Professor Jamie Morgan

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Piketty's Capital has provoked considerable debate regarding inequality. The existence of increasing inequality creates a challenge for ecological economics. In this paper we set out some of the problems inherent in Piketty's approach and how they are addressed from the point of view of ecological economics. We use Jackson and Victor's response as a point of departure to make several points. Piketty's work involves an unreconciled inconsistency between his laws and the institutional context, which becomes problematic when one starts to think about ‘inevitability’. He simply assumes away ecological problems to make future forecasts for inequality. As such, his forecasts are undermined, since ecological issues are fundamental to any viable future economy. Furthermore, Piketty effectively reproduces (rather than contests) the mainstream practice of delegating ecological issues to a sub-discipline. Jackson and Victor, meanwhile, focus on the mainstream economic aspect of Piketty's work, and construct a model to contest a model. In so doing, they provide an ideational response to what is also a problem of ideological frameworks. Though it can be important to contest an idea, they inadvertently, through family resemblance, contribute to the reproduction of the problematic position of ecological concerns within dominant ways of conceiving economics.

In this interview, Ruth Groff discusses how she came to be a realist, her role as a community organizer, her relationship to critical realism, and various issues arising from her published work over the years. Discussion ranges across the nature of positivism and its legacy, the concept of falsehood, realism about causal powers, mind-independent reality, the history of philosophy, and the underlying interest in ideology-critique that runs through her thinking.

In this review essay, I explore the first two of a planned 10 volumes of Ben Fine’s selected journal publications. The two are broadly concerned with economics imperialism before and after a ‘watershed’ (before which it is recognised for what it is and after which it is less so). I first set out what Fine means by economics imperialism. I then discuss a few examples of what heterodox economists have been talking about insofar as they were not (quite) talking about economics imperialism. This provides a useful segue into the specifics of Fine’s writings across the two volumes, and in two subsections, I separately survey the volumes. Finally, I conclude with some comment on the sense of unfinished business that hangs over constructive change.

The proliferation of policy notwithstanding, climate emergency continues to unfold and the need for new ideas is urgent. In this short article, I contextualize the need for ‘revolutions for life’ and set out some of the key ideas from Hosseini and Gills’ recent book Capital redefined.

The case for CBDC does not just rest on its benefits or attractions, but also on its scope to avert potential problems associated with stablecoin. In this brief paper I critique the ‘illustrative scenario’ at the heart of the Bank of England’s recent New Forms of Digital Money discussion paper. I suggest that it does not deal realistically with the motives and practices of issuers. The argument speaks to contradictory trends both in the urgency of regulation of stablecoin and the underlying case for CBDC.

This volume explores how global wealth chains are articulated, issues of regulatory liability, and how social relationships between clients and service providers are important for governance issues.

This book is a collection of critical engagements with Andrew Sayer, one of the foremost postdisciplinary thinkers of our times, with responses from Sayer himself.

This Handbook provides an overview of established and cutting-edge contributions to political economic thought. Chapters by leading and emerging scholars showcase the diverse approaches and productive debates among researchers.

In this wide-ranging interview Andrew Sayer discusses how he became a realist and then the development of his work over the subsequent decades. He comments on his postdisciplinary approach, his early work on economy and its influences, how he came to write Method in Social Science and the transition in Realism and Social Science to normative critical social science and moral economy. The interview concludes with discussion of his three most recent books and the themes that connect them, not least the ongoing problem of a ‘diabolical double crisis’ of capitalism: extreme inequality and climate change.

In this wide-ranging interview Graham Scambler provides an overview of his long academic career. He discusses how he became a medical sociologist, his early work on epilepsy and stigma, his part in the development of sociology textbooks for medical students, the diversity of his work and his many collaborations, his ‘theoretical turn’, his longstanding interest in critical realism and his attitude to ‘bridge building’ between philosophy and empirical work.

In this wide-ranging interview Priscilla Alderson discusses how she came to research parental and childhood consent and became a sociologist and how, late in her career, she became convenor of the critical realism group started by Roy Bhaskar at the Institute for Education in London. She discusses aspects of her seminal research over the years on multiple subjects, such as the rights of children, and reflects on what critical realism has added to her social research.

In this wide-ranging interview, Dave Elder-Vass discusses his main contributions to critical realist theory over two decades. In the first half, he explains his early work on emergence, agency, structure, the concept of culture and norm circles, as well as his work on a broad array of social theorists and positions. Sometimes this has involved differences with other realists, including Tony Lawson, Margaret Archer, Alison Sealey and Bob Carter, which he also comments on here. In the second half, he discusses the common themes of his two most recent books (focused on economic form and value respectively) and current project (focused on the concept of profit), in which he is developing a critical realist approach to political economy.

The contemporary concept of spirituality is one that exceeds its origins. It encompasses a wide range of positions and claims. As such, it has become an expanded concept. In its most interesting incarnations it addresses in various ways the fundamental human need to find meaning in reality, to connect emotions and reason, to find value in being and to discern connections through experiences. It addresses issues of ‘Why am I here?' and ‘What should I do to flourish as a self?', amongst many others. These have become urgent questions because humans have proved themselves an intelligent species that has been content to live in a systematically stupid way. That stupidity has extended from the reproduction of economic poverty in an age of techno-scientific abundance to the construction of ways of living that are personally and collectively corrosive as well as environmentally destructive. Rejecting this impoverished thinking is leading many to turn to a wide range of sources that claim that reality is in some sense ‘enchanted’. These sources range from traditional institutional religions and ancient philosophies to more secular metaphysical concepts of how we are unified through natural systems. All emphasize that how we live is a practical problem that in turn is indicative of, and should be guided by, relations to ultimate reality. A core problem is what can reasonably be claimed regarding ultimate reality in the context of urgent questions. Here, a hallmark of the expanded concept of spirituality is that many of the proponents of particular forms of spirituality are also strongly aware of the need to constructively engage potential critics, precisely because they articulate ideas of unity regarding which there is no unified position. There is disagreement but also a desire to do more than assert or shout loudest. Fundamentalism is not an appellation that can easily be given to the proponents of an expanded concept of spirituality. And it is not one that readily applies to the contributors to this text. What the contributions to this book are concerned with is setting out positions regarding the significance of spirituality, seeking connections between different ways of thinking about spirituality, and questioning the forms or articulations of those positions. The text as a whole can be seen as a preliminary dialogue concerning different aspects of the expanded concept. One can think of this in the tradition of dialectics of knowledge and knowing as a process of collective learning. Learning is a complex problem of clothing and shedding, thinking and unthinking. Crucially, it is always a critical process. The essays that follow are all critically constructed by their authors and critically treated by the editors.

Introduction Given the subject matter of this text I feel I should make two initial comments to encourage a possible reader both to read on here and also to read Transcendence: Critical Realism and God.1 First, addressing secular sceptics, I do not think this book can easily be dismissed as an instance of thinkers illicitly expending intellectual capital accumulated in one domain to add spurious legitimacy to dubious claims in another. Transcendence is a book by key figures in critical realism using critical realist concepts. As the authors, Margaret Archer, Andrew Collier and Douglas Porpora (hereafter ACP) clearly state, this is a book about making a space for debate about God within critical realism, and the academy at large, rather than a theological work in the professional disciplinary sense. Theological issues arise but do so in ways that are subsequent to the way critical realism is used to justify a space for debate about God. Second, addressing theists, it seems important to make clear from the outset that I am an atheist. The fact that I am writing this review essay is not because of some conspiracy to take a hatchet to the spiritual turn but rather because I had read the book and no one who had previously committed to review it for Journal of Critical Realism followed through. Since one key motivation for the book is ACP’s desire to engage secular colleagues constructively, this is perhaps serendipitous rather than nugatory - but only in so far as ACP can be confident that there has been a genuine attempt to engage with their work. I would further suggest that it is this desire and reciprocated intent that also go to the heart of the problem of God and realist philosophy. Desire and intent may be necessary to engagement, but the crux of the problem seems to be whether a genuinely constructive engagement is possible on God as a realist issue subsequent to critical realist argument in this regard. This is a problem for both the atheist and the theist. It is more than a matter of attitude to one’s interlocutor, concerning as it does the degree to which evidence and argument can bridge the divide between different positions in this particular case. On one level, critical realism as philosophy clearly supports investigation into the grounds of religious belief, because it entails that all potential aspects of an explanatory mechanism be accounted for. In the seminal work Causal Powers Rom Harré and E. H. Madden state: ‘The location of causal power or potency in things need not be conceived as the attribution of occult and mysterious properties but can be given a quite unproblematic basis in the chemical, physical or genetic natures of the entities involved.'2.

Given that it is widely acknowledged that the cheapest energy is that which you don't use, we take a tangential approach to issues of energy prices and inflation and focus on energy efficiency policy that reduces demand at source. Our focus is housing retrofitting from an institutional or framework perspective. We briefly set out what retrofitting is (since this is a moving target), and what the need for it is in the UK. We then focus on the Climate Change Committee's current assessment of policy. This brings to the fore the government's minimalist approach to ‘developing a market’. We argue that this approach invokes an individualised market psychology which is both conceptually and practically problematic, given the need for urgency and the current situation of inflation and uncertainty. We conclude by suggesting a fundamental rethink is required.

In Part 1 of this interview, Professor Patomäki discussed his work and career up to the Global Financial Crisis. In Part 2 he turns to his later work. Questions and issues range over the use of retroduction and retrodiction, the degree of openness and closure of systems, and the role of iconic models, and scenario-building and counterfactuals in social scientific explanation and the exploration of possible and likely futures (distinguished from desirable futures). Patomäki suggests that a variant of his ‘scenario A’ captures significant features of an increasingly competitive and conflictual world. Among other matters, Patomäki also discusses his recent work on the war in Ukraine, his ‘field theory’ of global political economy, and the possibility of world statehood. The interview concludes with Patomäki’s views on the imperative of hope.

