Economics Imperialism and Interdisciplinarity: The Watershed and After

Ben Fine, Ph.D. (1974), London School of Economics, is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Visiting Professor at Wits School of Governance, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. His most recent books include Material Cultures of Financialisation, co-edited with Kate Bayliss and Mary Robertson (Routledge, 2018); Race, Class and the Post-Apartheid Democratic State, co-edited with John Reynolds and Robert van Niekerk (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2019); and A Guide to the Systems of Provision Approach: Who Gets What, How and Why, with Kate Bayliss (Palgrave, 2021). His Marx’s ‘Capital’ (Pluto, 2016) is now in its sixth edition (with co-author Alfredo Saad Filho). He was founding Chair of the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (iippe.org) until June 2023.

Preface


1 Introduction and Overview

 1 Picking up the Threads


 2 Twin Peaks




2 Economics Imperialism: a History of a Revolution in Economics that Never Was (Acknowledged)

 1 Introduction


 2 The Forward March of “Economics Imperialism” Halted


 3 The (In)Visibility of Economics Imperialism


 4 Balance against the Unbalanced/Imbalanced?


 5 Economics Imperialism Is as Variegated as Economics Imperialism Does


 6 Strategic Considerations by Way of Conclusion




3 ‘Economic Imperialism’: a View from the Periphery

 Postscript as Personal Pre-amble


 1 Introduction


 2 The Historical Anomaly


 3 The Anomaly of Scope


 4 The Anomaly of Resistance


 5 The Prospects for Radical Political Economy




4 “Household Appliances and the Use of Time: the United States and Britain since the 1920s” – a Comment

 Postscript as Personal Pre-amble


 1 Introduction


 2 A False Economy of Time?


 3 From Time to Demand


 4 The Appliance of Economic Science?


 5 Towards a Durable Alternative




5 The Economics of Identity and the Identity of Economics?

 Postscript as Personal Pre-amble


 1 Introduction


 2 Identity as Individual Choice


 3 Identity as Social Choice


 4 Identity and the Social


 5 The Economics of Identity as Economics Imperialism


 6 Concluding Remarks




6 Collective Choice and Social Welfare: Economics Imperialism in Action and Inaction

 Postscript as Personal Pre-amble


 1 Disciplinary and Personal Beginnings


 2 Bringing Back In, bbi, as Analytical Context


 3 Economics and Social Choice: Marriage and Divorce


 4 Interpreting the History of Social Choice Theory in Reverse?




7 The Road Ahead: from Freakonomics to Political Economy

 Postscript as Personal Pre-amble


 1 Introduction


 2 Economic Crisis and Economic Theory


 3 The (General) Criticisms


 4 Clearing the Ground


 5 Methodological Issues


 6 Questions of the History of Economic Thought


 7 Economics Imperialism and the Role of Finance


 8 The Road Ahead




8 Freakonomics as Thickening End of the Symbolic Wedge

 Postscript as Personal Pre-amble


 1 Response to Jack Vromen




9 Vicissitudes of Economics Imperialism

 Postscript as Personal Pre-amble


 1 Speaker’s Corner




10 Economics and Interdisciplinarity: One Step Forward, N Steps Back?

 Postscript as Personal Pre-amble


 1 Economics Is as Economics Does


 2 Economics Imperialism


 3 Acknowledging the Strengths, Exposing and Exploiting the Weaknesses




Index