{"title":"BOOK REVIEW","authors":"Hartley Dean","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzad006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzad006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43091019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The New Economics: A Manifesto","authors":"G. Hodgson","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzad003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzad003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45976025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Constructing Economic Science: The Invention of a Discipline 1850–1950","authors":"J. Morgan","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzad007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzad007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42161898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Financialisation: Economic and Social Impacts","authors":"D. McNeill","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzad005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzad005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45975772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper reconsiders Veblen’s Absentee Ownership on the centennial of its publication in 1923. It offers a reading of the work in relation to climate change in the new geologic age of the Anthropocene. The central finding is that Veblen’s analysis of the power implications of finance capital and law stand up well as guides to understanding the inertia of US energy policy. However, the book’s concept of ‘the industrial system’ is found seriously wanting. Conceiving of ‘the industrial system’ as a balanced whole of inter-connected mechanical processes, Veblen’s model fails to grasp how that industrial logic might be open to the environment and thus a major source of de-stabilising climate warming gases. More, this outcome is a result of industrial processes, regardless of which social group exercises control of the system: e.g. financiers, communists, or technicians. That is, while Veblen well understands the impact of technology on society, he tends not to envision how industrial technology itself can change Nature in unanticipated and destructive ways. The weaknesses of Veblen’s concept are traced back to his understanding of Nature as a structure of brute forces, scientific knowledge of which permits its effective technological control.
{"title":"Thorstein Veblen’s Absentee Ownership in the Age of the Anthropocene: Law, Technology and Climate Crisis","authors":"S. Plotkin","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzad002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzad002","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reconsiders Veblen’s Absentee Ownership on the centennial of its publication in 1923. It offers a reading of the work in relation to climate change in the new geologic age of the Anthropocene. The central finding is that Veblen’s analysis of the power implications of finance capital and law stand up well as guides to understanding the inertia of US energy policy. However, the book’s concept of ‘the industrial system’ is found seriously wanting. Conceiving of ‘the industrial system’ as a balanced whole of inter-connected mechanical processes, Veblen’s model fails to grasp how that industrial logic might be open to the environment and thus a major source of de-stabilising climate warming gases. More, this outcome is a result of industrial processes, regardless of which social group exercises control of the system: e.g. financiers, communists, or technicians. That is, while Veblen well understands the impact of technology on society, he tends not to envision how industrial technology itself can change Nature in unanticipated and destructive ways. The weaknesses of Veblen’s concept are traced back to his understanding of Nature as a structure of brute forces, scientific knowledge of which permits its effective technological control.","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43853477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This critical survey examines the role of cooperation in production and exchange, the relationship between the organisation of production and markets, and, more generally, the nature and functioning of productive systems. It traces ideas about the relationship between markets, industrial organisation, and power, from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to the early neo-classical economists, before turning to the evolution of liberal economic thinking that accompanied the emergence and growth of large organisations with market power. This is then confronted with Alfred Marshall’s methodological and theoretical contributions to both economics and industrial organisation and development, and his attempt to reconcile the neo-classical economic dilemma of increasing returns in production and competition in markets. During the inter-war years, and especially after his death in 1924, Marshall’s ideas were strongly challenged—and ultimately abandoned—by neo-classical economists. However, this debate re-emerged nearly a half century later, when the Fordist mass production model faced growing competition from more cooperative forms of industrial organisation. Based on solid empirical research into contemporary industrial districts and localised productive systems, there was a re-discovery of the importance of cooperation in production, and an acknowledgement of the significance of Marshall’s earlier contributions. Inspired by these developments, Frank Wilkinson’s ‘productive systems’ approach brings together the threads running through Smith’s, Marx’s, and Marshall’s analysis of the dynamics of cooperation in production and exchange, to explore the implications of the mutual and conflicting interests inherent to production, industrial organisation, and economic development.