In this wide-ranging interview Berth Danermark discusses several things. First, his route into realism via community activism, an interest in the theory and practice of Marx and Engels and the philosophy of Mario Bunge, and inspiration drawn from Herman Hesse. Second, the formation of the Nordic Network for Critical Realism and realism's enduring foothold in Scandinavia. Third, the career trajectory that took him from research on urban planning to the formation of the Swedish Institute for Disability Research (SIDR). He discusses how the well-known introduction to critical realism and applied social science, Explaining Society, came to be written, some misconceptions regarding critical realism and methods, the challenges involved in undertaking disability research and the development of and influences for his work of concepts such as interdisciplinarity and critical methodological pluralism, as well as issues related to transdisciplinary research and professional collaboration. The interview concludes with some advice for researchers.

In Part 1 of this wide-ranging interview Heikki Patomäki discusses his early work and career up to the Global Financial Crisis. He provides comment on his role as a public intellectual and activist, his diverse academic interests and influences, and the many and varied ways he has contributed to critical realism and critical realism has influenced his work. In Part 2 he discusses his later work, the predicament of humanity and the role of futures studies.

... Acknowledgements xvi Introduction to Modern Monetary Theory: Key Insights, Leading Thinkers xvii Sara Holland, ... and William Mitchell 8 Modern Monetary Theory as post-neoliberal economics: the role of methodology–philosophy 182 ...

In Part 1 of this wide-ranging interview, Tony Lawson discussed his role in, and relationship to, Critical Realism as well as various defences of mathematical modelling in economics. In Part 2 he turns more explicitly to social ontology, his social positioning theory, related concepts and various aspects of particular social phenomena. He discusses how he sees his positioning theory as one of several that address (without being restricted to) agent- structure issues, clarifies his take on on-going debates with Searle, Elder-Vass and others regarding emergence and causation, and provides several examples of applications of social positioning theory – including his latest thinking on the nature of money.

In this editorial postscript, we return to a primary theme of this special issue on Economics and Climate Emergency. We elaborate on some aspects of, and reasons why we need, urgent and radical transformative change. We briefly update the trends affecting climate change and ecological breakdown, assess the need for an end to the ‘war on nature’, which resists a dichotomy between our species and nature and make some comments on the COP process and ways forward which resist ‘trasformismo’, while embracing the need for just transitions, degrowth and practices rooted in such concepts as ‘transversalism’.

Increased life expectancy leading to an aging population who live well beyond traditional retirement age has created pressure on adult social care in many countries. The main concern has been rising costs, fiscal constraints, affordability and financing solutions intended to address a rapidly approaching future. With a few exceptions there has been relatively little consideration of the sociological transformations that new technologies might bring in and through social care. We seem set to increasingly depend on technology for our caring needs and in this essay I explore some of the potential roles that artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and such might play and the significant changes this might involve.

The Paris Agreement and the subsequent IPCC Global Warming of 1.5 °C report signal a need for greater urgency in achieving carbon emissions reductions. In this paper we make a two stage argument for greater use of carbon taxes and for a global approach to this. First, we argue that current modelling tends to lead to a “facts in waiting” approach to technology, which takes insufficient account of uncertainty. Rather than look to the future, carbon taxes that facilitate social redesign are something we have control over now. Second, we argue that the “trade” in “cap and trade” has been ineffective and carbon trading has served mainly as a distraction. Carbon taxes provide a simpler more flexible and pervasive alternative. We conclude with brief discussion of global context.

In this wide-ranging interview Alan Norrie discusses how he became involved with Critical Realism, his work on Dialectical Critical Realism, and responses to it amongst the Critical Realist community. He also discusses the role of law in society, law’s relation to philosophy, and his various related research interests over the years. This extends to his most recent work on moral psychology and the underappreciated connection between metaphysical and meta-psychological categories such as love in Critical Realism, and its importance in ethical and legal contexts.

In this brief commentary we provide some parallel points to complement Steve Keen’s paper in the recent Globalization’s special forum on ‘Economics and Climate Emergency’. Keen’s critique of climate and economy Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) is wide-ranging, but there is still scope to bring to the fore the general issues that help to make sense of the critique. Accordingly, we set out six key inadequacies of IAMs and argue towards the need for a different approach that is more realistic regarding the limits to growth.

In Part 1 of this wide-ranging interview Tony Lawson first discusses his role in the formation of IACR and how he relates to the generalized use of the term ‘Critical Realism’. He then provides comment responding to a series of possible defences of mathematical modelling, both in the context of economics and of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Part 2 he explores his social positioning theory.

Global Wealth Chain analysis explores the potential for wealth creation to become wealth capture. Corporate tax avoidance is a component in many GWC. The problem is complex, involving both practices and undergirding macro-narratives that support a status quo and limit political and regulatory action. In this paper, I argue that the Laffer theorem and its legacy plays a background role in framing tax avoidance. The theorem is one component in a general direction of travel of neoliberal policy. Following general discussion of the issues I note that the original version of the theorem takes no account of avoidance and subsequent iterations do so based on incompatible concepts of firm behaviour. These problems are rooted in mainstream economic methodology and distort a more historical, sociological and institutional understanding of the economy. This has additional consequences for issues of tax justice, since these sit awkwardly with formal economic analysis.

In this wide-ranging interview Professor Margaret Archer discusses a variety of aspects of her work, academic career and influences, beginning with the role the study of education systems played in the development of the morphostatic/morphogenetic (M/M) framework, moving on to the trilogy of works which set out her ‘SAC’, and concluding with discussion of her most recent two projects: the scope for a Morphogenic Society and more recent speculative prospects for personhood in the context of society’s growing interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI), transhumanism and posthumanism.

© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This Special Editorial on the Climate Emergency makes the case that although we are living in the time of Global Climate Emergency we are not yet acting as if we are in an imminent crisis. The authors review key aspects of the institutional response and climate science over the past several decades and the role of the economic system in perpetuating inertia on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Humanity is now the primary influence on the planet, and events in and around COP24 are the latest reminder that we live in a pathological system. A political economy has rendered the UNFCCC process as yet a successful failure. Fundamental change is urgently required. The conclusions contain recommendations and a call to action now.

In this article we explore some aspects of contemporary unfree labor in rural south India. We draw on 130 case studies and (informally) extensive field research. We do so in order to make the central point that the conditions of unfreedom are variable and subject to change but that the basic vulnerabilities are significant. Being unfree in a labor relationship is a contingent effect of a set of factors. We stress the role of (a) entrapment of laborers, (b) immiseration within bondage, and (c) barriers to exit from the labor contract. In explanations, structural factors are also important. The article forms a basis for further empirical research in a variety of global settings even beyond India.

In this paper we ask, what is mainstream economics education conveying to its students? Standard mainstream economics textbooks treat the environment as a specialist issue in addition to standard concerns and based on solutions that conform to those standard concerns. When viewed as socialisation for students this is a major problem. To illustrate the problems we set out key aspects of the standard format, and draw attention to the structure and contents from two well-known textbooks. Standard textbooks convey the impression that the ‘environmental issue’ is appropriately incorporated and exhibit two complacency-creating features. First, fundamental problems (acute global ecological breakdown, biodiversity loss, climate change crisis etc), issues and urgency cannot be adequately conveyed to students within this way of framing economics. Second, specific theory and policy solutions suggest that the problem is well in hand. We illustrate using the theory of negative externalities.

In this wide-ranging interview, Clive Spash discusses his career, influences, key publications and how he eventually became a critical realist. In Part 1, he discusses his education, the founding of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) in 1990 and the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) in 1996, and the period up to and including the publication of his monograph Greenhouse Economics. He ranges over critique of cost–benefit analysis and of integrated assessment models, the central role of ethics, the problems ingrained at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) based on its organizational division of labour and the continual tensions between mainstream economics and ecological economics. In Part 2, he turns to his later work and its explicit critical realist influences.

Climate emergency is fast becoming the overriding problem of our times and rapid reductions in carbon emissions a primary policy focus that is liable to affect all aspects of society and economy. A key component in climate science is the “climate sensitivity” measure and there has been a recent attempt using Bayesian updating to narrow this measure in the interests of “firming up the science”. We explore a two stage argument in this regard. First, despite good intentions, use of Bayes sits awkwardly with uncertainty in the form of known unknowns and surprise. Second, narrowing the range may have counterproductive consequences, since the problem is anthropogenic climate change, and there are asymmetric effects from under-response in the face of irreversible and ampliative effects. As such, narrowing the range using Bayes may inadvertently violate the precautionary principle. We take from this that there is a case to be made for scenario focused decision frameworks.

Ted Benton has had a long and distinguished career and made important contributions in realist philosophy, ecology and Marxism. In part 1 of this wide-ranging interview he discusses his formative years and education, how he came to have an enduring interest in ecology and natural history, and his early work and career. In particular he discusses two matters of special interest to realists. First, how he came to write, and the key arguments contained in, Philosophical Foundations of the Three Sociologies. This book is one of the earliest works in modern realism and deserves wider recognition today. Second, his early and influential critique of Bhaskar's The Possibility of Naturalism. The critique pinpoints several important issues with the original formulation of naturalism and is indicative of the line of reasoning that would enable Benton to connect together natural and social science. In part 2, the discussion turns to this later work.

In this article I do four things. First, I set out and critique mainstream economic theory of tax evasion and its lack of a reflexive ethical-economic agent. Second, I set out more innovative work on “tax morale.” Third, I establish that insofar as work on tax morale draws on behavioral economics it has more continuity with previous work on evasion than one might expect, given that the implications of tax morale for an economic agent seem different. Fourth, drawing on concepts of deliberation, moral economy, and positional objectivity, I provide brief discussion of alternatives that encourage and respect a reflexive ethical-economic agent.

Caroline New is an energetic activist who has interpolated critical realist ideas into the front-line of political activism. In this wide-ranging interview, she begins by reflecting on her life and how she became a realist and her account is illustrated with personal anecdotes recalling memories of well-known philosophers and activists from the time. She discusses how her position set her apart from other feminists and she examines the interacting threads of longstanding debates on the political left, as well as longstanding debates within critical realist circles, such as the relative importance of quantitative methods in social research and the scope for agency as a source of intentional change. Finally she brings some of her ideas to bear on contemporary issues. This engaging interview notably provides some of the social context in which critical realism developed, while also pointing towards its future potential.

