Dissertation•
Disciplined reasoning: Styles of reasoning and the mainstream-heterodoxy divide in Swedish economics
01 Sep 2018-
TL;DR: The authors argue that the mainstream-heterodoxy divide is fruitfully understood in terms of the institutionalised stabilisation of a disciplinary style of reasoning, and show how economists understand their scientific approach and its merits.
Abstract: Economics is one of the most influential social science disciplines, with a high level of internal consent around a common theoretical and methodological approach to economic analysis. However, marginalised schools of thought have increasingly unified under the term “heterodox” economics, with their critical stance towards the “neoclassical mainstream” as common denominator. This has spawned debates among scholars about how to understand the nature of the mainstream-heterodoxy divide in economics.This thesis sets out to explain how such a common approach to science is generalised and stabilised in modern economics, and how this process is related to heterodoxy. Grounded in the sociology of science, it aims first to provide an empirical account of the mainstream-heterodoxy dynamics in Swedish economics, and second, to contribute to theory development. Drawing on the literature on distinct styles of reasoning in the history of science, I develop a theoretical framework of relational disciplinary styles of reasoning, which is used to analyse two bodies of empirical material from Swedish economics. The first is an in-depth interview study with researchers in economics, and the second is a document study of expert evaluation reports from the hiring of professors of economics at four of the top Swedish universities during 25 years. Through the two empirical studies, the fine-grained qualitative material provides an insight into the ways economists understand their discipline and the character of proper knowledge production.I argue that the mainstream-heterodoxy divide is fruitfully understood in terms of the institutionalised stabilisation of a disciplinary style of reasoning, and show how economists understand their scientific approach and its merits. The maintenance of the style of reasoning is the achievement of the thought collective of economists, where boundaries are constructed in relation to contesting heterodox economics and to other scientific disciplines. I show how the disciplinary style with its conception of good science and the notion of a core of the discipline is linked to the reproduction of disciplinary boundaries. I trace how this plays out through shifting quality evaluation practices, and show how top journal rankings have become a powerful judgement device which links the hierarchical ranking of top journals to the notion of a disciplinary core, and effectively functions as a mechanism of disciplinary stabilisation. In conclusion, I argue that these processes form a self-stabilising system in which the disciplinary style of reasoning and its boundaries is reproduced, with potential implications for how we understand intellectual dynamics and pluralism. (Less)
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TL;DR: To study the operational behaviour of λ-terms, this work will use the denotational (mathematical) approach to choose a space of semantics values, or denotations, where terms are to be interpreted.
Abstract: To study the operational behaviour of λ-terms, we will use the denotational (mathematical) approach. A denotational semantics for a language is based on the choice of a space of semantics values, or denotations, where terms are to be interpreted. Choosing a space with nice mathematical properties can help in proving the semantic properties of terms, since to this aim standard mathematical techniques can be used.
880 citations
TL;DR: Information is provided on how to identify the wood of several species common to the Northern Hemisphere using a hand-magnifying lens, as well as some techniques used in the study of Japan.
Abstract: Section (CRN) Meets in: Instructor: Office Ofc Hrs. STSH1110-01(60478) Carnegie 102 Jeanette Simmonds (simmoj@rpi.edu) Sage 5706 TBA STSS1110-01 (60138) Carnegie 205 Selma Sabanovic (sabans@rpi.edu) Sage 5703 Tue 4-5p IHSS1963-01 (62348) Sage 2701 Atsushi Akera (akeraa@rpi.edu) (see above) IHSS1963-02 (62349) DCC 236 Meredith Wells (wellsm@rpi.edu) TBA TBA IHSS1963-03 (62350) Sage 4203 Camar Diaz (diaztc@rpi.edu) Sage 5710 Tue./Fri. 4-5p IHSS1963-04 (62351) Carnegie 208 Lorna Ronald (ronall@rpi.edu) Sage 5706 TBA IHSS1963-05 (62352) Sage 2112 Jeffrey Hannigan (hannij@rpi.edu) Sage 5202 TBA *office hours also by appointment.
225 citations
Journal Article•
190 citations
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The handbook of science and technology studies is universally compatible with any devices to read and is available in the authors' digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly.
Abstract: Thank you for reading handbook of science and technology studies. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their chosen books like this handbook of science and technology studies, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their desktop computer. handbook of science and technology studies is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our book servers hosts in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the handbook of science and technology studies is universally compatible with any devices to read.
166 citations
References
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TL;DR: The Econ Tribe as mentioned in this paper is an interesting example of the extreme clannishness of the Econ people, which makes life among them difficult and perhaps even somewhat dangerous for the outsider.
