In this essay, I argue that radical economics innovated in the communication of economic ideas, e... more In this essay, I argue that radical economics innovated in the communication of economic ideas, engendering new idioms and print formats to intervene in circuits of progressive activism. The essay mentions the pamphlet work of the Union for Radical Political Economics’ various public engagement projects of the early 1970s but at its heart is the 1974 founding of the mass distribution monthly Dollars & Sense. It looks at the positions taken by the periodical over the years and asks, “What kind of print object was it?” It places the publication within a twentieth century history of left political economy periodicals and compares it with its closest contemporaries in the cultures of print of the American Left, notably Monthly Review and Radical America. The attention to the print ventures of radical economics in the 1970s is a contribution to a new kind of historiography that takes an expanded and extra-curricular outlook of economics.
The 1930s transformed American capitalism. This article interrogates the political economy of two... more The 1930s transformed American capitalism. This article interrogates the political economy of two business magazines created at the start of the Great Depression. I argue thatBusiness Week’s andFortune’s signature approaches to reporting articulated an ideal conception of the manager. The early century conception saw the manager as engineer of operational efficiency. The new ideal viewed the manager as a political economist coordinating firms with their external environment, notably an interventionist and scrutinizing state, volatile markets, and a critical public opinion.
ArgumentIn the late 1960s, in the midst of campus unrest, a group of young economists calling the... more ArgumentIn the late 1960s, in the midst of campus unrest, a group of young economists calling themselves “radicals” challenged the boundaries of economics. In the radicals' cultural cartography, economic science and politics were represented as overlapping. These claims were scandalous because they were voiced from Harvard University, drawing on its authority. With radicals' claims the subject of increasing media attention, the economics mainstream sought to re-assert the longstanding cultural map of economic science, where objectivity and advocacy were distinguishable. The resolution of the contest of credibility came with a string of cases of dismissals and denial of tenure for radicals. The American Economic Association's investigations of these cases, imposing the conventional cultural map, concluded that personnel decisions had not been politically motivated. Radicals were forced to migrate from the elite institutions from which they had emerged to less prestigious ...
Economics in the 1960s was host to a number of dissenting movements challenging the profession... more Economics in the 1960s was host to a number of dissenting movements challenging the profession's mainstream theories. As this mainstream changed in the 1970s, the dissenters also underwent a transformation of their own. By the late 1970s the dispersed dissenting voices had congregated to form groups of neo-Austrians, post-Keynesians, neo-Marxists and radical economists. Retrospectively, the 1970s appear as a period of intense negotiation among dissenters as they erected theoretical and methodological boundaries and institutions (associations, journals, seminars) that would come to define them. They were constructing not just conditions for carrying on their work but also a narrative perception of who they were, what they stood for and what was the nature of the profession they inhabited, which I hereafter call “identity” or “self-image.” The dispersed critiques were being redrawn into new sociological unities inside the profession. This paper aims to track one of the routes that...
focus on the economic person during efforts toward greater socioeconomic balance. Undeniably, eac... more focus on the economic person during efforts toward greater socioeconomic balance. Undeniably, each literary contribution addresses a significant component of the social equity debate. It is left to be seen, however, whether these considerations will take the forefront in legislative motions for wealth creation, wealth sharing, and increased opportunities for individual economic advancement. At the level of theory, the importance of individual preferences, choices, and values is crucial for an understanding of the effects of individual actions. The extent to which it is, and can be, incorporated into wider socioeconomic planning processes is questionable though. It may be more economical for governments to generalize when determining what is in the greater public interest, instead of focusing on the minutiae behind the rationale governing human behaviors. This perspective lends itself to the interpretation of author contributions on personalist economics. The foundational thinking for this branch of economic thought is noble and unreservedly selfless, but unfortunately, it bears semblance to the unrealistic, as it has not traversed the boundary between theory and real-world socioeconomics. The suggested need for greater government involvement through workable public policy mechanisms and human capital investment is a positive step that augurs well for increased social equity and greater social well-being. Whether governments are prepared to assume a more proactive role in this respect, however, is determined not just by social wants, but also by the workings of globalization. Social economics, as evidenced by the publications reviewed, has come a long way, and will continue to add important elements to the wider debate on what is required to sustain social well-being in the long term.