The subject of this special forum is contingency and the openness of the future, and in this essay we take a route not often travelled in regard of these and focus first on philosophy of time. We contrast static and dynamic theory of time in order to (eventually) acquire some traction on the meaning of both contingency and the open future. We suggest critical realism presupposes dynamic theory and that critical realism provides various conceptualizations that might contribute to dynamic theory.

In 4 parts and 13 chapters, this book explores the invention of economics as a university discipline in the UK (with some comparative discussion of other countries when relevant). Tribe makes several points, but at core, he suggests there is a dangerous Whig history tendency to read the development of economics backwards from its current state. He argues that the development of economics as a subject in the UK depended on various contextual factors in the 19th and early 20th century. These included (and this list is not exhaustive): industrialisation and urbanisation, which provided a basis for public education initiatives (grassroots organisation and philanthropic work and funding, leading to study groups, public lectures, night schools etc.); the gradual transformation of subject foci, teaching, and assessment at Cambridge (paralleled by somewhat different trends at Oxford); the emergence of new universities, notably University College London (originally named University of London) and London School of Economics (LSE) as part of that university (under their auspices degrees were awarded around the country prior to other universities being awarded charters); and the development of an interest in commercial education since this could (and did) also act as a vehicle for the development of economics (though the term ‘host’ is probably more appropriate, given the ultimate outcome was separation and, to some degree, displacement).

New forms of money invite informed speculation regarding future possibilities. In this extended commentary, we explore five issue-areas that the growth of cryptocurrency and, more particularly, stablecoin have evoked. This new form of digital money has the potential to change the form and functioning of payments technologies and thus alter not just how something is paid for but what can be paid for. Moreover, as the now shelved plans for Facebook/Meta’s Libra/Diem indicate, there is scope for a major corporation or coalition of corporations to issue their own stablecoin and this greatly increases the likelihood of a ‘systemic’ stablecoin. This, in turn, could change where power resides and who exercises it in banking, finance and society. Concern with power leads to issues regarding the nature of change and thus to concern with possible financial, economic and social disruptions ranging across the nature of trust, bank business models, the effectiveness of central bank policy and security of payments systems. Given these issues, cryptocurrency and stablecoin have become a growing concern for regulators and this concern extends to the case for a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). Finally, a new form of money invites discussion of its implications for the nature of money and this leads to matters of philosophical or social theory interest.

In this essay I set and explore Buch-Hansen and Nielsen’s Critical Realism: Basics and Beyond. I then move on to discuss arising issues relevant to contemporary critical realism, including time, causation, technology and context dilemmas (e.g. reasons as causes and giving offense and taking offense). I then provide a brief elaboration of recent work on and issues for ‘climate emergency’.

In this final volume I expand on the issue of what difference might it make if and when AI and robotics (R) become more widespread. I start with simple issues based on a tool perspective but explore increasingly speculative issues. I range across the work of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) robotics initiative and the global Future of Life Institute (FLI) ‘Asimolar’ principles and draw on Boström, Turing, Searle and Dunbar. I ask what features might an AI (R) be coded to possess, under what situations might we start to or want to treat AI (R) as friends and, perhaps, why might we need any future AI to both care about us and want to be our friend? There are important ontological issues here in terms of the entity status of technology that may affect how we treat any future entity and what its relational situation and social consequences are.

In this wide-ranging interview, the well-known Earth System scientist Professor Will Steffen introduces and discusses the influential planetary boundaries (PB) framework, the potential for a Hothouse Earth pathway and the relevance of the Anthropocene concept. He elaborates on the role of emergence, complexity, feedback and irreversibility and draws attention to updates for the nine PBs.

Wendy Olsen’s “Bridging to action” is a timely intervention that seeks to reorient development research (Olsen 2019a). Olsen’s position takes as its point of departure the growing schism between action research and the use of randomised control trials (RCTs) and specifically argues for a realist alternative approach as one way to underpin and operationalise development research. In the following short essay, I set out the terms of the underpinning warrant for the argument, and in the conclusion suggest additional ways to elaborate.

In this brief polemic we argue that Trump’s words, actions and inactions are potentially deeply damaging to the legitimacy of the office he holds and to the continuity of the institutions defining that position. This, writ large, is an issue for organization theory. We use Searle’s concept of status functions to argue that Trump invokes problems of status dysfunction. He has failed to place himself in a position to be competent and does not conform to expectations of the role of president, his presidency is characterized by disorganization and he has not become presidential. This is important in the context of US political culture and institutions.

Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) and Public Employment Services (PES) are related components of the European Union and member state labour market policy. Typically, PES are analysed in terms of a narrow concern with efficiency and effectiveness of service. In this paper, we argue that PES are constituents in broader processes. They are not just means to facilitate employment, they are also part of transmission mechanisms for a political economy of competitiveness. They play a particular role in governance processes, and so serve to produce and reproduce power relations that are intrinsic to those processes. We argue that the technical ways that PES have been managed over recent decades has contributed to broader processes of disempowering labour, through depoliticized management practices. We argue that attempts at even limited re-empowerment of labour would require a repoliticization of these management practices.

In this article, I focus on what is implicitly the more humanist aspect of Marx’s work. That is, species being and alienation. I do so informed by a commitment to pluralism and based on a background in social ontology. I argue that species being and alienation continue to provide insight into the nature of the modern world. They are integral components to Marx’s exploration and constructive critique of capitalism and help to make sense of how potential is shaped for a social entity who can be harmed and who can flourish. However, the way in which one relates to Marx as still relevant regarding these matters can cover a range. I then set out how species being provides useful insight in the twenty-first century at a time of anticipated major social and economic change.

In this essay, I set out key aspects of Nicholas’ Rescher’s Metaphysical Perspectives. I illustrate the tenor and value of the text based on extended analysis of Chapter 1 on fundamental issues of what there is and Chapter 2 on personhood. Rescher is one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. His works are intrinsically interesting, but also important as resources for realists working in the social sciences.

This volume is the first of a trilogy which investigates, from a broadly realist perspective, the place, and challenges, of the human in contemporary social orders.

The fourth industrial revolution has become a prominent concept and imminent technological change a major issue. Facets are everyone’s concern but currently no one’s ultimate responsibility (perhaps a little like financial stability before the global financial crisis). In this paper, we argue that the future is being shaped now by the way the fourth industrial revolution is being positioned. Whilst no one has set out to argue for or defend technological determinism, anxiety combined with passivity and complacency are being produced, and this is in the context of a quasi-determinism. The contingent quantification of the future with regard to the potential for job displacement provides an influential source of authority for this. A background of ‘the future is coming, so you better get used to it’ is being disseminated. This favours a capitalism that may ‘deny work to the many’ perspective rather than a more fundamental rethink that encompasses change that may liberate the many from work. This, in turn, positions workers and responsibility for future employment (reducing the urgency of calls for wider societal preparation). Public understanding and policy are thus affected and along with them the future of work.

In this essay we provide introductory comment for the collection of solicited essays on Economics and Climate Emergency. In the first section we suggest that recent critique of the climate movement has broader systemic significance and this is indicative of issues that bear on the collected essays. In the following section we rehearse some of the standard arguments leading to complacency and delay to action on climate change and ecological breakdown. In the last section we set out the broad themes of the essays.

The article is a lightly edited transcript of a digital roundtable discussion. The participants were invited based on their prior work on critical realism and epistemology. The roundtable discussion includes introductory statements on judgemental rationality by Jamie Morgan, Ruth Groff, Dorothea Schoppek, Leigh Price, and Frédéric Vandenberghe, followed by a discussion between the participants on a variety of topics related to judgemental rationality. The discussion demonstrates a variety of opinions and perspectives, as well as the clashing of opinions in a respectful manner. The roundtable provides interesting discussion points about Bhaskar's approach to judgemental rationality, how we adjudicate between different meta-theories (such as between that of Bhaskar and Harré), and what role should normative values have in theoretical adjudication.

In this wide-ranging interview, Bob Jessop discusses the development of, and many of the main themes in, his work over the last fifty years. He explains how he became interested in realism and Marxism; and he describes the various influences on his highly influential theory of the state. The discussion explores his strategic-relational approach, his thoughts on regulation theory, variegated capitalism, post-disciplinarity, cultural political economy and his ‘spatial-turn’, as well as neoliberalism, contemporary events and looming problems of climate change and crisis.

In this article we first set out what complexity theory is and its place in economics. We then discuss whether complexity economics has observably transformed the mainstream before asking, even if complexity economics did in fact succeed in changing the mainstream, would this make the mainstream significantly different? The purpose of the article is to establish that complexity economics is different than the previously existing mainstream but, drawing on critical realism and social ontology, not as different as one might think. We conclude by suggesting there is scope for a more ontologically nuanced understanding of complexity.

Sheila Dow has been a prominent commentator on and constructive critic of central bank theory and practice for more than three decades. In this paper, I explore the contemporary significance of her work in the context of the recent organizational–institutional development of macroprudential policy at the Bank of England. I contrast the role of the Financial Policy Committee and that of the Monetary Policy Committee and argue the Bank has responded to the consequences of the global financial crisis in innovative ways, but fundamental tensions remain. In making sense of the tensions Dow’s concept of Cartesian and Babylonian modes of reasoning provide insight, while post-Keynesians in general offer important insights regarding finance, open systems and real historic time.

William Outhwaite is well-known as an early proponent of critical realism and for his work on European politics, critical theory and on Jürgen Habermas. In this wide-ranging interview, he discusses his life and career, including how he came to write on subjects that intersected with and developed themes Roy Bhaskar was also working on at the time. This work resulted in three early books, Understanding Social Life, Concept Formation in Social Science and New Philosophies of Social Science, the last of which makes the case for the incorporation of critical theory and hermeneutics into critical realism. He goes on to discuss various issues, including, briefly, his involvement in an early discussion group with Bhaskar, his participation in the Realism and the Human Sciences conferences and how he and Margaret Archer came to edit Andrew Collier’s Festschrift.

