scholarly journals Employment and Economic Insecurity: A Commonsian Perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie Morel
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Economic Insecurity ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Distinctive Character ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Employment Insecurity ◽  
Dominant Paradigm

The principal concern of this paper is with the need of a theoretical shift in economics for analyzing and devising efficient and innovative policy reforms to combat employment insecurity. Mainstream economics is unable to provide appropriate theorizing about economic phenomena, including economic insecurity. Thus, we must turn to economic theories which radically question the dominant paradigm in economics. John Rogers Commons's institutionalist theory accomplishes that. First, the author of this paper outlines the distinctive character of this theory by presenting some of its crucial methodological differences with neoclassical economics. Second, she explains how economic insecurity is conceptualized as an "instituted" process with this theory of institution. A better mastery of this specific school of thought in economics appears to escape the problems met by mainstream economics by proposing a real theoretical alternative for the development of a truly evolutionary, trans-disciplinary and ethical economic theory.

Gift Exchange as Narrative and Metaphor

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 229-252
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Economic Anthropology ◽  
Karl Polanyi ◽  
Commodity Exchange ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
Characteristic Features

The article deals with characteristic features of economic anthropology"s rhetoric of reciprocity and analyzes the factors that affected its formation. The authors consider two principal interpretations of reciprocity in economic anthropology that were formed under the influence of its two main founders - Malinowski and Mauss. The characteristic features of their two types of rhetoric are discussed together with the purposes for which they were used. Two different intentions were pivotal for the work of these researchers and their followers: first, to establish economic anthropology as a positivistic science; and second, to use the analysis of archaic societies as evidence for their critique of a capitalistic economy.To achieve the first task they actively used rhetoric borrowed from the natural sciences, and especially from biology as well as from economic theories that were another social science also striving for a more rigorous positivism. For the second task they turned to the rhetoric of political economy and used arguments based on a dialectical opposition between commodity exchange and gift exchange. The most prominent example of such dialectical rhetoric is in the works of Chris Gregory and Karl Polanyi in which gift exchange was interpreted as a metaphor for a utopian alternative to capitalistic commodity exchange. Because the rhetoric of economic anthropology from its inception to the present has been profoundly influenced by the language of general economic theory, the article examines the genesis of the rhetoric of economics as a science. This leads to an analysis of how the language of economics was affected by the rhetoric of the natural sciences, then of psychology and finally of law.

IRVING FISHER AND THE MECHANISTIC CHARACTER OF TWENTIETH CENTURY ACCOUNTING THOUGHT

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Mouck
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World View ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Newtonian Mechanics ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory

This paper provides an overview of the influence of Newtonian mechanics on the development of neoclassical economic theory and highlights Fisher's role in the popularization of the resulting mechanical conception of economics. The paper also portrays Fisher's The Nature of Capital and Income — a work which has been aptly characterized as the “first economic theory of accounting” — as the first move toward the colonization of accounting by economics. The result of Fisher's influence has been a paradigmatic linkage between the Newtonian world view of science, neoclassical economics, and mainstream academic accounting thought. The picture that emerges from this linkage is then used as a backdrop against which the emerging challenges to economics-based accounting thought are highlighted.

Technical or political? The socialist economic calculation debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago Camarinha Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Austrian School ◽  
Economic Calculation ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Political Position ◽  
Socialist Economic ◽  
Technical Terms

Abstract The paper presents both the key arguments and the historical context of the socialist economic calculation debate. I argue that Oskar Lange presented the most developed strategy to deal with bourgeois economics, decisively helping to create the scientific consensus that rational economic calculation under socialism is possible. Lange’s arguments based on standard economic theory reveal that the most ardent defenders of capitalism cannot reject socialism on technical terms and that, as a consequence, the Austrian School was left with no choice but to diverge from mainstream economics in its search to develop a framework that could support its political position. This shows that Mises’ challenge from 1920 was solved and has been replaced by a political posture developed by Hayek and leading Austrians economists, who have been struggling since the 1980s to revise the standard interpretation of the socialist economic calculation debate. I argue that this revision should not be uncritically accepted and conclude that socialism cannot be scientifically rejected; it can only be politically rejected, by those whose economic interests it opposes.

scholarly journals Interdependent preferences and policy stances in mainstream economics

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Claveau
Keyword(s):  
Utility Function ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Internal Dynamics ◽  
Interdependent Preferences ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Utility Approach

An individual's preferences are interdependent when they can be influenced by the behaviour of other agents. This paper analyzes the internal dynamics of an approach in contemporary economics allowing for interdependent preferences, the extended utility approach (EUA), which presents itself as a mild reform of neoclassical economics. I contend that this approach succeeds in broadening the policy perspectives of mainstream economics by challenging neoclassical policy stances. However, this success comes with a limitation: the EUA is unable to supply new consensual policy stances as alternatives to the challenged ones. The reason for this limitation is that the EUA opens the possibility of a wide variety of specifications for the utility function, and policy conclusions are sensitive to the details of these specifications.

