Thinking as an Engelsian

In this essay, I address the question of how Marxism influences our thought and action as radical intellectuals by focusing on Friedrich Engels’ work, Dialectics of Nature, the way it has been taken up in critical environmental studies and how Engels’ thinking has influenced me. In later life, Engels made important contributions on topics that are distinct from Marx's economic work. He attempted to apply dialectical methods to the “natural sciences” and he also used his knowledge of anthropology to produce a study of the historical origins of private property and women's oppression. In both cases he has been accused of adopting a positivist approach that lacks the emphasis on human agency found in Marx. Here, I challenge this view by showing how Engels’ work has been of use to practicing scientists – particularly to Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin in their book The Dialectical Biologist. I further argue that this understanding of dialectics is fully commensurable and actually advances an approach to Marxism that is based on human self-emancipation. As an undergraduate biology student these scientists inspired me with their approach to their subject as well as their activism. The essay concludes with some brief thoughts on the importance and limitations of adopting a Marxist method when considering socio-environmental change.

Pluralist Economics as a Democratizing Force: A Review Essay about The Routledge Handbook of Heterodox Economics and Democratizing the Economics Debate: Pluralism and Research Evaluation

The Routledge Handbook of Heterodox Economics and Democratizing the Economics Debate: Pluralism and Research Evaluation, two recently published books about heterodox economics and its role in broader academic and policy discourses, serve as an antidote to some recent popular narratives equating economics and economists with policies that are inherently pro-market, anti-regulation, and based in neoclassical theories. These texts illuminate challenges in current economic discourse about (1) the place of economic pluralism, (2) the role economics and economists should play in guiding policy relative to other social science disciplines, and (3) the consequences of the reliance of policy-makers on economists that train at the most elite institutions that are likely to recommend a narrow band of policies informed by a restricted range of economic theories. The Routledge Handbook of Heterodox Economics, edited by Tae-Jee Ho, Lynne Chester, and Carlo D’Ippoliti, presents positive visions for new questions that heterodox economists are researching, alternative explanations for global economic dynamics, and a counter-narrative to the notion that economists are bound to propose neoliberal policies based on neoclassical and new classical economic theories, and that economic analysis must demonstrate causality using different statistical methodologies to validate its rigor. Carlo D’Ippoliti’s Democratizing the Economics Debate examines the dialectical process by which economic rankings prioritize economic work informed by a narrow range of theories, and serve as a springboard for economists studying and working at the most elite institutions to land in powerful government advisory positions. D’Ippoliti highlights the stakes for governments that continue to hire economic policymakers from these top-tier programs with limited demonstrated curiosity in theories that might be considered heterodox, and the benefits for the economics discipline as a whole for better engagement with pluralist economics writ large.

Who Cares? An Event History Analysis of Co-parenthood Dynamics in Belgium

Until the end of the twentieth century, child custody arrangements after separation typically continued the gendered pre-separation parenting division, with mothers taking up childcare and fathers paying child support. Recently, there has been a significant rise in co-parenting after separation, reflecting the trend towards more socio-economic, work- and childcare-related gender equality during the relationship. However, it remains unclear to what extent the organization of the pre-separation household dominates over important changes in the lives and labor force participation of parents after separation in choosing to co-parent.This study uses longitudinal Belgian register data to consider the effect of post-separation dynamics in parents’ life course and labor force participation in deciding to co-parent. While certain pre-separation characteristics remain predictive of co-parenting, our results suggest a societal trend towards co-parenting as the parenting norm. Increased time in paid work positively affects co-parenting probabilities, but we find no effect of a post-separation income increase, even though this would imply greater bargaining power to obtain sole custody. As such, the investigated post-separation changes seem to be an indication of parents moving towards supporting and attempting to gain gender equal parenting after separation.

An Old-and-new Aspect for Interpreting the Course of Life of Loránt Hegedüs as an Economist

Loránt Hegedüs’ oeuvre touches on a surprisingly wide spectrum of economics. Of his writings on economic policy, his drafting of consolidation in 1920 was the best-known, but he also wrote a number of works dealing with theoretical issues, and he also left his mark on the contemporary Hungarian economy as a leader or member of the management of economic and financial institutions. Hegedüs’ multifaceted activities may be behind this diverse economic work, as he was an economist, politician, scientist, belletrist and publicist in one person. The study, therefore, starts from the premise that his economic activity is worth examining in a broader perspective, in connection with his other activities. Its aim is to point out the connection points between economics and his other activities. The study first examines the external conditions of Hegedüs’ economic operation, namely the political and economic environment that greatly influenced the development of his career. It then presents the circumstances of Hegedüs’ career choice, the individuals (family members and professors) who influenced him; in the meantime, it also points to the origins of some of his important economic ideas in connection with his studies. The study analyzes the consequences of Hegedüs’ versatility on his economic work by analyzing specific examples (the issue of emigration, his economic reconstruction plan). Among other things, it concludes that not only Hegedüs’ diverse activities played a decisive role in the development of his oeuvre in economics, but also that he had experience in both theory and practice, and that the latter was decisive.