In this interview, Daniel Little provides an overview of his life and work in academia. Among other things, he discusses an actor-centred approach to theory of social ontology. For Little, this approach complements the assumptions of critical realism, in that it accords full ontological importance to social structures, causal mechanisms, and enduring and influential normative systems. The approach casts doubt, however, on the idea of ‘strong emergence' of social structures, the idea that social structures have properties and causal powers that cannot, in principle be explained by their constituents (social actors) and their relationships. Little’s approach to social ontology endorses instead the idea of relative explanatory autonomy. During the interview, many points of convergence become evident between this actor-centred approach to social ontology and the fundamental insights of critical realism. According to Little, analysis of social ontology also turns out to be especially relevant to philosophy of history.

Jayati Ghosh is Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, USA. She is one of India's best known political economists and is well known for her work in a number of fields, including macroeconomic policy, the economies of East and South East Asia, development economics, gender and development and various facets of globalization. She has authored, edited and collaborated on 20 books, and published more than 210 academic articles, essays, commentaries and reviews in publications as diverse as Monthly Review, Development and Change, Cambridge Journal of Economics and the British Medical Journal. She is a regular contributor to various media both in India and around the world. In addition to numerous articles written for Economic & Political Weekly in India she has, for example, been a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper in the UK and has been writing for Project Syndicate since 2018. Her name, in any case, should be familiar to readers from her contributions to Real-World Economics Review.

In this review essay, I set explore Heikki Patomäki's seventh sole-authored book in English, World Statehood. I set out the thematic structure and chapter order and then address whether the concept of ‘self-transformative capacity of contexts’ implies a central conflation and what is assumed if one argues that there is a tendential form of civilizational progress. I conclude with discussion of a causal process theory of time.

It is widely agreed that economists disagree, but it is also acknowledged that they do so according to common commitments. Perhaps the most peculiar, and thus uncommon, commonality is that economists take it as a given that the role of the economist extends to intervention in public discourse and public policy. If socialised as an economist, it is easy to miss how odd this is. From “speaking as an economist” flows framing analytics, constraining theoretical formulations and a seal of approval. Economists’ expertise saturates social inquiry, and this in turn is saturated by small “p” politics through the way values are treated in knowledge formation. This is as significant as large “P” political ideas. It percolates into policy from the ways economics is situated. This is one important way in which responsibility becomes an issue, and it is this I address in what follows.

In this wide-ranging interview Professor Douglas V. Porpora discusses a number of issues. First, how he became a Critical Realist through his early work on the concept of structure. Second, drawing on his Reconstructing Sociology, his take on the current state of American sociology. This leads to discussion of the broader range of his work as part of Margaret Archer’s various Centre for Social Ontology projects, and on moral-macro reasoning and the concept of truth in political discourse.

The uptake of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), subject to bottlenecks, seems to have reached a tipping point in the UK and this mirrors a general trend globally. BEVs are being positioned as one significant strand in the web of policy intended to translate the good intentions of Article 2 of the Conference of the Parties 21 Paris Agreement into reality. Governments and municipalities are anticipating that a widespread shift to BEVs will significantly reduce transport-related carbon emissions and, therefore, augment their nationally determined contributions to emissions reduction within the Paris Agreement. However, matters are more complicated than they may appear. There is a difference between thinking we can just keep relying on human ingenuity to solve problems after they emerge and engaging in fundamental social redesign to prevent the trajectories of harm. BEVs illustrate this. The contribution to emissions reduction per vehicle unit may be less than the public initially perceive since the important issue here is the lifecycle of the BEV and this is in no sense zero-emission. Furthermore, even though one can make the case that BEVs are a superior alternative to the fossil fuel-powered internal combustion engine, the transition to BEVs may actually facilitate exceeding the carbon budget on which the Paris Agreement ultimately rests. Whether in fact it does depends on the nature of the policy that shapes the transition. If the transition is a form of substitution that conforms to rather than shifts against current global scales and trends in private transportation, then it is highly likely that BEVs will be a successful failure. For this not to be the case, then the transition to BEVs must be coordinated with a transformation of the current scales and trends in private transportation. That is, a significant reduction in dependence on and individual ownership of powered vehicles, a radical reimagining of the nature of private conveyance and of public transportation.

Few terms are as controversial for pluralist and heterodox economists as neoclassical economics. This controversy has many aspects, because the term itself has different specifications and also connotations. Within this multiplicity, what we mean by neoclassical matters to pluralist and heterodox economists for two primary reasons (see Fullbrook, ed., 2003; Kitson, 2005; Garnett et al., 2010). First, because what we mean affects how we view the mainstream, and so where pluralist and heterodox economists situate and pursue appropriate critique of, and constructive dialogue with, the mainstream. Second, because what we mean affects how we conceive heterodox economics in relation to mainstream economics, and this has significance for whether, and the way in which, heterodox economists model, apply methods and construct theory. The essays in this collection all have different things to say about these matters. Each is a response to Tony Lawson’s recent essay ‘What is this “school” called neoclassical economics?' (Chapter 1 of this collection). To make sense of Lawson’s essay and also of the individual contributions, we first need to provide some context concerning the different ways in which the term neoclassical has had meaning.

The book comprises a series of essays on key policy areas, highlighting the values in each that underpin an equalities agenda.

This article examines the problems that arise from borrowers’ growing aspirations for credit in rural South India. Two core problems arise, conditioned by the class origin of each family: first, a tendency to borrow beyond the capacity to repay, and second, the creation of new gender tensions in which female individualism clashes with traditional male dominance of household decision making. The problem of excess aspirations was first described by Veblen and has been fleshed out in the credit context by Bourdieu. Thus, in the theory of consumer culture, there are strands which may be of use in planning and managing microfinance and rural banking. We place this sociological issue in the context of the political economy of class and class praxis. The research is based on field visits in southern Andhra Pradesh. Our fieldwork suggests that one example of excess borrowing is women’s use of microfinance to purchase a cow. Both individual level and social aspects of the situation are considered carefully. The aspiration problem could lead to default and suffering.

Forecasting involves an underlying conceptualization of probability. It is this that gives sense to the notion of precision in number that makes us think of economic forecasting as more than simply complicated guesswork. We think of it as well-founded statement, a science and not an art of numbers. However, this understanding is at odds with the nature of social reality and the attributes of the forecaster. We should think differently about how we both anticipate and make the future and what this means. Foresight is perhaps a more appropriate term. This paper addresses two issues that rarely receive attention in the field of economics. First, why is there a continued high demand for economic forecasts despite their lack of success in anticipating significant turning points in any given system? Second, what are forecasts actually assuming about the nature of a system and the future state of the world? In the paper I approach these issues indirectly. My intention is to highlight their significance by setting out a series of arguments that encapsulate the characteristics of a forecaster required to match a common understanding of what forecasting is intended to do. The structure of this paper is unusual for a contribution in the field of economics. It follows a format more commonly used in analytical philosophy when the author wants to focus on a problem and where the intention is to provoke further questioning, rather than supply ready answers. As such, it should not be read as a comprehensive account of all possible approaches to methods or philosophies of forecasting and attendant issues of probability. Three points are worth stating at the outset as a guide to what follows: Forecasting tends to forget that it is conjecture and what that really means. Its scientism overburdens how it is articulated and how it is perceived. We tend to think of forecasting as degrees of precision in prediction and of successful prediction as successful description of phenomena at some future point. There is, as the following discussion demonstrates, something basically inconsistent within the implications of this minimalism. Since the greater part of the credibility of, and authority of, economics resides in its claims to effective forecasting these points are highly relevant to the state of the discipline.

In this review article various aspects of Andrew Wright’s Christianity and Critical Realism are explored. Wright claims that Trinitarian theology is essentially realist in its form and that realism can be used to defend or justify Trinitarian Christianity. The nature of the specific case brings to the fore a number of issues regarding the nature of reasoning and judgemental rationality for realists.

Philosophical analysis of the knowledge we hold of China, rather than philosophically informed disciplinary research on China, is a rare commodity. Area studies are, by definition, interdisciplinary. There is therefore no reason why philosophy cannot be a productive part of that interdiscipline. It would bean additional resource rather than a privileged perspective—an applied philosophy of area studies functioning rather like the philosophy of economics or politics. To exemplify what this might look like, the author considers some issues relating to images and beliefs about China in the West that generate particular philosophical problems relating to knowledge, truth, belief, and Otherness. These questions are important because there is a tendency today to conflate them. The author argues that the first three concepts are distinct, though not independent, and that it is worthwhile maintaining the distinction because it supports scholarship as a self-reflective critical process.

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group In this paper, I set out some of the key aspects of the Paris COP 21 Climate Change Agreement. The Paris Agreement was initially reported as a major success. However, this was in so far as many thought any kind of agreement at all was unlikely, and because the Agreement includes Article 2: an aspiration to maintain average global temperature increases to significantly less than 2°C. I then ask the question: if the Paris Agreement is a success of sorts, has anything fundamental changed in order to translate the conditional success of achieving an agreement into an actual success that will realise the goals of the Agreement? I address this in terms of early assessment of trends and the Nationally Determined Contributions, how responsibility is positioned in the Agreement, and the political economy context, which has called forth the need for an agreement.

This article explores two related questions. First, why has Marxist social theory been in sharp decline? Second, is Marxism still of value as a source of explanatory insights in the contemporary period? The author addresses the first question in terms of Marxism's decline as a specific resource in the study of China and as a general mode of analysis within social science and he provides a number of interconnected reasons, based primarily in the sociology of knowledge. These reasons for decline allow the argument to be made that Marxism still has something to offer because none of the reasons necessarily entails that Marxist concepts need lack explanatory relevance. This leads into the second question where the author explores how the realist movement in philosophy has been used by Marxists to provide an analytical underpinning that is compatible with Marx's work and where the author also discusses some aspects of contemporary China in terms of Marxist ways of thinking. These are then placed in an international context. The argument is part of a wider project to develop an applied philosophy of area studies. © 2004 BCAS, Inc.

