|
|
.: Call For Papers of RACs
Research Area C – Institutional Change
Special session on “Development and institutional change”
Call for Papers
The general theme of the EAEPE conference in Istanbul is “Developing Economies: Multiple Trajectories, Multiple Developments”. The topic of this special session focuses on a specific aspect of this theme, i.e. the relation between development and institutional change.
Although most heterodox economists acknowledge that development implies institutional change a key question is what kind of change is involved and how it should be assessed. Three approaches may be envisaged. The first one focuses on development in terms of economic performance in a market economy, measured by indicators such as allocative efficiency, dynamic efficiency, growth, etc.. Social justice is taken into account, here, either as a constraint determined by social and political circumstances or because it is functional to development, i.e. it establishes or reinforces social cohesion. Insofar as this interdependence between social justice and economic performance is community-specific, it is likely to determine distinct institutional setups and distinct patterns of economic evolution. This suggests that the institutional change required to achieve a given market performance is, at least to some extent, dependent on local specificities: how important these specificities are remains open to debate.
The second approach switches the relation between social justice and economic performance by arguing that efficiency is pursued according to a specific legal-economic nexus – involving, inter alia, the assignment of property rights and entitlements. Since the nexus is the outcome of historically determined social and political truces, this view reinforces the idea that different patterns of development are possible. However, while the first approach contends that the market provides a benchmark for institutional change, this one suggests that change in the institutions underlying a given nexus depends on power relations, both domestic and international. Whether any distribution is possible, independently of market and power constraints is an open issue.
The above approaches view social justice in distributive terms. The third one extends the notion of social justice to the quality of life, i.e. to a concept that goes beyond money (income and wealth) distribution, involving a social accounting that transcends the market’s relative prices, economic relations based on reciprocity and care rather than on the mere exchange of commodities, and freedom to choose how to conduct one’s life. You might wish to add “empowerment” or the “capabilities” approach (A. Sen) Basically, what this approach suggests is that development consists in achieving the conditions whereby the members of a community jointly choose what ends must be pursued. Thus two types of institutional changes may be identified: those what the community identifies as functional to its ends; those that determine the conditions whereby the community formulates its choices. Participatory democracy as a search process, rather than a mere reflection of preferences, emerges as a key issue. Despite its conceptual clarity, institutionl change is difficult to assess, here, owing to the variety of its qualitative, as well as quantitative, features.
This sketchy outline suggests that theoretical research is important to clarify the value judgements underlying each approach and to understand the relations among them, possibly qualifying the outline itself. Applied research may provide insights on the relevance of the issues that each approach puts forward and on the problems that policies based on these approaches lead to.
Participants may submit papers that relate:
- to the general topic of institutional change (please indicate: Research Area C)
- to the above call for papers (please indicate: Research Area C - Call for papers)
Paper proposals (600-1000 words) must be uploaded to: www.eaepe.org (conferences - abstracts) by 30 April 2006 and sent to both Paolo Ramazzotti (ramazzotti@unimc.it) and Wolfram Elsner (welsner@uni-bremen.de) who will care to forward them to the conference organisers.
For further information on this call for papers contact Wolfram Elsner or Paolo Ramazzotti at the above e-mail addresses . See www.eaepe.org for general information concerning the conference.
Research Area I
Special Session of the Research Area I
Institutional and Structural Change in Eastern Europe
The comparative study of multiple trajectories of transition to market economy in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe
As we all noticed in Bremen just after the announcement of the subject of the consecutive EAEPE Conference in Istanbul, it is perfectly suited to the problems of and the research in progress on the transition of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. All being in different stages of transition to the market economy, they reveal different features and different trajectories of change in economics, institutions and society. Our field of research is thus an ideal one to develop as well the theoretical framework of knowledge on trajectories, such as the comparative, historical and sectoral approaches.
I thus propose to organize a Special Session(s) on the following topics:
1/ The theoretical and comparative approach:
- concept and contents of trajectories,
- paths of change, speed of institutional evolution,
- analysis and policy conclusions
2/ Historical studies of trajectories at the sectoral and national level
- different national trajectories: periphery and success cases – phenomena and conditions,
- different paths of integration to global and European economy
- corporate governance, adjustment to international standards, privatization
- social dimension of transition.
I hope that in conclusion of our debates we will be able to verify some of the theoretical concepts for the particular situation of the countries of our interest.
You are kindly invited to send your abstract to me at the following address: lisso@gh.waw.pl Being the coordinator of this research area I will select the proposals for the session and inform you about the acceptance of your proposal.
You are also kindly invited to upload a 600-1000 word abstract to www.eaepe.org (conferences-abstracts) by April 30 of 2006 Send your abstract in any case to the general secretary of EAEPE John Groenewegen johng@tbm.tudelft.nl and to the chair of the scientific committee Ahmet Insel ainsel@gsu.edu.tr
Please indicate the Research Area I in the description of your abstract.
Best wishes,
Maria Lissowska; Coordinator of Research Area I
Institutional and Structural Change in Eastern Europe
Research Area O
Sessions on Socio-Economic Development Analysis at Articulated Spatial Levels
FP6 Project DEMOLOGOS (http://demologos.ncl.ac.uk/) - Research Area ‘O’ ‘Economy, Space, Society’
Call for Papers
Context (from DEMOLOGOS website):
“Contemporary methodology to study development paths within industrialised socio-economic systems focuses too much on purely economic, technological and narrowly defined institutional variables, which makes it hard to identify differences between development models and trajectories. For example, contemporary methodology does not address the impact of further liberalization of markets on the future of culture and education. It does not take into account the formative logic of education and culture, seeming to assume that they exist solely to further the market economy. Such rationalist perspectives feed a very narrow view of the European Knowledge Society and Economy and limit the possibilities to foster a social cohesion policy or to guarantee equal opportunities across genders, ethnicities or social-professional groups.