Not a Peasant Movement: The Livelihood Struggles of the Taiwanese Labouring Population under the Broken Promise of High-tech Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 243 ◽  
pp. 801-822
Author(s):  
You-Lin Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Market Reform ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Economic Insecurity ◽  
Popular Opinion ◽  
New Science ◽  
Employment Insecurity ◽  
Industrial Parks ◽  
Double Movement ◽  
Peasant Movement

AbstractIn contrast to popular opinion, this paper suggests that recent protests against the Taiwanese government's expropriation of farmland for high-tech development in Taiwan do not constitute a peasant movement. Based on Karl Polanyi's double-movement thesis and Ching Kwan Lee's analysis of workers’ uprisings in the context of market reform, this paper shows that the local cause of such a mobilization is the labouring population's struggle to maintain a livelihood against increasing economic and employment insecurity. Moreover, the intensification of market despotism, economic insecurity and the relocation of firms to China have broken the various promises offered by high-tech development. As a result, local protestors have begun to question the necessity of expropriating farmland to make way for the construction of new science industrial parks.

A Set of Axioms for Neoclassical Economics and the Methodological Status of the Equilibrium Concept

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnis Vilks
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
General Equilibrium ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Equilibrium Concept ◽  
Equilibrium Existence ◽  
Existence Proofs ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
Methodological Status

It is widely agreed that the concept of general equilibrium and, in particular, general equilibrium existence proofs play a central role within the neoclassical approach to economic theory. There is much less agreement, however, on the concepts of general equilibrium and of neoclassical economic theory themselves.

Ecology and Society: a Lesson for Organization Theory, from the Logic of Economics

1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-348
Author(s):  
James A. Robins
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Organizational Ecology ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
General Logic ◽  
Social Theories

Recent work on organizational ecology has helped to clarify the discussion of organiza tion-environment relations by providing a precise analytical distinction between the organization and its environment. However, the clarity of the distinction also exposes serious problems in the population perspective on organizations. The fact that ecology has been wedded to evolutionism cripples it in dealing with some of the central issues of organizational analysis. This paper looks at ways in which the precision of ecology may be combined with social and economic theories other than evolutionism to provide a powerful analysis of the organization in its social environment. Neoclassical economics serves as a model for the sort of theory that can be used to replace evolutionism. The paper concludes by examining the underlying axiomatic structure of neoclassical economics and outlining the general logic required to link ecological and social theories for the purposes of organizational analysis.

Economic geography and island life: A contribution to debate

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-149
Author(s):  
David C. Thorns
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Housing Markets ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
Knowledge Economies ◽  
Dominant Paradigm

The possibility of new islands to be discovered/created is raised that might lead to a rethinking of the dominant paradigm within contemporary economics which could provide a richer basis for understanding the social, cultural and institutional context in which markets are embedded. Such an approach, it is argued, would allow a better understanding of the dynamics of change than that currently provided by neoclassical economics. The need for such an expanded understanding is explored by drawing on research into housing markets, knowledge economies and the growing work of social scientists on environmental and climate change.

scholarly journals Modern Economic Theory and Economic Problems of the Modern World

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Gorev ◽  
Olga Djunina
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
The Rich

Public relations have always been full of contradictions. The roots of these contradictions are in the system of economic relations. It is not a coincidence that it has always been the task of economics, first of all, to reveal the nature of economic relations and, secondly, to find ways to resolve the social contradictions caused by these relations. The evolution of economic theories reflects the search for ways of solving the problem. Economic theory has constantly experienced pressure of certain social groups at various stages of its development, that benefited from the historical realities developed at the given time. The interest of these social groups have almost always been limited to the desire to prove that the existing system of economic relations is not historically transient, but the eternal and the best possible one. Having excluded production from the system of economic relations, reducing the extent of production relations to market relations, modern economic theories do not go beyond vulgar political economy. The article deals with the problem of property and social inequality, as a factor that slows down economic growth in Russia, as well as the possibilities of modern theoretical concepts to explain the essence of the economic contradictions of the modern world. There have always been poverty and injustice in the world. But if the gap between the rich and the poor has diminished in the last century, the world has returned to its state on the eve of the First World War by the beginning of the 21st century, as far as the degree of inequality is concerned.

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