The paper applies a theory of institutional change enriched with mezzorules, fluidity and agency to India's informal sector institutional evolution using two illustrative examples. The concrete examples are rooted in unfree labour and rural casual labouring in India, a country which has a high degree of informality. Section 1 introduces some concepts, and section 2 examines processes of institutional change in the informal sector. In section 3, two illustrations are explored: (1) the norms for girl child bonded labour; (2) the individualisation of women labourers. Section 4 concludes. The fluidity of institutional rules demands a recognition of the supra-economic nature of the context within which economic-institutional change occurs. We propose the analysis of mezzorules in a dialogic research context, i.e. interactions among workers and collective agents - as a helpful and transformative approach for sociologists specialising in the informal economy. © 2010 University of Rome 'La Sapienza'.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how the current "crisis" in the UK pension system arose. I argue that it is a result of a combination of changes in government policy and basic instabilities always inherent in the financial system. Policy changes increased the vulnerability of the pension system to those instabilities. The background to these changes and also the frame of reference in terms of which the "crisis" itself is now phrased is broadly neoliberal. Its theoretical roots are in ideas of the efficiency of free markets. Its policy roots are expressed in a series of similar neoliberal policy tendencies in other capitalist states. I further argue that neoliberal solutions to the pension crisis simply offer more of the very matters that created the problems in the first place. Moreover, the very terms of debate, based in markets, financialisation of saving and individualisation of risk, disguise a more basic debate about providing a living retirement income for all. This is a debate that New Labour is simply not prepared to constructively engage with in any concrete fashion. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Some methodologists have challenged the usefulness of statistics by arguing that the ontology implied by their use is inconsistent with the complex ontology of critical realism. Other critics of statistics take a strong social constructivist approach to research methodology. One problem with these sceptics' arguments is that they confuse the method of analytical statistics with the methodology of empiricism. We disentangle the two, and present a constructive argument supporting the cautious use of analytical statistics. The first part of the paper argues the case for an interpretive approach to statistical findings. In the middle of the paper an exemplar is presented showing that multivariate regression results can offer non-intuitive findings, can support non-atomistic interpretations, and can help underpin retroductive explanatory arguments. In exploring the nature of the warranted arguments that can arise after doing analytical statistics, we stress that explanations are emergent and do rest upon the workings of the statistical techniques and practices. We argue against seeing statistical techniques as a 'black box'. Instead, arguments can be developed, with justification resting in part upon the statistical results, in an audience-specific context of argumentation. The data which underlie statistical methods are not factual; the data are more like ficts than facts. Our argument is therefore that warranted arguments can be and are developed by social scientists who may use analytical statistics alongside other methods of research. Details of the argument can be explored further but it is important to establish that the sceptics' arguments are too dismissive of multivariate statistical analysis. © The Executive Management Committee/Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2005.

Our aim is to explore and develop notions of objectivity that are useful and appropriate for critical realist empirical research. In Part I, we provided an initial definition that introduced the idea that objectivity is a value that must be chosen but that its significance is rooted in a series of other epistemological and ontological matters. We also addressed why it is worthwhile in realist terms to develop the notion of objectivity, and began to develop a revision of the concept to recognise the role of subjectivities. This, we maintain, is an important clarification in developing social research. Part II explores the linkages between objectivity and situated action. In Part II we argue that the growth of knowledge requires engagement and critical analysis. We develop the idea that if subjects are engaged through multiple standpoints, then objectivity becomes significant as a lever of agency in the service of dialogue and debate and of transformations. Again, our aim is to be of use to practical researchers by providing underlying arguments. Specifically, we argue that objectivity is a bridge between the subjectivities of subjects and the rest of the real world. In so doing, the paper works through various desirable characteristics of an adequate theorisation of knowledge that could make objectivity (as redefined) part of the ontological underpinnings as well as the daily practices of a realist researcher. Objectivity thus links philosophical work to the everyday work of realist researchers.

Since mid-2007 private equity finance activity has undergone significant changes. The nature of these changes is intimately related to the current banking crisis and the underlying causes of the ‘credit crunch’ based on the development of an ‘originate and distribute’ model of lending and based on securitisation. These changes significantly affected risk perceptions in the finance system, which in turn qualitatively changed the environment within which risk had been modelled and considered manageable. Private equity finance can thus be explored as both a contributing factor in the current crisis and then as a set of adaptive practices responding to it. This raises important issues regarding how regulators approach private equity finance from a broader context.

Nell and Errouaki state that their intent is to reformulate econometrics along more realistic lines. In so doing they also explicitly acknowledge a debt to realist debates in methodology, notably in relation to the construction of argument regarding the nature of science, objectivity and laws in Chapter 4 (Nell and Errouaki, 2013: xii). This requires some context, since seeking to be more realistic and accepting the tenets of realism are not necessarily the same. One is theory and application, and the other is argument regarding the grounds of theory and application. Moreover, the status of econometrics in relation to realism is not an uncontroversial subject. Nell and Errouaki’s work is worth careful consideration because its themes are so little considered within econometrics, despite their relevance for the role and realisticness of econometrics. The vast majority of work on econometrics concerns problems of method only – the technical limits of methods and resolutions to technical problems – very little of it concerns how (and whether) an econometric inquiry should be structured and pursued in order to be adequate.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has developed a concept of decent work and set this as a standard in 1999. However, in many places in the world people labour under conditions that are far from ‘decent’. Many people are subject to forced labour and experience unfreedoms, which raises important theoretical and practical issues. In this contribution we set out some of the ways in which forced labour manifests and how it has been changing over recent years in India. India is of particular interest because, according to the ILO, Asia, and India within Asia, has more victims of forced labour than any other region. India illustrates that specific structures of social relations underpin one’s vulnerability to becoming a victim of forced labour. It illustrates also that forms of forced labour integrate into and develop within capitalism. Although neo-liberal policy prescriptions are formally opposed to forced labour, the neo-liberal capitalist system also facilitates its reproduction and spread.

In the following short essay I set out the key insights and main arguments by chapter of Alison Assiter's Kierkegaard. This text is an important contribution to the general subject matter of realizable well-being. In a final section I discuss possible elaborations and limitations and challenges to the problem of morals and ethics that can and are developed from a metaphysic of the person.

In this review essay I set out key aspects of Nuno Martins’ The Cambridge Revival of Political Economy. In so doing I also provide some comments on the current state of economics, since these provide some context for an appreciation of what Martins is trying to achieve. Martins is focused on making the positive case for classical political economy (CPE) as a form of theory that is quite different from the modern mainstream. For Martins that difference is based on its approach to the distribution of a surplus expressed through a social ontology that is based on historical open systems and in which the key aspect of open systems is the institutional and hence deliberative activity by which the surplus is decided, which is ultimately an issue for ethics. It is through a ‘Cambridge tradition’, focusing on Sraffa, Keynes, Lawson and Sen, that CPE, a classical social theory and ethical deliberation are brought together. Bringing them together is an act of synthesis and I conclude by providing a constructive critique of the terms of this synthesis.

In this article we explore some aspects of contemporary unfree labor in rural south India. We draw on 130 case studies and (informally) extensive field research. We do so in order to make the central point that the conditions of unfreedom are variable and subject to change but that the basic vulnerabilities are significant. Being unfree in a labor relationship is a contingent effect of a set of factors. We stress the role of (a) entrapment of laborers, (b) immiseration within bondage, and (c) barriers to exit from the labor contract. In explanations, structural factors are also important. The article forms a basis for further empirical research in a variety of global settings even beyond India.

In the following review essay I explore the limitations of effective and constructive critique of Tony Lawson's realism in economics as articulated in Ontology and Economics. In the first section I summarize the different framing procedures that shape the different critiques. In the second section I illustrate the limitations this creates using Caldwell's contribution and in the third section I explore the way Lawson is conditioned to respond in terms of contestation, clarification and restatement. In the fourth section I add some additional detail based on Samuelson's approach to modelling in order to illustrate what is at issue between Caldwell and Lawson and to emphasize what this suggests in terms of a common pattern across the contributions to the text. In the fifth section and in the conclusion I link the limitations of the various critiques found in Ontology and Economics to a basic issue of the vulnerability of realism to critique in order to make some suggestions regarding constructive critique and development for realism in economics.

In the following essay I set out the core argument expounded by Nicholas Rescher in regard of the link between reality and appearance, illustrating this argument based on chapter 6 of his Reality and its Appearance. Rescher’s argument overlaps with critical realist concerns based on his approach to metaphysical realism. I make the point that the argument exhibits the virtue of concision, but, as a result, suffers from under-elaboration in important areas; most particularly, an explicit engagement with standard philosophical problems of appearance, such as Gettier, and, more generally, the fundamental issue of how appearance may or may not change in response to changes in the human condition (science and the means of observation, science and the possibility of augmentation etc.).

Our paper explores how poor rural households in India are increasingly accumulating debt through micro-finance initiatives channelled through local self-help groups (SHGs). The aim of micro-finance and SHGs is to provide a cheap source of capital for investment in self-sustaining economic practices — typified by the Velugu programme. However, the reality of micro-finance has been more complicated. It has created a class- and caste-related debt-dependency and vulnerability whilst also channelling poor households, and women in particular, into subordinate areas of the economy, which ultimately serve to maintain fundamental inequalities in Indian society. The initiatives may, in addition, be viewed as aspects of broader processes of financialisation.

The global financial crisis (GFC) and its aftermath have not just been a challenge to mainstream economics. It has also required a response from heterodox approaches. In the following paper we explore the Austrian response. We argue that Austrians have focused primarily on the role of government intervention in creating the conditions for the GFC. This focus, however, neglects the role of private agent error. We set out the role of collateralised debt obligations and credit default swaps as part of the GFC, in order to highlight that private agent error raises several problems of consistency under an Austrian approach. The basis of private agent error is separable from the role of government intervention (specifically the role of interest rates). Furthermore, the role of private agent error is one rooted in approaches to uncertainty, prediction, and control that are antithetical to an Austrian approach. The implication is that one cannot assume that private agents will produce a spontaneous order in the absence of interference that is preferable to one in which there is intervention. A consistent Austrian approach must also recognise its own historical commitments to the institutional dynamics of an economy. However, as the GFC and its aftermath illustrate, this creates a challenge for Austrian adherents to address the problem of potentially productive regulation.

