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Economics has become a monolithic science, variously described as formalistic and autistic with neoclassical orthodoxy reigning supreme. So argue Dimitris Milonakis and Ben Fine in this new major work of critical recollection. The authors show how economics was once rich, diverse, multidimensional and pluralistic, and unravel the processes that lead to orthodoxy's current predicament. The book details how political economy became economics through the desocialisation and the dehistoricisation of the dismal science, accompanied by the separation of economics from the other social sciences, especially economic history and sociology. It is argued that recent attempts from within economics to address the social and the historical have failed to acknowledge long standing debates amongst economists, historians and other social scientists. This has resulted in an impoverished historical and social content within mainstream economics.
The book ranges over the shifting role of the historical and the social in economic theory, the shifting boundaries between the economic and the non-economic, all within a methodological context. Schools of thought and individuals, that have been neglected or marginalised, are treated in full, including classical political economy and Marx, the German and British historical schools, American institutionalism, Weber and Schumpeter and their programme of Socialökonomik, and the Austrian school. At the same time, developments within the mainstream tradition from marginalism through Marshall and Keynes to general equilibrium theory are also scrutinised, and the clashes between the various camps from the famous Methodenstreit to the fierce debates of the 1930s and beyond brought to the fore.
The prime rationale underpinning this account drawn from the past is to put the case for political economy back on the agenda. This is done by treating economics as a social science once again, rather than as a posit
eBook
Financialization from a Marxist Perspective
Within the framework of Marxist political economy, financialization is understood through the prisms of logical, theoretical, and historical perspectives. It is defined in terms of the increasing presence of interest bearing capital, as distinct from credit as such, the role this plays in real as opposed to fictitious accumulation of capital, and how this has underpinned the period of neoliberalism, including the global crisis. Financialization is seen as the expansion of interest bearing capital in intensive and extensive forms. The first is notable in terms of the growth and proliferation of financial assets themselves with increasingly distant attachments to production and exchange of commodities themselves, and the second involves the extension of interest bearing capital to new areas of economic and social life in hybrid forms with other types of capital. An appendix draws out the differences between the approach taken herein and the approach on financialization taken by Costas Lapavitsas.
Journal Article
Race, class and the post-apartheid democratic state
This book provides an overdue critical re-engagement with the analytical approach exemplified by the work of Harold Wolpe, who was a key theorist within the liberation movement. It probes the following broad questions: how do we understand the trajectory of the post-apartheid period, how did the current situation come about in the transformation, how does the current situation relate to how a post-apartheid society was conceived in anticipation, and what are the implications of what have been failed ambitions for progressives?The contributions to this volume cohere around the following themes: labour and capital in post-apartheid South Africa, the post-apartheid South African economy, the state and transformation of South African society, and social policy in post-apartheid South Africa. The aim is not to provide a common or coherent theoretical perspective, but rather to probe a core problematic and set of theoretical concerns. The contributing authors explore not only historical and contemporary specifics, but deploy and reflect on theoretical tools that allow us to make sense of those specifics and to engage with the dynamics of race and class, and the form and functioning of the state, including its articulation with an increasingly financialised form of global capitalism.
Book
Beyond the Developmental State
Moving beyond abstract economic models and superficial descriptions of the market, Beyond the Developmental State analyses the economic, political and ideological interests which underpin current socio-economic processes. Through this approach, the contributors show the close interrelation between states and markets in both national and international contexts. Drawing on a wide range of case studies and themes, the book exposes the theoretical and empirical limitations of the developmental state paradigm, offering alternatives as well as discussing the policy implications and challenges they raise. For scholars, students and practitioners of development, Beyond the Developmental State presents a decisive break with the old dogmas of both neoliberal orthodoxy and theories of 'market-imperfection', and outlines theoretically and empirically grounded alternatives.
eBook
Summer of love : art, fashion, and rock and roll
Featuring a wide array of iconic rock posters, period photographs, music memorabilia and light shows, \"out-of-this-world\" clothing, and avant-garde films, this catalogue celebrates San Francisco's rebellious and colorful counterculture that blossomed in the years surrounding the 1967 Summer of Love. This book explores, through essays and a succession of thematic plates, the visual and material cultures of a generation searching for personal fulfillment and social change. Presenting key cultural artifacts of the time, Summer of Love introduces and explores the events and experiences that today define this dynamic era. With essays by Victoria Binder, Dennis McNally, and Joel Selvin.
Book
Social capital
In parallel with, and as a complement to, globalisation, 'social capital' has enjoyed a meteoric rise across the social sciences over the last two decades. Not surprisingly, it has been particularly prominent across development studies, not least through heavy promotion by the World Bank. As a concept, though, as has been argued persistently by a minority critical literature, social capital is fundamentally flawed. Although capable of addressing almost anything designated as social, it has tended to neglect the state, class, power, and conflict. As a buzzword, it has heavily constrained the currently progressive departure from the extremes of neo-liberalism and post-modernism at a time of extremely aggressive assault by economics imperialism. Social capital should not be ignored but contested - and rejected.
Journal Article
Marx's 'Capital' - Sixth Edition
'This expert guide to the political economy of Marx's Capital has always been the very best available' - David Harvey This brilliantly concise book is the classic companion to Karl Marx’s most well-known work, Capital. In print now for over a quarter of a century, and translated into many languages, this new edition has been fully revised and updated, making it an ideal modern introduction to one of the most important texts in political and economic thought today. The authors cover all central aspects of Marx’s economics. They explain the structure of Marx’s analysis and the meaning of the key categories in Capital, showing the internal coherence of Marx’s approach, and their relevance today. Marx’s method and terminology are explored in detail, with supporting examples. Short chapters set out the significance of Marx’s main concepts and can be grasped easily, making it a practical text for anyone with an interest in understanding Marx’s magnum opus. Discussing Capital’s relevance today, the authors keep abstract theorising to a minimum. This readable introduction highlights the continuing relevance of Marx’s ideas in the light of the problems of contemporary capitalism.
eBook
Development as Zombieconomics in the Age of Neoliberalism
Development economics is currently dominated by an orthodoxy that is totally intolerant of alternatives and depends upon seeing both economy and society as based upon the incidence of market and institutional imperfections. This is characterised as 'zombieconomics' as it feeds in a reductionist and parasitical fashion on more widely cast and methodologically opposed methods, especially those associated traditionally with development studies and the old or classic development economics. This paper explains how this situation came about in the light of the evolution of economics more generally, and explores how development economics has become Americanised, more influential within development studies, policy- rather than critically oriented, and subject to an agenda increasingly set by the World Bank. It concludes by pointing to the challenges and the opportunities open to development studies as neoliberalism experiences a profound crisis to which the new development economics can only offer partial and piecemeal responses.
Journal Article