popular discourse in general, dichotomies are an example of such devices. Be it the opposition between monetary and real phenomena, free trade and protectionism, or idealism and materialism, dichotomies are pervasive heuristic techniques. Students taking introductory courses in economics come with preconceived ideas that are, in many senses, shaped by dichotomies, which makes them a useful but tricky teaching tool. In this article, we outline a way to make use of this to transcend these priors and foster critical thinking, using one of the prominent dichotomies, that between the market and the state.
International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2018
In this article we examine different ways for making the concept of alienation relevant and inter... more In this article we examine different ways for making the concept of alienation relevant and interesting for undergraduate students in relation to the present-day concerns regarding distributive dynamics and inequality, especially in the USA. We find inspiration for this in the theoretical and practical importance of alienation in Marx's critique of capitalism and how it is entwined with distribution. We first look at sources of alienation in the contemporary US economy, before deriving an analytical framework for its analysis using Marx's characterisation. We then offer different ways for making the concept of alienation accessible to students in the classroom, using examples from popular culture and linking them back to broader capitalist dynamics.
AFTER TEN YEARS OF ECONOMIC contraction, many of the citizens of Puerto Rico fi nd themselves wat... more AFTER TEN YEARS OF ECONOMIC contraction, many of the citizens of Puerto Rico fi nd themselves watching the secular decomposition of a reality that in its heyday was painted by many as one of relative socio-economic welfare. The latest economic downturn of the island, which predated the so-called global “great recession” by two years, has confi rmed that the current colonial economy could not achieve certain objectives of the economically more advanced economies. When compared to its own historical record and that of the United States, the performance of the economy of Puerto Rico is not an example of socio-economic convergence or of a process leading to “developed capitalism”:
Manuel S. Almeida's book, Dirigentes y dirigidos: para leer los Cuadernos de la cárcel de Ant... more Manuel S. Almeida's book, Dirigentes y dirigidos: para leer los Cuadernos de la cárcel de Antonio Gramsci, presents the reader with a helping hand to cross a sea that seems to be constituted by dispersed and unrelated topics in the renowned work of the Italian thinker. To do this, the author provides us with an interpretive key that, in his opinion, captures the common thread that runs through the complex body of work that is under scrutiny. For Almeida, the immense theoretico-political body of work that Gramsci left is fragmentary only on the surface. He proposes that Gramsci's engagement with the different modalities in which the relations between the leaders and the led, the governing and the governed, are expressed, is the topic that the diverse themes in the notebooks have in common.
This article seeks to be a contribution to heterodox teaching initiatives by focusing on curricul... more This article seeks to be a contribution to heterodox teaching initiatives by focusing on curriculum building and institutional opportunities and constraints at John Jay College, the City University of New York. The article first focuses on the need for alternative curriculums in the context of the global crisis and the crisis of economics as a discipline. Then, after some historical context to John Jay College in which opportunities arose to develop a heterodox program, the focus is on the core of the current economics curriculum and its contrasts with the mainstream. Finally, there is a discussion of institutional constraints.
In this symposium on overdetermination, Mark S. Silverman proposes that in Knowledge and Class th... more In this symposium on overdetermination, Mark S. Silverman proposes that in Knowledge and Class the concept is deployed in two distinct but related ways that Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff fail to notice and which have important consequences in our appreciation of knowledge production. Specifically, in Silverman's view, the implication that no outcomes can be predicted in advance does not necessarily follow from the recognition “that an entity's very being is constituted by the entire network of relations it has with all other entities.” Meanwhile, Hyun Woong Park proposes that the inconsistencies that Resnick and Wolff highlight in Louis Althusser's use of overdetermination are merely apparent and that, on the contrary, they have to be seen not as inconsistencies between essentialist and antiessentialist moments but as the development of a congruent scaffold. Resnick and Wolff reply by questioning Park's and Silverman's shared need to anchor themselves in some sort or another of determinism.
production is organised as a whole. Exploitation is rooted in the way capitalist social relations... more production is organised as a whole. Exploitation is rooted in the way capitalist social relations of production are set up. Ending exploitation of the precariat, as is the case with any other workers, therefore requires a change in these social relations of production. These criticisms should not, however, distract from the high importance of the book and its significant contribution to current discussions about how to resist ongoing neoliberal restructuring. This is a must-read book for both labour academics and activists.
The latest downturn of capitalism began as a financial crisis. The first signs of the financial c... more The latest downturn of capitalism began as a financial crisis. The first signs of the financial crisis emerged in the US in the summer of 2007 with an increase in mortgage delinquencies followed by an effort by the central banks to inject liquidity2 into the world financial system. March 2008 marked the beginning of the collapse with the major investment bank Bear Stearns facing failure and being acquired by JP Morgan Chase with backing from the Federal Reserve (Fed). This was followed by the takeover of Indymac Bank in July by the ...
Most economic analysis of the latest capitalist crisis suffer from the same problem: they are eco... more Most economic analysis of the latest capitalist crisis suffer from the same problem: they are economic. With this I want to imply my understanding of economics not only as a product of capitalism, but also its ideology. This discipline, in both its liberal/keynesian or conservative/neoclassical versions that dominate the discipline, advocates solutions that to a certain degree always share the same result: labor is subsumed to the interests of capital. From the postwar capital-labor accord that is currently seen as a possible template for correcting the present situation, to the actual government interventions under Obama's presidency, what we see are public policies that basically want to revive the dynamics of growth and accumulation, dynamics that are part of what brought the economic crisis upon us. My talk will give examples as to how the appropriation of the tools of the mainstream by progressives and radicals who work as economists helps to reproduce capitalist ideology ...
In this essay we note that contemporary debates on financialization revolve around a purported " ... more In this essay we note that contemporary debates on financialization revolve around a purported " separation " between finance and production, implying that financial profits expand at the cost of production of real value. Within the literature on financialization, we primarily focus on those contributions that connect financialization to global value-chains, production of knowledge-capital and the significance of rent (ground rent, in Marx's language) in driving financial strategies of firms, processes that are part of what we call, following others, the feudalization of capital. Building on the contributions of Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff, we problematize the categories of capital and capitalism to uncover the capitalocentric premises of these contributions. In our understanding, any discussion of the global economy must recognize a) the simultaneous expansion of capitalist economic space and a non-capitalist " outside " of capital and b) the processes of exclusion (dispossession without proletarianization) in sustaining the capital/non-capital complex. In doing so, one must recognize the significance of both traditional forms of primitive accumulation as well as instances of " new enclosures " in securing rent for dominant financialized firms. Investment in knowledge-capital appears as an increasingly dominant instrument of extraction of rent from both capitalist and non-capitalist producers within a transformed economic geography. In our understanding, such a Marxian analysis renders the separation problem an untenable proposition.
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Papers by Ian Seda-Irizarry