Therefore, a new methodology will be constructed and tried out, using categories and theories of explanation that were ‘lost’ somewhere along the historical path of social scientific inquiry into socio-economic development from the mid-19th century until the present. These resurrected categories involve a multi-dimensional interpretation of socio-economic development, based on a broader concept of capital, innovation, institutions, governance, and culture. The ‘new’ methodology will also focus on the qualitative linkages between subsystems in society at various spatial scales, while looking at the articulations between them. It will also account for the impact of socio-economic development factors on the opportunities for inclusion into the Knowledge Society of diverse groups and territories.”
Papers:
The papers should contribute to the improvement of the methodology to study socio-economic development paths and models. This methodology will be comparative, historical and multi-dimensional; it will consider a variety of dimensions of socio-economic development (capital accumulation, state regulation, socio-cultural dynamics, relationships among state and civil society and state and market, strategies for growth, development and social cohesion) over inter-connected spatial scales (local, regional, national and international level). It will heavily rely on ‘history of thought debates’ and their contemporary renewed syntheses.
Abstracts should be submitted to the EAEPE website www.eaepe.org and to johng@tbm.tudelft.nl as well as frank.moulaert@ncl.ac.uk before April 30, 2006.
Institutional History of Economics Research Area
CALL FOR PAPERS
EAEPE's Institutional History of Economics Research Area invites
paper proposals that contribute to one of its following seven
theoretical perspectives:
(1) The approach to analysis is based on an evaluation of relevant tendencies and linkages in actual economics - instead of a methodology that sanctifies fictions and diverts attention from the difficult task of analyzing the practice and culture of economics.
(2) The analysis is open-ended and interdisciplinary in that it draws upon relevant material in psychology, anthropology, politics, and history - instead of a definition of history of economics in terms of a rigid method that is applied indiscriminately to a wide variety of economic approaches.
(3) The conception of economics is of a cumulative and evolutionary process unfolding in historical time in which economists are faced with chronic information problems and radical uncertainty about the future - instead of approaches to theorizing that focus exclusively on the product of this process.
(4) The concern is to address and encompass the interactive, social process through which economics is formed and changed - instead of a theoretical framework that takes economists and their interests as given.
(5) It is appropriate to regard economics itself as a social institution, necessarily supported by a network of other social institutions - instead of an orientation that takes economics itself as an ideal or natural order and as a mere aggregation of individual economists.
(6) It is evaluated how the socio-economic system is embedded in a complex ecological and environmental system - instead of a widespread tendency to ignore ecological and environmental considerations or consequences in the history of economics.
(7) The inquiry seeks to contribute not only to history of economics but also to economics - instead of an orthodox outlook that ignores the possibility of such cross-fertilization.
Preference will be given to original accounts, based on detailed
archival or other research, aimed at yielding rich, sophisticated,
understandings. Hence, papers that "do it" instead of those that
"talk about doing it" are favored.
To participate, please submit a proposal containing 600-1000 words
and indicating clearly the sense in which the paper contributes to
one of the theoretical perspectives of the research area.
The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 15 APRIL 2006.
Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent on or before 15 MAY
2006. Completed papers are due on 31 AUGUST 2006.
All proposals and requests for information should be sent to:
Esther-Mirjam Sent
Department of Economics
Nijmegen School of Management
University of Nijmegen
PO Box 9108
NL-6500 HK Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Phone: +31-24-3611252
Fax: +31-24-3612379
http://www.emsent.nl
Further information on the EAEPE 2006 conference can be found at: http://www.eaepe.org
RESEARCH AREA V ‘Ontological Foundations of Evolutionary Economics’ is soliciting submissions for a special session at the Istanbul conference (2-4 November 2006).
The research area aims to be an interdisciplinary platform for discussions of the ontological foundations of evolutionary economics in general, and the link between evolutionary economics and the theory of biological evolution in particular. While there is a long history of cross-fertilization between economics and biology, recent debates about the proper conception of ‘evolution’ in economics signal a renewed interest in grounding evolutionary economics in an ontology that: (1) acknowledges our biological origins; (2) is realistic about the nature of human behavior; and (3) is capable of addressing the dynamics of economic change. In these debates, evolutionary economics not only re-examines its own Darwinian and Schumpeterian origins, but also begins to link up with a range of other behaviorally oriented disciplines both within and outside economics. Seen in this way, debates about the ontological foundations of evolutionary economics are central to the development of economics as a social science.
Following some successful sessions at previous EAEPE conferences, the new research area now provides an explicit forum for the ongoing and lively debates on these topics.
For the Instanbul conference we are especially interested in papers that address the following questions:
-What are the relevant units of analysis of evolutionary economics, and can a layered ontology help relate them to each other?
-What, if any, is the proper role of the theory of biological evolution in evolutionary economics?
-If a generalized version of Darwinism can help ground evolutionary economics, what form should it take?
-What, if any, is the proper link of evolutionary economics with theories of socio-cultural evolution?
-Is there a need for behavioral assumptions other than bounded rationality and opportunism in organizational and institutional economics, and if so, which assumptions would these be?
Send an abstract (1000 words max.) before 15 April 2006 to the Research Area coordinators, JW Stoelhorst (J.W.Stoelhorst@uva.nl) and Jack Vromen (Vromen@fwb.eur.nl).
|
|