The essays in this volume examine the economist as public intellectual. Rather than assessing the... more The essays in this volume examine the economist as public intellectual. Rather than assessing the changing status of the public intellectual in culture or attempting to define the identity of the public intellectual, our approach is to study the public interventions of economists, that is, the encounters between economists and their publics. In the volume we constrain ourselves to the long twentieth century in the United States and the United Kingdom, fenced at one end by the Progressive Era and Fabianism and the ongoing economic crisis at the other. Economists then and now have been occupants of the public sphere, and to understand their encounters with the public we must appreciate the expectations they bring to the meeting and the institutional contexts that enable the encounters. The unifying claim of our collection is that economists’ public interventions have been of profound consequence for both the structure and the content of the public sphere.
Including a Symposium on Mary Morgan: Curiosity, Imagination, and Surprise, 2018
In my years as a student of Mary Morgan and later as her junior peer, I observed that one concept... more In my years as a student of Mary Morgan and later as her junior peer, I observed that one concept prompted her to react with caution and skepticism. That common notion was “influence.” In this chapter, I follow her cues to ask what are the legitimate grounds for claims of influence in historical explanation. Morgan’s writings have made us aware that the story of social science cannot be captured in simple reckonings of influence, and that long chains of actions are required to seat an idea in the mind, and longer still to set it to paper. My contribution to problematizing influence is to list the pitfalls of its uncritical use but also, once suitably redefined, its potential contribution to analysis. To illustrate my claims, I propose a test case, to study the “influence of Mary Morgan.”
Review of “Recharting the History of Economic Thought” edited by Kevin Deane and Elisa Van Waeyen... more Review of “Recharting the History of Economic Thought” edited by Kevin Deane and Elisa Van Waeyenberge
The agencies of the government of the United States of America, such as the Food and Drug Adminis... more The agencies of the government of the United States of America, such as the Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency, intervene in American society through the collection, processing, and diffusion of information. The Presidency of Barack Obama was notable for updating and redesigning the US government’s information infrastructure. The White House enhanced mass consultation through open government and big data initiatives to evaluate policy effectiveness, and it launched new ways of communicating with the citizenry. In this essay we argue that these programs spelled out an emergent epistemology based on two assumptions: dispersed knowledge and a critique of judgment. These programs have redefined the evidence required to justify and design regulatory policy and conferred authority to a new kind of expert, which we call epistemic consultants.
In this essay, I argue that radical economics innovated in the communication of economic ideas, e... more In this essay, I argue that radical economics innovated in the communication of economic ideas, engendering new idioms and print formats to intervene in circuits of progressive activism. The essay mentions the pamphlet work of the Union for Radical Political Economics’ various public engagement projects of the early 1970s but at its heart is the 1974 founding of the mass distribution monthly Dollars & Sense. It looks at the positions taken by the periodical over the years and asks, “What kind of print object was it?” It places the publication within a twentieth century history of left political economy periodicals and compares it with its closest contemporaries in the cultures of print of the American Left, notably Monthly Review and Radical America. The attention to the print ventures of radical economics in the 1970s is a contribution to a new kind of historiography that takes an expanded and extra-curricular outlook of economics.
The 1930s transformed American capitalism. This article interrogates the political economy of two... more The 1930s transformed American capitalism. This article interrogates the political economy of two business magazines created at the start of the Great Depression. I argue thatBusiness Week’s andFortune’s signature approaches to reporting articulated an ideal conception of the manager. The early century conception saw the manager as engineer of operational efficiency. The new ideal viewed the manager as a political economist coordinating firms with their external environment, notably an interventionist and scrutinizing state, volatile markets, and a critical public opinion.
ArgumentIn the late 1960s, in the midst of campus unrest, a group of young economists calling the... more ArgumentIn the late 1960s, in the midst of campus unrest, a group of young economists calling themselves “radicals” challenged the boundaries of economics. In the radicals' cultural cartography, economic science and politics were represented as overlapping. These claims were scandalous because they were voiced from Harvard University, drawing on its authority. With radicals' claims the subject of increasing media attention, the economics mainstream sought to re-assert the longstanding cultural map of economic science, where objectivity and advocacy were distinguishable. The resolution of the contest of credibility came with a string of cases of dismissals and denial of tenure for radicals. The American Economic Association's investigations of these cases, imposing the conventional cultural map, concluded that personnel decisions had not been politically motivated. Radicals were forced to migrate from the elite institutions from which they had emerged to less prestigious ...
