Economics and the Shop Floor: Reflections of an Octogenarian

IF 7.6 0 MANAGEMENT Management Revue Pub Date : 2019-11-27 DOI:10.5771/0935-9915-2019-4-371
R. Locke
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Abstract

In 2000, the Post-Autistic Economics Newsletter began covering the resistance of French students against the “uncontrolled use of mathematics” in their discipline. The students spoke of a “need to liberate economics from its autistic obsession with formal models that have no obvious empirical reference.” (Post-Autistic Economics Newsletter, issue 3, 27 Nov 2000) In an earlier newsletter they had elaborated, too often the lectures leave no place for reflection. Out of all the approaches to economic questions that exist, generally only one is presented to us. This approach is supposed to explain everything by means of a purely axiomatic process, as if this were THE economic truth. We do not accept this dogmatism. We want a pluralism of approaches, adapted to the complexity of the objects and to the uncertainty surrounding most of the big questions in economics (unemployment, inequalities, the place of financial markets, the advantages and disadvantages of free-trade, globalization, economic development, etc.) (Post-Autistic Economics Newsletter, issue 2, 3 Oct 2000). The students did not object to economics being a science; they just wanted to make it empirically relevant. This search for an empirically relevant science of economics has been a hard slog, for if the effort to show the autistic nature of orthodox nomothetic neoclassical economics has been relatively easy, the search for a praxis relevant alternative has not. I suggest that in looking for empirical relevancy primarily through expansion into the social sciences, post-autistic economists have been looking in the wrong place. For empirical relevance they need to focus on the relationship between economics and the shop floor.
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经济学和车间:一位八十多岁老人的思考
2000年,《后自闭症经济学通讯》(post - autism Economics Newsletter)开始报道法国学生对学科中“不受控制地使用数学”的抵制。学生们谈到,“有必要将经济学从对没有明显经验参考的形式模型的自闭迷恋中解放出来。”(《后自闭症经济学通讯》,第3期,2000年11月27日)在之前的一份通讯中,他们曾详细阐述过,这些讲座往往没有留下反思的余地。在所有现存的解决经济问题的方法中,通常只有一种呈现在我们面前。这种方法被认为是通过一个纯粹的公理过程来解释一切,就好像这是经济真理一样。我们不接受这种教条主义。我们需要一种多元化的方法,以适应对象的复杂性和围绕经济学中大多数重大问题的不确定性(失业、不平等、金融市场的位置、自由贸易的利弊、全球化、经济发展等)(后自闭症经济学通讯,2000年10月3日第2期)。学生们并不反对经济学是一门科学;他们只是想让它与经验相关。寻找一门与实证相关的经济学一直是一项艰难的工作,因为如果说展示正统法新古典经济学的自闭本质的努力相对容易,那么寻找一种与实践相关的替代方法就不容易了。我认为,在主要通过扩展到社会科学来寻找经验相关性的过程中,后自闭症经济学家找错了地方。为了获得经验相关性,他们需要关注经济学与车间之间的关系。
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来源期刊
Management Revue
Management Revue MANAGEMENT-
CiteScore
1.20
自引率
0.00%
发文量
7
期刊介绍: Management Revue - Socio-Economic Studies is an interdisciplinary European journal that undergoes peer review. It publishes qualitative and quantitative work, along with purely theoretical papers, contributing to the study of management, organization, and industrial relations. The journal welcomes contributions from various disciplines, including business and public administration, organizational behavior, economics, sociology, and psychology. Regular features include reviews of books relevant to management and organization studies. Special issues provide a unique perspective on specific research fields. Organized by selected guest editors, each special issue includes at least two overview articles from leaders in the field, along with at least three new empirical papers and up to ten book reviews related to the topic. The journal aims to offer in-depth insights into selected research topics, presenting potentially controversial perspectives, new theoretical insights, valuable empirical analysis, and brief reviews of key publications. Its objective is to establish Management Revue - Socio-Economic Studies as a top-quality symposium journal for the international academic community.
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