The basic thesis of this paper is that Ben Fine and Grahame Thompson's 1999 exchange on economics imperialism illustrates two positions that talk across each other. Fine's approach to understanding the field of mainstream economics combines methodological analysis of theoretical innovation and a broad critical sociology. Thompson's response to Fine combines methodological analysis of practical and theoretical problems that currently inhibit the mainstream with a broad pluralist/pragmatist philosophical position. Analysing each position provides a useful way to develop the issues at stake in the debate - specifically, what are the potentials and ramifications of mainstream economics? We argue that mainstream economics does have real tendencies conducive to expansion. Its discursive constitution is dualistic (defining its limits but with an insignificant outside) and knows no genuine boundary. It has also been engaged in a process of eliminating alternatives within economics that have traditionally emphasized the very concepts that seemingly form the basis of current innovation. This implies that the basis of innovation cannot simply be one of a realization of explanatory failure resulting in a positive transformation of the field that also happens to be conducive to imperialism in an even more effective way than prior imperialist tendencies have afforded. At the same time, whether mainstream economics and its imperial tendencies are negative remains an open yet determinable issue, one we illustrate through an analysis of information-theoretic economics. Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd.

The tax practices of multinational corporations have become a matter of significant public and political concern. The underlying issues are rooted in the capacity of multinational corporations (MNCs) to construct organisational circuits that shift where sales, revenue and profit are reported. This capacity in turn becomes a focus because of the way MNCs are treated as a series of separate entities, subject to the arm’s length principle. This has become a classic example of a system whose current form and consequences were not foreseen when the original principles were set out. The continued existence of that system owes more to specific interests and inertia than it does to the absence of a viable alternative. Unitary taxation based on formula apportionment clearly resolves the underlying issues and unitary taxation may well ultimately emerge as a new generalised basis for corporate taxation. However, for it to do so, the problems of the current system and the advantages of the alternative need to be more clearly understood within academia, business and on a societal basis. This paper is a contribution to such an understanding.

In this paper, I focus on the British future from Brexit. The institutional form this will take is not yet fixed. However, one can consider likely outcomes based on dominant economic frameworks. From this perspective, it seems unlikely that Brexit will address the actual grievances that resulted in Brexit. These transcend European Union membership.

In this article I respond to Tony Lawson’s ‘What is this ‘School’ called neoclassical economics?’ Lawson’s paper is provocative because it reformulates neoclassical economics, based on Veblen’s original intent, as a mismatch created by recognising the value of an evolutionary approach to the economy whilst remaining over-reliant on elements of a ‘taxonomic’ approach. For Lawson many heterodox economists may be neoclassical under this description. I argue that there is clearly a case to be heard but that the reformulation of the neoclassical raises a number of issues. There are issues concerning the specific critique of the current usage of the term ‘neoclassical’—regarding genealogy and meaning. There are specific issues regarding the further development of the new (old Veblen) definition of the neoclassical: how clear is the definition in a practical context as a way to identify a ‘neoclassical group’, based on the commitments of the critique and the definition, what does it mean to be ‘more realistic’, and what is the strategic value of such a provocation for heterodoxy? I argue that the combination of these are reasons for more consideration of issues of social ontology not less insofar as the terms of the argument are incomplete, and this invites both Lawson and those he is criticising to progress the argument, particularly on method.

In this article we place Tony Lawson’s account of contrast explanation in context. Lawson’s development of it is given meaning both by the roots of the approach in his work on social ontology and the state of economics that provides the grounds for the critique contained in that social ontology. This is important because such an approach to explanation is not new. Most notably, van Fraassen and Garfinkel have developed it in particular ways and for particular purposes within the philosophy of science and social theory. Setting out the different ways in which the contrastive approach has been developed is useful for identifying what is different about Lawson’s approach, its potential and limits. Lawson’s proposal is more modest and focusses on causal investigation in a manner that flows from his approach to social ontology. Contrast explanation provides a substitute for controlled experiments and facilitates identifying social mechanisms. It also enables exploration of the manifold presuppositions of our explanatory questions. We argue that this is a useful and important contribution to overcoming some of the many problems economics faces.

In recent developments in the realism-constructionism debate, attempts have been made by individual scholars on both sides to assimilate the other side’s insights into one’s own position. With respect to epistemology, such attempts have so far failed. Situated in this context, this article proposes a general approach in which valid insights from constructionism, discourse theory, and pragmatist critique of realism are integrated into realist epistemology. Discourses are distinguished along two dimensions; interrelating these two dimensions, the interplay between epistemic and extra-discursive factors along them in discursive contention are analyzed under different categories of situations across the entire discursive spectrum. The balance between the determinative effects of epistemic and extra-discursive factors varies from one type of situation to another. Our approach enables the retention of the critical edge of skepticism, shows realist epistemology to be useful in sociological research in ways previously unrealized, and provides heuristic guidelines for conducting sociological research.

In the following short essay I set out the key insights and main arguments in Nick Hostettler's Eurocentrism. This text is an important contribution to the potential for creative elaboration inherent in Roy Bhaskar's Dialectic and is also a substantive achievement in its own right. Hostettler's work provides a way to move beyond the partialities and tensions of eurocentrism and anti-eurocentrism by repositioning both in terms of the europic. There are, however, a number of potential limitations in the way the argument is developed so far. © Acumen Publishing Ltd 2013.

Purpose – The paper's aim is to explore the impact of statistical arbitrage and high-frequency trading as hedge fund investment strategies that have a significant impact on the environment of corporations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a meta-analysis of the role of investment strategies within complex systems. Findings – The growth of hedge fund investment activity based on statistical arbitrage tends to produce a vulnerability; more funds using the strategy helps to create the profitable outcomes that the strategy relies upon. However, the growth also reduces the time lines of profitability and produces an underlying instability based on overlapping holdings and the use of leverage. The shortened timelines also create a further impetus towards technological competition and promotes high frequency trading, which then introduces further vulnerabilities based on “stop-loss cascades”. Research limitations/implications – Much of the trading creates a superficial form of liquidity, which gives a limited sense of market vulnerabilities. The basis of complex interactions between high frequency traders is also not clearly understood. Researchers and agents of policy ought to pay greater attention to the issues than is currently the case. Originality/value – The area is one that is under-researched.

Since the ultimate objective has been categorised, not as Utopia, not as reality which has to be achieved, positing it above and beyond, the immediate advantage does not mean abstracting from reality and attempting to impose certain ideas on reality, but rather it entails the knowledge and transformation into action of those forces already at work within social reality. [Lukacs, 1977: 4] Reality, as you know is always stronger than the human imagination. Not only that, reality can permit itself to be unbelievable, inexplicable, out of all proportion. [Roth, 1993: 86] The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it. [Marx in Marx & Engels 1845/1968: 662]

Rescher is a key figure in ‘new American pragmatist philosophy’. His work shares many commonalities with critical realism and engaging with it is always a rewarding experience. In this paper I set out the key features of his work on evolution and intelligent design, Productive Evolution: On Reconciling Evolution with Intelligent Design, and then address the weaknesses in the argument. The central strength of the argument is its innovative approach to the meaning of intelligent design in its relation to evolution. I use an analysis of the text to then consider what this suggests in terms of the nuance of immanent critique as realist concept.

This book is therefore, essential reading for students and academics alike in Religous Studies, Theology and Philosophy.

In Reorienting Economics, Lawson introduces the concept of contrast explanation, initially defined using the question form ‘why x, rather than y?’ where it is a surprising or unexpected outcome that motivates the search for an explanation of the contrast. In the following paper I elaborate upon the initial question form, asking: ‘why the perpetuation of y rather than an alternative possible x?’ This question focuses on relative stability, but can be a sceptical or contrarian form. From a realist perspective, any stability expressed in events as regularity is highly conditional. As such, underlying the question form is an invitation to explore the instability or vulnerability of order with a view to the ways that order might break down. This motivates a forward-looking focus of investigation that is particularly appropriate for looking at systemic issues in economics. I use the global financial crisis to illustrate the potential here.

In 2007 private equity finance became a major issue of public concern in the UK. The failed bid to buy J. Sainsbury and the successful bid to buy Alliance Boots highlighted that private equity finance had reached a new level in its purchasing power. The controversy regarding private equity finance split into two lines of argument: were they benevolent entrepreneurs or predatory asset strippers?آ This bookآ traces the historical rise of private equity finance in the US and UK over the last 40 years. It shows how this new industry has grown as credit markets have evolved. It provides a clear account of how a buyout works, of how buyouts have been theorized, and of the various empirical claims made for private equity finance. Looking at private equity in terms of its overall context of development provides an opportunity to ask a series of questions. Is private equity finance a claimed solution to problems it helps to create? Is it a claimed solution that creates new, unnecessary, problems? Does it create moral issues of entitlement?

In the following paper I explore the issue of the dollar as the unofficial reserve currency of the global finance system. I look at arguments for its “resilience” or continued use and how there is an inbuilt mechanism in liberalized capital that tends to reinforce the use of the dollar, and how this is to the advantage of the United States. I then look at the various ways in which the dollar has become increasingly vulnerable as a reserve currency because of the current constitution of the U.S. economy and because of its mutual dependency with China. I also set out how finance and other markets can go into sudden decline because of these vulnerabilities and how the constitution of the markets themselves can exacerbate this. Both of these factors, I argue, are problematic for the system, and provide the basis on which the dollar may ultimately cease to be the unofficial reserve currency.

China began what is commonly referred to as the reform (gaige) and opening (kaifeng) period at the end of the 1970s on the basis of a strategy that was incremental, experimental and localized. The basic approach was captured by the aphorism, bu pa man, jiu pa zhan — don’t worry about going forward slowly, as long as you are going forward. Possible policies were tried out in specific regions and provinces, adjusted on the basis of the experience, discarded if problematic and gradually applied nationally if seen as viable. The effect of this approach was that China's reform process into the 1990s had been predominantly open-ended. By avoiding a close conformity to either a command economy model or the dominant capitalist models of developmental economics of the time, China confounded expectations of its economic growth potential. According to its own statistics, China has maintained growth levels in excess of 7% and usually greater than 10% for more than 20 years. In this sense, an open-ended approach has been a strength that has allowed for a degree of pragmatism that has contributed to sustained large-scale economic growth. However, the form of that open-endedness must also be considered a source of vulnerability.