{"title":"Cooperation and the Organisation of Production and Markets: A Critical Survey","authors":"Suzanne J Konzelmann","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzad001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzad001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This critical survey examines the role of cooperation in production and exchange, the relationship between the organisation of production and markets, and, more generally, the nature and functioning of productive systems. It traces ideas about the relationship between markets, industrial organisation, and power, from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to the early neo-classical economists, before turning to the evolution of liberal economic thinking that accompanied the emergence and growth of large organisations with market power. This is then confronted with Alfred Marshall’s methodological and theoretical contributions to both economics and industrial organisation and development, and his attempt to reconcile the neo-classical economic dilemma of increasing returns in production and competition in markets. During the inter-war years, and especially after his death in 1924, Marshall’s ideas were strongly challenged—and ultimately abandoned—by neo-classical economists. However, this debate re-emerged nearly a half century later, when the Fordist mass production model faced growing competition from more cooperative forms of industrial organisation. Based on solid empirical research into contemporary industrial districts and localised productive systems, there was a re-discovery of the importance of cooperation in production, and an acknowledgement of the significance of Marshall’s earlier contributions. Inspired by these developments, Frank Wilkinson’s ‘productive systems’ approach brings together the threads running through Smith’s, Marx’s, and Marshall’s analysis of the dynamics of cooperation in production and exchange, to explore the implications of the mutual and conflicting interests inherent to production, industrial organisation, and economic development.","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136340908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Five major propositions in classical price theory are discussed. First, Marx explicitly follows Smith’s analytical starting point to show that prices differ from labor values not because of competition or capitalist relations (wages and profits), but only when the latter interact with intersectoral capital–labor differences. Second, Okishio, Morishima and others long ago demonstrated that Marx’s transformation procedure was an iterative process, and Marx himself refers to a ‘standard’ industry immune to this process. Third, Sraffa correctly argues, in favor of Marx, that empirical economic aggregates are essentially the same in prices and values. Fourth, as matrix size increases the subdominant eigenvalues of IO matrices approach a smooth limiting curve, so contrary to Bródy, the first step in any price or quantity iterative process (such as Marx’s) does not become increasingly exact. Finally, Sraffa prices in large US matrices are overwhelmingly simple and extremely well approximated by Bienenfeld’s quadratic form.
{"title":"Marx, Sraffa and Classical Price Theory","authors":"A. Shaikh","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzac007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzac007","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Five major propositions in classical price theory are discussed. First, Marx explicitly follows Smith’s analytical starting point to show that prices differ from labor values not because of competition or capitalist relations (wages and profits), but only when the latter interact with intersectoral capital–labor differences. Second, Okishio, Morishima and others long ago demonstrated that Marx’s transformation procedure was an iterative process, and Marx himself refers to a ‘standard’ industry immune to this process. Third, Sraffa correctly argues, in favor of Marx, that empirical economic aggregates are essentially the same in prices and values. Fourth, as matrix size increases the subdominant eigenvalues of IO matrices approach a smooth limiting curve, so contrary to Bródy, the first step in any price or quantity iterative process (such as Marx’s) does not become increasingly exact. Finally, Sraffa prices in large US matrices are overwhelmingly simple and extremely well approximated by Bienenfeld’s quadratic form.","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48372403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This is the new standard reference for everything about grasses (including bamboos), for everyone, and especially for those looking for accurate data cutting across scientific disciplines. The author integrates traditional floras with genomics, karyology, gene expression studies, anatomy, embryology, not to forget ecology, phylogenetics (of course), biochemistry, more evo-devo than anyone can comfortably digest in a single sitting, plus the kind of research only possible for commercial crops such as genomic changes following domestication. The volume of literature consulted seems in fact a little frightening. The personal knowledge of the author reflects the breadth of the literature: it is not possible to compile this quantity of disparate information without it. Works of this size and depth are usually edited volumes written by multiple specialists. Not this one. A lot has changed in plant sciences during the last 30 years, and this is a fully functional replacement for the previous desktop references to the world’s grasses, Clayton and Renvoize’s Genera Graminum (1986) and The Grass Genera of the World (Watson & Dallwitz, 1994). There are identification keys to the subfamilies and to the genera in each subfamily, lists of common synonyms at the generic