Abstract: The Econ tribe occupies a vast territory in the far North. Their land appears bleak and dismal to the outsider, and travelling through it makes for rough sledding; but the Econ, through a long period of adaptation, have learned to wrest a living of sorts from it. They are not without some genuine and sometimes even fierce attachment to their ancestral grounds, and their young are brought up to feel contempt for the softer living in the warmer lands of their neighbours. such as the Polscis and the Sociogs. Despite a common genetical heritage. relations with these tribes are strained-the distrust and contempt that the average Econ feels for these neighbours being heartily reciprocated by the latter-and social intercourse with them is inhibited by numerous taboos. The extreme clannishness, not to say xenophobia, of the Econ makes life among them difficult and perhaps even somewhat dangerous for the outsider. This probably accounts for the fact that the Econ have so far-not been systematically studied. Information about their social structure and ways of life is fragmentary and not well validated. More research on this interesting tribe is badly needed.
179 citations
173 citations
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The handbook of science and technology studies is universally compatible with any devices to read and is available in the authors' digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly.
Abstract: Thank you for reading handbook of science and technology studies. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their chosen books like this handbook of science and technology studies, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their desktop computer. handbook of science and technology studies is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our book servers hosts in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the handbook of science and technology studies is universally compatible with any devices to read.
166 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make a distinction between historical and historical analysis in the context of neoclassical economics, arguing that historical analysis is limited to the goods and services that were typical products of competitive capitalism.
Abstract: individuals. In a classical paradigm, the concept of class is more useful than individual agents in analyzing social phenomena. In this way, classical economy has roots in holism, and accommodates social categories like class. Usually the neoclassical economics is firmly grounded on a research program of methodological individualism, which generally posits that individuals with given preferences and endowments, and firms with given technologies, enter the market process as autonomous entities. Indeed, the adherence to the tradition of methodological individualism has an important bearing on the nature of the neoclassical model. For neoclassical economists, society is the collection of individuals. Individual wants, thoughts, and deeds combine to make society what it is. To understand an economy is then to make sense of the aggregate effects of individual wants and acts. Neoclassical theory does this by demonstrating how individuals maximize their material self-interests by utilizing their resources and the available technology in market transactions. What happens in an economy is always explained as the result of individuals acting in this way. The economy, as neoclassical economists theorize it, is the aggregate end product of individuals. Historical vs. Ahistorical In classical economics tradition, historical analysis is called for and mathematical models and statistical investigations are of limited usefulness. The classical economists have made consistent efforts to explain the rise of the capitalist mode of production in terms of historical analysis. They from the beginning have sensed that it was the essence of capitalist production to generate an accumulating surplus, and that the manner of this accumulation was crucially related to the character of the newly emerging social relations of capitalist society. The classical theory of value would be limited to the goods and services that were typical products of competitive capitalism. They regarded the explanation of this historical phenomenon as their primary task. Instead of the characteristic features of a given socioeconomic system, the starting point of neoclassical economics is the ahistorical individual and therefore the neoclassical theories are expressed in mathematical models which exclude the concept of history. For example, in neoclassical traditions, there are only factors of production, namely, labour, land and capital, each of which receives a reward commensurate with its productivity. There are no essential differences among them. This shows the lack of the notion of class which is unique to the stage of capitalist society. This methodological features arises from the fact that though the great themes of classical economy are dynamic and developmental, the great themes of neoclassical economy are static and allocational.
165 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make sense of competing current interpretations of the term "neoclassical economics" and present a sustainable formulation for a more relevant academic economics discipline, namely, neoclassical economic theory.
Abstract: What is this school called neoclassical economics? Does it exist? Should it? Where does the term 'neoclassical economics' come from, and is there any connection between any of the current interpretations of the term and its original meaning? How do we make sense of competing current interpretations? Is there a sustainable formulation? These and related questions are raised and answered in an attempt to bring clarity to ongoing economic discussion and debate, thereby to under-labour for a more relevant academic economics discipline.
162 citations
"Disciplined reasoning: Styles of re..." refers background or methods in this paper
...…a requirement that explanations be couched solely in terms of individuals, (2) an acceptance of some rationality axiom; and (3) a commitment to the study of equilibrium states” (Lawson 2013:3 n.4).19 18 Lawson (2013:13) analyses Veblen’s interest and purpose for coining the term in-depth....
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...(Lawson 2013:7) These, then, are the outlines of the epistemological approach to the mainstreamheterodoxy divide in economics, which are an important concern for Colander and Weintraub, and central for Lawson....
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...(Lawson 2013:4, emphasis in original) Lawson’s point is clear....
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...Commenting on this and a range of other similar assessments in the search for the essence of heterodox economics, heterodox economist and philosopher Tony Lawson (2006:485) concludes that “we appear to reach an apparently widely shared assessment of heterodox economics only in terms of what it is not, or rather in terms of that to which it stands opposed; the one widely recognized and accepted feature of all the heterodox traditions is a rejection of the modern mainstream project.”...
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...…the models in terms of real world events was thus effectively minimised: “In particular it was no longer regarded as necessary, or even relevant, to economic model construction to consider the nature of social reality, at least for the time being” (Lawson 2013:28; see also Backhouse 2002:259)....
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