The paper examines the development of central bank policy prior to and during the recent financial crisis. The argument is made that it contained multiple failures that not only generated constraints on adequately identifying and addressing the crisis but also contributed to that crisis. Those failures derived from a combination of theory and institutional practice. Specifically the use of forms of inflationary targeting based on broad adherence to the Taylor rule framework and the use of versions of a Conventional Theoretical Macro Model (CTMM) were both problematic. This was particularly so in the way policy was focused through issues of the primacy of price stability. The institutional arrangements of the central banks were also problematic. The division of labour between the central banks and other regulatory bodies and the limited information available within a liberalised finance system hampered efforts to fully appreciate the gravity of the situation. Partly due to the constraints imposed by the thinking and strategies that had been developed the central banks never got to grips with the fundamental problems of the crisis. Interest rate policy and liquidity provision were undertaken in ways that steadily radicalised the approaches of the banks but always in a way that was event led and always in ways that could not resolve those fundamental problems. The nature of the crisis highlights the importance of transforming the approach and institutional framework of the central banks. Relatedly, it highlights the need for a more Keynesian and heterodox approach to economics within decision making bodies at central banks.

Despite some diversification modern economics still attracts a great deal of criticism. This is largely due to highly unrealistic assumptions underpinning economic theory, explanatory failure, poor policy framing, and a dubious focus on prediction. Many argue that flaws continue to owe much of their shortcomings to neoclassical economics. As a result, what we mean by neoclassical economics remains a significant issue. This collection addresses the issue from a new perspective, taking as its point of departure Tony Lawson’s essay ‘What is this ‘school’ called neoclassical economics?’. Few terms are as controversial for pluralist and heterodox economists as neoclassical economics. This controversy has many aspects because the term itself has different specifications and connotations. Within this multiplicity what we mean by neoclassical matters to pluralist and heterodox economists for two primary reasons. First, because it informs how we view and critique the mainstream; second, because the relationship between heterodox and mainstream economics influences how heterodox economists model, apply methods and construct theory. The chapters in this collection each have different things to say about these matters, with contributions ranging across the work of key thinkers, such as Thorstein Veblen and Kenneth Arrow, applied issues of non-linear modelling of dynamic systems, and key events in the history of economics. This book will be of use to those interested in methodology, political economy, heterodoxy, and the history of economic thought.

This article examines the problems that arise from borrowers’ growing aspirations for credit in rural South India. Two core problems arise, conditioned by the class origin of each family: first, a tendency to borrow beyond the capacity to repay, and second, the creation of new gender tensions in which female individualism clashes with traditional male dominance of household decision making. The problem of excess aspirations was first described by Veblen and has been fleshed out in the credit context by Bourdieu. Thus, in the theory of consumer culture, there are strands which may be of use in planning and managing microfinance and rural banking. We place this sociological issue in the context of the political economy of class and class praxis. The research is based on field visits in southern Andhra Pradesh. Our fieldwork suggests that one example of excess borrowing is women’s use of microfinance to purchase a cow. Both individual level and social aspects of the situation are considered carefully. The aspiration problem could lead to default and suffering.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education provides subject benchmarks which inform but do not determine the content of university and college academic programmes in the United Kingdom. These are revised every few years and have recently been completed in economics for the first time since the global financial crisis. Given the extensive criticism of mainstream economics since the crisis, one might anticipate the benchmark revisions to be extensive. However, this has not been the case. This article explores why this is so. The analysis may also be considered of broader significance because the conditions under which the review has occurred involve general processes that will be familiar, albeit with local variation, to heterodox economists elsewhere. In the conclusion, a more fundamental reconstruction of the benchmarks is provided. These will also be of interest as general orienting statements for a different kind of economics.

Abstract:

This paper addresses the issue of how rules are conceptualized by Hodgson in Old Institutional Economics (OIE). The argument is put forward that the concept of rules can be constructively clarified. Rather than provide a general form of single rules within a rule system, we argue for a taxonomic range of single rule forms. This approach has the additional advantage of providing a more explicit account of how rules operate as part of a rule system. It also provides one way to address the fluidity of rules. Rules are understood to be more or less fluid (incomplete) and subject to a practical dynamism. This, we argue, can be differentiated from the idea of tendency based on the capacity of agents not to follow rules. A useful concept here is that of ‘mezzo rules’ or recodifications that both define the rule and distance the agent from their own rule-following behaviour. In pursuing the argument we also highlight various methodological implications. First, conceptual development is a key aspect of the OIE, particularly when it is located within Dow's structured pluralism. As such elaboration on rule forms enhances the consistency of OIE as methodology. Second, the exploration of a taxonomic range of rules and of forms of fluidity can provide useful resources in mapping out institutional processes in real research.

This collection of authoritative essays by high profile journalists, academics and activists will shape this most important of debates for years to come.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. Abstract: By popularising interest in inequality, Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century has made a significant contribution. It has helped to change the basic terms of debate regarding wealth and income. However, Capital exhibits several weaknesses. The overall statement of Piketty's 3 laws tends to confuse the reader by conflating capital with all forms of wealth, and capital with the current market valuation of wealth assets. The whole creates a form of empiricism by metrics or calibration. The aggregation also lends itself to data as history rather than as historically grounded explanation of evidence. Concomitantly, it lacks a theorisation of capitalism, of power, of the state, of social movements, and of social transformations. This affects the way in which possible solutions to inequality are conceived. However, it does provoke further grounds for ethical counterargument productive of more progressive solutions to the problems it highlights.

In the following essay I set out the substantive content of Dustin McWherter's recent book The Problem of Critical Ontology, and I then consider the significance of this work as a form of constructive critique of Bhaskar in relation to Kant (as an approach to critical philosophy). This allows us to then make some general comments on the way constructive critique can be read in different ways, indicating different forms of ultimately reconcilable necessity and sufficiency (idiosyncratically considered) in different domains of argument. In so doing, I also consider some problems of epistemology and the issue of whether partial ignorance is acceptable.

Wednesday, 12 October 2016 Time: 5.15pm to 6.45pm Location: Maurice Keyworth Building SR (1.09) Leeds University Business School

In this short paper I reply to Wright's response to my original essay on his Christianity and Critical Realism. Wright makes a number of important points, and these are interesting in so far as they indicate how the same issues can be read in quite different ways. However, this difference ultimately highlights the central issue I explore in the original essay. That is, the capacity for basic dividing lines to occur and persist because of the fundamental nature of the issues at stake.

The point of departure of David Ellerman's paper is that the role of labour in economics can be looked at in a fundamentally different way than has typically been the case. The paper's purpose is, therefore, oppositional. However, it cannot simply be dismissed. It is clearly articulated, well reasoned, and most importantly, thought provoking. It requires one to rethink how one conceives some basic issues in economics. As such, one does not need to be entirely convinced by the argument to consider it worthy of dissemination. At the same time, if one subscribes to the ethic of structured or critical pluralism one must also consider the pressure points of the argument. Below, I briefly reconstruct Ellerman's core claims and provide some comment on that argument.

Contemporary populism is rooted in a crisis of legitimacy. Corporate taxavoidance by multinationals is one cause of that crisi s. Although states tend to beincreasingly formally committed to tackling avoidance, they do so in a system thatpromotes contradictory sets of behaviour. This tends to undermine attempts to solvethe problem of avoidance unless a more transformative collective approach is taken.Ironically, despite its own democratic deficit, the European Comm ission has taken aleading role in promoting such a solution: the Common Consolidated Corporate TaxBase (CCCTB). In this paper, I set out the case for ‘unitary taxation’ based on theCCCTB and state some of its current problems. The problem of corporation taxraises a basic issue in terms of who is sovereignty for, and solving the problemprovides an important contribution to legitimacy of both the state and the EU.

In this article, I clarify some of the key concepts and commitments of realist social ontology in economics. To do so, I make use of a recent critique of Lawson’s Reorienting Economics by Mohun and Veneziani. Their article provides a useful foil because responding to their critique allows us to emphasize that realism’s claims are more conditional and less controversial than one might otherwise anticipate. The basic claim is that ontology matters and that explicit recognition and consideration of ontological issues can be beneficial. However, developing a focus on ontology can create problems of interpretation among economists regarding what is being claimed and offered. I discuss some of these with reference to an adaption of Maki’s concept of economics imperialism and also with reference to Mary Morgan’s recent typology of experiments.

In the following essay I use an extended commentary on Dave Elder-Vass’s The Reality of Social Construction to explore the issue of what progress in realism means. I set out and critique the concept of the norm circle in order to consider how an argument is developed as realist social theory and what limits that might have in terms of the recognized realist concept of adequacy. Specifically, I address the way realist social theory can become restricted to an internal exploration of realism whilst issues of real world relevance are deferred.

The Centre for Social Ontology working group project has been exploring the concept of a Morphogenic Society since 2013. The project is now drawing to a close. One of the arising issues from the project has been whether such a society can be and is liable to be one of human flourishing. In this short paper, I explore one possible aspect of the concept of a Morphogenic Society.1 A Morphogenic Society may involve issues of ‘contingent necessity’. Contingent necessity may provide one way to think about human flourishing, and this in turn may highlight the potential significance of the concept of a Morphogenic Society as a resource in positional argument for human flourishing.

In the following review essay I provide some background in order to place Margaret Archer's edited Volume 3 text, Generative Mechanisms, in context of the series (Social Morphogenesis) from which it derives. In doing so I provide some sense of the significance of the series. Thereafter, I provide an overview of the key substantive claims of the essays, with some comment on how they may be linked together in terms of the theme of the series.

In 2011, the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) produced a new estimate of 20.9 million victims of forced labour. Forced labour continues to be found in almost all countries and all economic sectors. This persistence and development of forced labour raises various issues that we explore in this paper. It is free labour that is central to the Marxist account of capitalism, both in terms of its economic and ideological dynamics. There is, therefore, a potential tension for Marxist theory in terms of the persistence and diversification of forced labour, and we explore this, drawing also on the “realist” concepts of agency and structure. For forced labour to flourish, as clearly it is, there must also be a combination of motive and opportunity in the contemporary world. One can, therefore, ask what kind of capitalism promotes forced labour.

This collection of 17 essays by some of the world's most prominent economists explores Piketty's book at depth and from various vantage points. Here is what economists around the world are already saying about this book.