level, descriptions, chromosome numbers when known, brief statements of distributions, and commentary which usually points the reader to the latest research relevant to generic delimitation. The phylogenetic classification is compiled by Rob Soreng as an online list (Soreng et al., 2015) and has been added to species descriptions by Bryan Simon (Simon et al., 2015), but nobody else has so far attempted to re-write 711 generic descriptions to reflect 30 years of new data. This has made possible something that can only happen by means of a thorough global synthesis, the elusive thing that moves a discipline forward: a record of the knowledge gaps. The comparison with Genera Graminum (Clayton & Renvoize, 1986) and The Grass Genera of the World (Watson & Dallwitz, 1994) is perhaps not fully appropriate because this book is significantly broader in scope. ‘Poaceae – General Information’ is a modest section title but it is more than a mere preface to ‘Classification of the Poaceae’: this is where everyone should go for the 123 page multidisciplinary synthesis. This is the first real Phylogenetic Monograph of a plant family, notable not just for its subject matter but also as a pilot study in how information about diverse groups can be presented. Synapomorphies at all levels are central to the structure of the book. All known synapomorphies are marked in italics within the descriptions of subfamilies, tribes, subtribes, and genera. When subfamilies, tribes, subtribes, and genera are insufficient to describe the evolutionary tree, clade descriptions appear such as ‘The Diheteropogon + Parahyparrhenia + Pseudanthistiria group’. Genera known to be not monophyletic are placed in inverted commas. Evolutiona
{"title":"Book Review","authors":"Rory O'Donnell","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzac014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzac014","url":null,"abstract":"This is the new standard reference for everything about grasses (including bamboos), for everyone, and especially for those looking for accurate data cutting across scientific disciplines. The author integrates traditional floras with genomics, karyology, gene expression studies, anatomy, embryology, not to forget ecology, phylogenetics (of course), biochemistry, more evo-devo than anyone can comfortably digest in a single sitting, plus the kind of research only possible for commercial crops such as genomic changes following domestication. The volume of literature consulted seems in fact a little frightening. The personal knowledge of the author reflects the breadth of the literature: it is not possible to compile this quantity of disparate information without it. Works of this size and depth are usually edited volumes written by multiple specialists. Not this one. A lot has changed in plant sciences during the last 30 years, and this is a fully functional replacement for the previous desktop references to the world’s grasses, Clayton and Renvoize’s Genera Graminum (1986) and The Grass Genera of the World (Watson & Dallwitz, 1994). There are identification keys to the subfamilies and to the genera in each subfamily, lists of common synonyms at the generic level, descriptions, chromosome numbers when known, brief statements of distributions, and commentary which usually points the reader to the latest research relevant to generic delimitation. The phylogenetic classification is compiled by Rob Soreng as an online list (Soreng et al., 2015) and has been added to species descriptions by Bryan Simon (Simon et al., 2015), but nobody else has so far attempted to re-write 711 generic descriptions to reflect 30 years of new data. This has made possible something that can only happen by means of a thorough global synthesis, the elusive thing that moves a discipline forward: a record of the knowledge gaps. The comparison with Genera Graminum (Clayton & Renvoize, 1986) and The Grass Genera of the World (Watson & Dallwitz, 1994) is perhaps not fully appropriate because this book is significantly broader in scope. ‘Poaceae – General Information’ is a modest section title but it is more than a mere preface to ‘Classification of the Poaceae’: this is where everyone should go for the 123 page multidisciplinary synthesis. This is the first real Phylogenetic Monograph of a plant family, notable not just for its subject matter but also as a pilot study in how information about diverse groups can be presented. Synapomorphies at all levels are central to the structure of the book. All known synapomorphies are marked in italics within the descriptions of subfamilies, tribes, subtribes, and genera. When subfamilies, tribes, subtribes, and genera are insufficient to describe the evolutionary tree, clade descriptions appear such as ‘The Diheteropogon + Parahyparrhenia + Pseudanthistiria group’. Genera known to be not monophyletic are placed in inverted commas. Evolutiona","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43951918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This book is an extensively rewritten version of Odum's textbook Ecology (Saunders College Publishing, 1963, 1975) for beginning students. Chapters have been added to provide specialists from other fields with a review of the major principles of ecology as they relate to today's environmental problems. An attempt has been made to separate basic principles from opinions by putting the latter in text 'boxes'. Important recent propositions such as Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis and the 'selective economic growth' approach of the World Commission on Environment and Development ('Our Common Future') are included. The book is a very readable and useful attempt to illustrate the dependence of human society on the environment, appropriately called 'life-support systems', and the limits to economic growth implied by this dependence. The treatment of biological issues is