Announcement
In
the history of science literature, attention has been devoted to
the role of visual representation, or the use of images, in various
fields, ranging from anatomy through biology to physics. The discipline
of economics, however, although replete throughout its history with
images of every kind - maps, graphs, paintings, diagrams, and even
woodcuts - has scarcely been considered from this perspective. The
purpose of this meeting will be to explore the role of the visual
imagination in the history of economics.
Various
questions might be asked:
- Why
is use made of images in some areas of economics more than others?
Does it depend on the material in question? On the personal predilections
of the author? On the intended readership?
- If there is an evident place for recourse to images in physical
anthropology, or when treating the bodies, organisms, and particles
of the natural sciences, it is not so immediately obvious in economics,
which is concerned with social relations, acts of evaluation and
other intangible phenomena. How has visual representation been made
relevant here?
- How
has the introduction of new images affected the interpretation of
existing areas of economics? And how has economics' encounter with
the other sciences affected the way in which visual supports are
used?
- Images
have been used to illustrate theories, provide evidence for arguments,
give an impression of objectivity. How have these and other roles
varied in different historical contexts? Why can one easily imagine,
for example, the use of woodcuts in Mercantilist literature but
hardly in contemporary economic writings?
- What
might be said about the relationship between abstract reasoning
and recourse to visual image in the process of scientific discovery/creation?
And what about the reader, who alternates between text and image
in the absorption of theories? Are these nexuses essentially psychological,
or do they also have cultural features?
The
above questions are merely suggestive, being intended to stimulate
original proposals for papers dealing with the topic.
Programme
FRIDAY,
March 22nd
7:00
pm
Welcome Dinner (Café Méliès) |
SATURDAY,
March 23rd
8:00-8:45
am
Registration and Coffee/Croissants |
8:45-9:00
am
Conference opening |
|
9:00-11:00
am
Session
1
Chair: Spencer Pack
1.
L. Charles (INED Paris): "The Artist, the Craftsman and
the Economist: The Tableau économique as visual artifact"
Discussant: Neil De Marchi
2.
L. Vardi (SUNY-Buffalo): "Physiocrats and Culture"
Discussant: Gilles Dostaler
|
11:00-11:30
am
Coffee break |
|
11:30-12:30
am
Session 2
Chair:
Neil De Marchi
1. D. Levy (George Mason University) and S. Peart (Baldwin Wallace
College): "Visual Representations of Economic Man: the
British Anti-slave Coalition, Victorian Racial Anthropologists,
and Punch"
Discussant: Liana Vardi
|
|
2:00-4:00
pm
Session 3
Chair:
Gilles Dostaler
1. H. Maas (University of Amsterdam): "Visualizing the
invisible: Why Newmarch did not like Jevons's graphs"
Discussant: Pedro Teixeira
2.
S. Cook (Duke University): "The Archive, the Organon
and the Cinema: Alfred Marshall's Time Machine"
Discussant: Loïc Charles
|
4:00-4:30
pm
Coffee break |
|
4:30-6:30
pm
Session 3
Chair:
Laurent Derobert
1. M. Morgan (London School of Economics): "Seeing the
World in Models"
Discussant: Yves Gingras
2.
M. Lagueux (University of Montreal): "Representation,
Metaphors and Intentionality in Economics"
Discussant: José Luís Cardoso
|
8:00
pm
Conference Dinner (Restaurant Witloof) |
SUNDAY,
April 24th
8:00-9:00
am
Coffee/Croissants |
|
10:00-12:00
am
Session 4
Chair:
Albert Jolink
1.
P. Texeira (Univ. Exeter and Univ. Porto): "Persuasion,
Illusion and Possibility: the Diverse and Changing Fortunes
of Graphical Representations of Personal Income Distribution"
Discussant: Mary Morgan
2.
L. Derobert and G. Thiériot (Univ. Aix-Marseille):
"The Lorenz Curve as an Archetype"
Discussant: David Levy
|
11:00-11:30
am
Coffee break |
|
11:30-12:30
am
Session 5
Chair:
Simon Cook
1.
Manuel Santos-Redondo (Univ. Complutense Madrid): "Economic
Activity as Reflected in Painting: the Contrasting Views of
Economists and Art Historians"
Discussant: Harro Maas
|
|
11:30-12:30
am
Session 6
Chair:
Pedro Teixeira
1.
N. De Marchi (Duke University): "Natural Representation:
the geometry of trade questions, 1930-65"
Discussant: Spencer Pack
2.
P. Fontaine (Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan): "Moving
is Acting: Kenneth Boulding and the Visual Integration of
Social Science, 1956-1993"
Discussant: Simon Cook
|
4:00-5:00
pm
Closing Reception |
List
of participants
| Albert
Jolink (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| David
Levy (George Mason University) |
| G.
Thiériot (Univ. Aix-Marseille) |
| Gilles
Dostaler (University of Quebec at Montreal) |
| Harro
Maas (University of Amsterdam) |
| José
Luís Cardoso (Technical University of Lisbon) |
| Laurent
Derobert (Univ. Aix-Marseille) |
| Liana
Vardi (SUNY-Buffalo) |
| Loïc
Charles (INED Paris) |
| Manuel
Santos-Redondo (Univ. Complutense Madrid) |
| Mary
Morgan (London School of Economics) |
| Maurice
Lagueux (University of Montreal) |
| Neil
De Marchi (Duke University) |
| Pedro
Teixeira (Univ. Exeter and Univ. Porto) |
| Phillipe
Fontaine (Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan) |
| Robert
Leonard (University of Quebec at Montreal) |
| Sandra
Peart (Baldwin Wallace College) |
| Simon
Cook (Duke University) |
| Spencer
Pack |
|
Yves
Gingras
|
Organising
Committee
José
Luis Cardoso (Technical University, Lisbon)
Neil De Marchi (Duke University)
Philippe Fontaine (Université des Antilles, Guyane)
Albert Jolink (Erasmus University, Rotterdam)
Robert Leonard (University of Quebec, Montréal)
Publications
A selection
of papers presented at this conference was published in
a mini-symposium of The European Journal of the History of Economic
Thought, 2003, Vol. 10:4, pp. 525-85, edited by Robert Leonard.
|