Economics in the 1960s was host to a number of dissenting movements challenging the profession... more Economics in the 1960s was host to a number of dissenting movements challenging the profession's mainstream theories. As this mainstream changed in the 1970s, the dissenters also underwent a transformation of their own. By the late 1970s the dispersed dissenting voices had congregated to form groups of neo-Austrians, post-Keynesians, neo-Marxists and radical economists. Retrospectively, the 1970s appear as a period of intense negotiation among dissenters as they erected theoretical and methodological boundaries and institutions (associations, journals, seminars) that would come to define them. They were constructing not just conditions for carrying on their work but also a narrative perception of who they were, what they stood for and what was the nature of the profession they inhabited, which I hereafter call “identity” or “self-image.” The dispersed critiques were being redrawn into new sociological unities inside the profession. This paper aims to track one of the routes that...
focus on the economic person during efforts toward greater socioeconomic balance. Undeniably, eac... more focus on the economic person during efforts toward greater socioeconomic balance. Undeniably, each literary contribution addresses a significant component of the social equity debate. It is left to be seen, however, whether these considerations will take the forefront in legislative motions for wealth creation, wealth sharing, and increased opportunities for individual economic advancement. At the level of theory, the importance of individual preferences, choices, and values is crucial for an understanding of the effects of individual actions. The extent to which it is, and can be, incorporated into wider socioeconomic planning processes is questionable though. It may be more economical for governments to generalize when determining what is in the greater public interest, instead of focusing on the minutiae behind the rationale governing human behaviors. This perspective lends itself to the interpretation of author contributions on personalist economics. The foundational thinking for this branch of economic thought is noble and unreservedly selfless, but unfortunately, it bears semblance to the unrealistic, as it has not traversed the boundary between theory and real-world socioeconomics. The suggested need for greater government involvement through workable public policy mechanisms and human capital investment is a positive step that augurs well for increased social equity and greater social well-being. Whether governments are prepared to assume a more proactive role in this respect, however, is determined not just by social wants, but also by the workings of globalization. Social economics, as evidenced by the publications reviewed, has come a long way, and will continue to add important elements to the wider debate on what is required to sustain social well-being in the long term.
The essays in this volume examine the economist as public intellectual. Rather than assessing the... more The essays in this volume examine the economist as public intellectual. Rather than assessing the changing status of the public intellectual in culture or attempting to define the identity of the public intellectual, our approach is to study the public interventions of economists, that is, the encounters between economists and their publics. In the volume we constrain ourselves to the long twentieth century in the United States and the United Kingdom, fenced at one end by the Progressive Era and Fabianism and the ongoing economic crisis at the other. Economists then and now have been occupants of the public sphere, and to understand their encounters with the public we must appreciate the expectations they bring to the meeting and the institutional contexts that enable the encounters. The unifying claim of our collection is that economists’ public interventions have been of profound consequence for both the structure and the content of the public sphere.
Including a Symposium on Mary Morgan: Curiosity, Imagination, and Surprise, 2018
In my years as a student of Mary Morgan and later as her junior peer, I observed that one concept... more In my years as a student of Mary Morgan and later as her junior peer, I observed that one concept prompted her to react with caution and skepticism. That common notion was “influence.” In this chapter, I follow her cues to ask what are the legitimate grounds for claims of influence in historical explanation. Morgan’s writings have made us aware that the story of social science cannot be captured in simple reckonings of influence, and that long chains of actions are required to seat an idea in the mind, and longer still to set it to paper. My contribution to problematizing influence is to list the pitfalls of its uncritical use but also, once suitably redefined, its potential contribution to analysis. To illustrate my claims, I propose a test case, to study the “influence of Mary Morgan.”
Review of “Recharting the History of Economic Thought” edited by Kevin Deane and Elisa Van Waeyen... more Review of “Recharting the History of Economic Thought” edited by Kevin Deane and Elisa Van Waeyenberge
The agencies of the government of the United States of America, such as the Food and Drug Adminis... more The agencies of the government of the United States of America, such as the Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency, intervene in American society through the collection, processing, and diffusion of information. The Presidency of Barack Obama was notable for updating and redesigning the US government’s information infrastructure. The White House enhanced mass consultation through open government and big data initiatives to evaluate policy effectiveness, and it launched new ways of communicating with the citizenry. In this essay we argue that these programs spelled out an emergent epistemology based on two assumptions: dispersed knowledge and a critique of judgment. These programs have redefined the evidence required to justify and design regulatory policy and conferred authority to a new kind of expert, which we call epistemic consultants.
Special Issue: The History of Economics as a History of Practice in Collaboration with The Europe... more Special Issue: The History of Economics as a History of Practice in Collaboration with The European Society for the History of Economic Thought
Book review of The economics of economists, institutional setting, individual incentives, and fut... more Book review of The economics of economists, institutional setting, individual incentives, and future prospects, edited by Alessandro Lanteri and Jack Vromen, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014
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