The interviews in this collection were conducted with prominent thinkers, such as Steve Keen, Herman Daly and Jayati Ghosh, with important things to say on areas of economy often neglected or distorted by mainstream economics. The subject matter ranges from ecological economics, through to development, methodology, conventions, finance, financialisation and banking. If you want to know why mainstream economics will not solve the climate crisis, if you want to know how development can go wrong or what a hedge fund really does, or how private equity buys companies using debt then read this book.

https://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue111/Morgan111.pdf

In Part 1 of this interview Professor Benton discussed his early life, education and the start of his academic career and focused in particular on his Philosophical Foundations of the Three Sociologies and his views on realism. In Part 2 he turns to his subsequent work. He discusses his most significant articles and later books. As well as his work as a field naturalist, the discussion ranges across structural Marxism, the moral status of animals, the Red-Green Study Group and Capitalism Nature Socialism, his various exchanges with critics of ‘first-stage ecosocialism’ and views on the ‘metabolic rift’ thesis and its offshoots, and his work to raise the profile of Alfred Russel Wallace. He concludes with some reflections on the role realist philosophy and theory has played in his work.

Abstract

In this article, I place Dennis Robertson’s popular book Money in the context of its time in order to make a simple point about the scope and limits of history of economic thought and social ontology. The argument is supported by a detailed appendix in three parts that discusses the history of coinage and banknotes, provides some context on the economy of the mid-1920s, and explores how money was spent, how credit was made available and how debt was viewed through social norms of the time. In the main article, based on discussion of the problem of attributing to the thing positioned features of the positioned thing, I argue that social ontology benefits from both history of economic thought and historical sociological considerations and foci.

ABSTRACT

Humanity seems stuck on different ways to fail to meet the challenge posed by a declared climate emergency and manifest problems of ecological breakdown. Rather than reprise these failures, we use the Fermi Paradox and simulation hypothesis to make a simple point about agency. The argument unfolds in two sections. I first introduce the Fermi Paradox and in a series of subsections I explore its different aspects. In the following section and its subsections, I do the same regarding the simulation hypothesis. The guiding question for both is, ‘should we be worried?’ Among other things, I point out that it is unwarranted fatalism to infer from the former (Fermi) that we are doomed or because of the latter (simulation) that nothing matters. At the same time, we are acting as though we are doomed and as if it didn't matter. I conclude with some brief comment on agency and hope.

Brexit means Brexit and other meaningless mantras have simply confirmed that confusion and uncertainty have dominated the early stages of this era defining event. Though there has been a lack of coherent and substantive policy goals from the UK government, this does not prevent analysis of the various causes of Brexit and the likely constraints on and consequences of the various forms Brexit might take. Is Brexit a last gasp of neoliberalism in decline? Is it a signal of the demise of the EU? Is it possible that the UK electorate will get what they thought they voted for (and what was that)? Will a populist agenda run foul of economic and political reality? What chance for the UK of a brave new world of bespoke trade treaties straddling a post-geography world? Is the UK set to become a Singapore-lite tax haven? What is the difference between a UK-centric and a UK-centred point of view on Brexit? Will Brexit augment disintegrative tendencies in the European and world economy? These are some of the questions explored in this timely set of essays penned by some of the best known names in political economy and international political economy. The chapters in this book originally published as a special issue in Globalizations.

In this paper we highlight an important yet often neglected issue that arises within the context of the broader set of concerns set out in Keynes’s seminal critique of Tinbergen’s early work in econometrics and that is the problem of “trend” in the dataset. We use the example of conforming data to achieve stationarity to solve a problem of unit roots to highlight that Keynes concerns with the “logical issues” regarding the “conditions which the economic material must satisfy” still gains little attention in theory and practice. There is a lot more discussion of the technical aspects of method than there is reflection on conditions that must be satisfied when methods are applied. Concomitantly, there is a tendency to respond to problems of method by applying fixes rather than addressing the underlying problem. We illustrate various facets of the argument using central bank policy targeting and using examples of differencing, co-integration and Bayesian applications.

Our initial focus in this paper is the problem of mismatch between policy goals and statistical analysis, based on how data is transformed and processed. This intrinsically raises ontological issues regarding the nature of an economy within which policy is made and to which statistical analysis is applied. These are of general significance to post Keynesians irrespective of the position they take on the specifics of the ergodicity debate. However, they involve some issues that overlap with some aspects of that debate. The problem as posed in this paper is specific and involves a practical contradiction regarding central bank policy and the problem of unit roots. We then consider some additional ways in which one can go beyond ‘common practice’ based on the example of Forward Guidance in the UK and a more institutional approach to post Keynesian analysis.

Exchange rates are determined by many factors. However, the UK referendum on EU membership June 2016 provides an unusual circumstance in which one can reasonably assume that one factor is overwhelmingly influential for a reasonably well-defined period. This concise study explores the period of uncertainty created by the referendum. The focus is the UK real effective exchange rate. The study applies a reduced form exchange rate model, first introduced by Edwards (1994), and makes use of Bank of England daily data, from the period November 2015 to July 2016. The results indicate a sharp depreciation of Sterling with reference to its long-term trend. We set out some of the possible contexts which may account for fluctuations during the referendum campaigning period. This can be distinguished from other longer-term factors likely to be previously responsible for trend depreciation, and also from the further sharp depreciation effects triggered by the referendum outcome.

In this paper, we pursue a financialisation line of argument exploring the specific features of private equity finance, with a focus on the activity undertaken at scale by the largest management groups or firms. The largest private equity firms wield considerable resources, affect ownership patterns and have the capacity to acquire literally any company. What they do matters. The bankruptcy of Toys R Us and the more general ‘crisis of retail’ illustrate a ‘debt gamble’. A company’s capital structure is radically restructured and equity is reduced and replaced by debt. The gamble is that there will be no change to the external environment that the GP cannot adequately adjust to and that the GP will in fact be able to maintain debt servicing. Although bankruptcy is a ‘worse case’, we contend that from a financialisation perspective, there are a whole set of attendant issues.

This brief paper sets out an underappreciated practically oriented paradox and its methodological implications. The paradox is highly relevant to central banks and any organization or agent that seeks to match or anticipate central bank policy, such as other actors in banking and finance. Specifically, there is a divergence between the statistical requirement of stationarity and any macroeconomic policy objective that involves a target that takes a consistent and positive value. This is not merely an esoteric issue of interest to statisticians. It has fundamental implications for policy contexts. When achieved, any policy target, such as inflation targeting, will necessarily result in a unit root. As such, an unintended consequence of successful policy is non-stationarity, which means policy is permanently seeking to actualise conditions that are at cross-purposes with typical analytical statistical requirements. The point and its significance are illustrated beginning with a simple AR model and artificial inflation dataset.

This comprehensive Dictionary brings together an extensive range of definitive terms in ecological economics. Assembling contributions from distinguished scholars, it provides an intellectual map to this evolving subject ranging from the practical to the philosophical.

This comprehensive Dictionary brings together an extensive range of definitive terms in ecological economics. Assembling contributions from distinguished scholars, it provides an intellectual map to this evolving subject ranging from the practical to the philosophical.

This comprehensive Dictionary brings together an extensive range of definitive terms in ecological economics. Assembling contributions from distinguished scholars, it provides an intellectual map to this evolving subject ranging from the practical to the philosophical.

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The focus from mainstream economics on the global financial crisis (GFC) has been relatively narrow, based on an underlying narrative and this focus has extended to and informed the majority of major institutionally commissioned reports, analyses, and pre-policy documents, which might collectively be termed an elite position. Specifically, there has been a focus on the role of neo-classically informed theory as a cause of the crisis. This has tended to reduce problems of economic theory to problems of neo-classical economics and this then has helped to shape the context of engagement with problems of the GFC. Much of the subsequent reform has been about preparing for failure rather than questioning why we have a system that fails and the issues here can be illustrated using the implementation of the Volcker Rule in the USA.

Trust is an issue to which Keynesians and post-Keynesians have paid relatively little attention. However, properly understood it is an aspect of almost all activity, including key elements of socio-economic reality. Without trust, market exchange is at the very least problematic, if not impossible. Moreover, trust is intrinsic to a variety of issues with which Keynes, and subsequent Keynesianism have been concerned. In this paper we provide a general social theory conceptualisation of trust and then set out some of the areas where this concept resonates with the work of Keynes in terms of the role of conventions. Conventions quintessentially involve trust and that trust can be unstable, can be withdrawn and can require rebuilding. We illustrate this with reference to central bank policy and the Bank of England's introduction of Forward Guidance. Exploring the problem of trust in the context of banking also highlights a challenge for the continued relevance of Keynes' work. We now live in a neoliberal world and this provides a quite different context for state intervention than was previously the case. Keynes' work is now an argument for the alternative, and as such it requires more than a technical economic argument, it must also address the problem of trust in state policy-makers. We briefly illustrate the challenge this poses with reference to Europe.

In this paper we use the Stiglitz Report of 2009/2011 as a point of departure to explore the way the development in economics theory provides a limited contribution to further reform. In so doing we provide a detailed analysis of potential underlying problems of information-theoretic economics. We note this provides an additional way to consider Thomas Palley’s concept of Gattopardo economics.

The Handbook of Heterodox Economics contains a significant variety of contributions invited and ordered according to a number of themes. One useful way to bring final order to the whole, and by way of conclusion, is to return to the issue of what heterodox economics is, and to emphasize the characteristics that make the varieties of heterodoxy common and valuable. Heterodox economics is important irrespective of innovation within the mainstream. Its collective potential is as a critical community subject to constructive pluralism, and its further characteristics establish it as a living body of knowledge that plays an important role as social science, able to address the most important questions.

In this paper, we argue that trust is an important aspect of social reality, one that realist social theory has paid little attention to but which clearly resonates with a realist social ontology. Furthermore, the emergence of an interest in trust in specific subject fields such as organization theory indicates the growing significance of issues of trust as market liberalism has developed. As such, the emergence of an interest in trust provides support for Archer's characterisation of late modernity in The Reflexive Imperative (2012) as a period of heterogeneity and greater incongruity. Commenting on this provides an opportunity to discuss the issue of habit in relation to trust and also the importance of the analysis of integration as a means to explain problems of trust. The commentary draws on examples from finance.