Re: Radical Economics
I write a Q&A column for Dollars and Sense Magazine and the Q for the up-coming issue is ths: what's the difference between a radical and liberal economist (or a progressive vs liberal)? Naturally I have my own thoughts on this, but I'd love to hear what pen-lers have to say. Ellen Frank ^^^^ CB: In economic anthropology the distinction between substantivist and formalist is used . ^^^^^^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1132/is_n2_v47/ai_17054046 http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/Anth101/economicanthropology.htm Economic Anthropology I . Economics A. from the Greek oikos, "household" + nomos, "law" 1. managing a household; households as economic units 2. the study of how we economize: allocating scarce resources toward unlimited ends 3. economics as ideology B. production 1. how we produce the goods we consume 2. the social relations they involve 3. Hunting and gathering/horticulture/agriculture/industrialization/ post-industrialization C. Distribution 1. Flow of goods and services between individuals 2. Karl Polanyi: reciprocity, redistribution, market exchange D. Consumption: the satisfaction of individual wants and needs 1. traditionally neglected field, assumed to be self-evident 2. now looking at links between consumption and production 3. Kroger's fresh produce section and Maya broccoli farmers II. Substantivist v. formalist debate A. Neo-classical and formalism: rationality and self-interest 1. from political-economy to econometrics: modeling behavior, predictive models 2. everyone acting in his or her own best self-interest advances the self-interests of all Adam Smith: "Every individual generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it . . . he intends only his own gain, and he is in this led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." 3. assumption of rationality; assumption of universality rationality = maximizing utility . . . but what is utility? 4. advertising and image B. Substantivists: it's all culturally relative 1. Karl Polanyi: economies are culturally embedded - in western capitalism, the substantive and formalist models have merged 2. Max Weber (1904) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism-prosperous Protestant German north, less developed Catholic south 3. Unlimited wants? The counter-examples of the Dobe 4. utility and social capital: the Trobrianders, the Kwakiutl C.Different types of capital, from Pierre Bourdieu: 1. economic capital (productive capital) 2. symbolic capital -social capital -one's networks -cultural capital-one cultivation 3. Marshall Sahlins: the symbolic side of U.S. food industry-why cattle and pigs and not horses and dogs? Clip-