PARTICIPATION OF THE KOMSOMOL AND YOUTH OF THE TATAR ASSR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF VIRGIN LANDS IN THE 1950s (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF THE ARCHIVE OF NUR-SULTAN)

Based on archival documents of the state archive of Nur-Sultan, the author examines the history of the creation and development of student and youth teams that arrived to conquer virgin lands in Kazakhstan from the Tatar ASSR, assesses the role of the squad movement, the importance of competitions between youth teams in raising virgin land. It is concluded that with the development of the student and youth movement, it is formed as a special institution that was engaged not only in the organization of economic work, but also in public education.

Sacramental Exchange: Eschatological Economy and Consumption Ritual

Contemporary sacramental theology construes the sacraments as a symbolic gift exchange between God and humanity; God initiates in the ministry of Jesus Christ, and human beings acknowledge and respond to God’s gift. The gratuity of that initial gift is ensured not only by reference to God’s all-sufficient nature, but also in many cases by excising economic value and economic exchange from the symbolic realm within which the sacramental gift exchange proceeds. This poses an intellectual and a practical problem. Intellectually, economic exchange is fundamentally symbolic and even ritualistic, so that the division between them is difficult to define and maintain. Practically, economic behavior is morally relevant, and the sacraments ought to give some purchase on marketplace behavior. In this essay, anthropological and economic work on “consumption rituals,” based on the work of Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood, is brought to bear on defining the relationship between sacraments and economic exchange and articulating the sociological preconditions for experiencing market exchange as an extension of sacramental gift exchange.

Measurement and Analysis of the Competitiveness of China Commercial Bank’s Loan Market

China’s economy presents a new normal of speed changes, structural optimization, and power conversion. Deepening supply-side reforms and controlling financial risks are two prominent themes of current economic work. With the economic growth slowing down and the financing environment tightening, the credit risk of the banking industry is being exposed more quickly. This article uses a structured method and an unstructured method to measure the competitiveness of China commercial bank credit market. The structured method uses the HHI (Herfindahl–Hirschman Index), and the unstructured method uses the Lerner Index. This article compares the sample banks’ 2008–2015 industry loan total HHI and Lerner Index. The results of HHI and Lerner Index are basically the same, which indicate that the competitiveness of the China commercial bank credit market is generally at a low level. However, the Lerner Index has a clear upward trend after 2014, which indicates the possibility of increased competition in the credit market.

The work of Boris Martos “Theory of Cooperation” and the modern coopera-tive movement

The article examines the main components of the work of Boris Martos “Theory of Cooperation” and compares the results of research with the current state of development of the cooperative movement. The main attention was focused on the main material of the study on: the general foundations of the formation of cooperatives, the need, purpose and role of capital in their activities; basic features and principles of functioning of cooperatives; mechanism for meeting the needs of members of the cooperative; some secondary or derivative features of the cooperative. According to B. Martos, “Cooperation is one of the ways to improve the welfare of the lower strata of society by freeing them from exploitation by the capitalists. Almost every theorist of cooperation gives his more or less accurate definition of this concept. However, in order to give an accurate scientific definition of this phenomenon in society, we must first establish the basic features that characterize the cooperative, distinguishing it from other social phenomena. This spatial quote from the work of B. Martos permeates all components of his economic work, the essence and content of which was at the center of our research. Each statement and statement of B. Martos was compared with the current realities of the cooperative movement and on the basis of which it was proposed to use the work of a scientist to improve the efficiency of cooperative relations in modern economic conditions.

A Bayesian Estimation of Child Labour in India

Child labour in India involves the largest number of children in any single country in the world. In 2011, 11.8 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 were main workers (those working more than 6 mo) according to the Indian Census. Our estimate of child labour using a combined-data approach is slightly higher than that: 13.2 million (11.4–15.2 million) for ages 5 to 17. There are various opinions on how best to measure the prevalence of child labour. In this study, we use the International Labour Organization (ILO)‘s methodology to define hazardousness and combine it with the most recent United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)‘s time thresholds for economic work and household chores. The specific aims of this study are to estimate the prevalence of child labour in the age group 5 to 17 and to suggest a combined-data approach using Bayesian inference to improve the accuracy of the child labour estimation. This study combines the National Sample Survey on Employment and Unemployment 2011/12 and the India Human Development Survey 2011/12 and compares the result with the reported figures for the incidence of child labour from the Indian Census. Our unique combined-data approach provides a way to improve accuracy, smooth the variations between ages and provide reliable estimates of the scale of child labour in India.