excellent, except for a minor flaw where the subject of evolution is concerned. Alternatives to Gould's far from universally accepted 'punctuated equilibrium' theory should have been presented, and Dawkins' work on the subject might have been usefully quoted. The book has, however, two important shortcomings which reduce its usefulness in particular to students of tropical biology. First, it is strongly oriented towards the situation in North America and the developed countries in general. Thus, its treatment of agriculture as being uniformly high-input and wasteful of energy fails to account for the fact that many agro-ecosystems in the tropics are low-input and do not involve the use of fossil energy. The inclusion of Conway's pioneering work on agro-ecosystems analysis in the tropics could have provided a more balanced treatment of the world's agriculture. Second, much of the book's social science content if one can call it that concerning developing countries is contentious to say the least. Again, the developed country bias is probably to blame for errors such as failing to distinguish between open access and restricted access common property, which gives rise to blanket statements on management of the commons which are pertinently untrue. Much of Odum's treatment of the 'commons' issue seems to be based on Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Commons', an article based on data which have been repeatedly discredited since it appeared in the late 1960s. The treatment of the issue of population growth is very simplistic, and shows a profound ignorance of both older (e.g. Boserup) and more recent publications on the subject. Many countries in Africa face severe problems due to regional or even national underpopulation, and the notion of general overpopulation of the African continent is a nonsensical, though oft repeated dictum. This criticism apart, Ecology and our endangered life-support systems provides a good alternative, especially for students of non-biological disciplines, to books such as Blackwell's Ecology by Begon, Harper and Townsend, which concentrate exclusively on biological aspects.
{"title":"Book Review","authors":"E. Bellino","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzac010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzac010","url":null,"abstract":"This book is an extensively rewritten version of Odum's textbook Ecology (Saunders College Publishing, 1963, 1975) for beginning students. Chapters have been added to provide specialists from other fields with a review of the major principles of ecology as they relate to today's environmental problems. An attempt has been made to separate basic principles from opinions by putting the latter in text 'boxes'. Important recent propositions such as Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis and the 'selective economic growth' approach of the World Commission on Environment and Development ('Our Common Future') are included. The book is a very readable and useful attempt to illustrate the dependence of human society on the environment, appropriately called 'life-support systems', and the limits to economic growth implied by this dependence. The treatment of biological issues is excellent, except for a minor flaw where the subject of evolution is concerned. Alternatives to Gould's far from universally accepted 'punctuated equilibrium' theory should have been presented, and Dawkins' work on the subject might have been usefully quoted. The book has, however, two important shortcomings which reduce its usefulness in particular to students of tropical biology. First, it is strongly oriented towards the situation in North America and the developed countries in general. Thus, its treatment of agriculture as being uniformly high-input and wasteful of energy fails to account for the fact that many agro-ecosystems in the tropics are low-input and do not involve the use of fossil energy. The inclusion of Conway's pioneering work on agro-ecosystems analysis in the tropics could have provided a more balanced treatment of the world's agriculture. Second, much of the book's social science content if one can call it that concerning developing countries is contentious to say the least. Again, the developed country bias is probably to blame for errors such as failing to distinguish between open access and restricted access common property, which gives rise to blanket statements on management of the commons which are pertinently untrue. Much of Odum's treatment of the 'commons' issue seems to be based on Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Commons', an article based on data which have been repeatedly discredited since it appeared in the late 1960s. The treatment of the issue of population growth is very simplistic, and shows a profound ignorance of both older (e.g. Boserup) and more recent publications on the subject. Many countries in Africa face severe problems due to regional or even national underpopulation, and the notion of general overpopulation of the African continent is a nonsensical, though oft repeated dictum. This criticism apart, Ecology and our endangered life-support systems provides a good alternative, especially for students of non-biological disciplines, to books such as Blackwell's Ecology by Begon, Harper and Townsend, which concentrate exclusively on biological aspects.","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43955074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OUP accepted manuscript","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/cpe/bzac008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzac008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38730,"journal":{"name":"Contributions to Political Economy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60901268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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