Announcement
The
idea of utopia has pervaded social thought from its very beginnings,
with social inquiry often being concerned not only with describing
or explaining what “is” but also with what “ought
to be”. Most utopian ideals have involved a blend of political,
economic and social considerations. Some have emphasized a future,
as yet unachieved, state; others have sought a return to the past.
Utopian elements come to the fore as soon as discussion turns to
the notion of progress in economic knowledge, or to the visions
of the economic order underlying competing paradigms of economic
thought and shaping divergent views on economic policy-making. Reaction,
both positive and negative, to such utopian ideas has been very
important to stimulating developments in economic thinking and should
therefore justify the interest of economists and historians of economic
thought alike.
The
aim of this conference is to bring together a number of contributors
to discuss the idea of utopia in a variety of dimensions. Possible
questions to be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following:
-
What
has been the role of economic ideas in inspiring utopian projects
and community experiments and, conversely, how have economists
in general responded to such projects?
- Are
utopian elements inherent in any “thinking in systems”,
e.g. in Smith’s system of natural liberty, the system of
general equilibrium, etc.?
- How
is the pursuit or rejection of utopian ideas related to the adherence
to orthodox and heterodox (or mainstream and dissenting) strands
of economic thought?
- Has
the prevalence of forward-looking (futuristic) or backward-looking
(nostalgic) utopias – or the lack of utopian thinking –
been typical of specific types of economic thought or of specific
historical periods?
- How
is the idea of utopia related to the notion of progress in economic
thought?
Programme
THURSDAY,
April 7th
8:00
pm
Pre-conference dinner (Restaurant Liebstöckl &
Co.) |
FRIDAY,
April 8th
|
10:00
am
Invited lecture
Thomas E. Uebel (University of Manchester)
Calculation
in Kind and Marketless Socialism. On Some Utopian Elements
in the Economic Thought of Otto Neurath
|
|
11:30
am
Claus Thomasberger (University of Applied Sciences, Berlin)
The
Two Utopias of Economics. Human Freedom and the Mechanism
of Competition
|
|
2:00
pm
Altug Yalcintas (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Eclipse
of UTOPIA: Perspectives on Path Dependence in Social Theory
and Philosophy
|
|
3:00
pm
Peter Rosner (University of Vienna)
Theodor Hertzka’s Freiland – the Utopia of a Pure
Market Society
|
|
4:30
pm
Marcello Basili and Carlo Zappia (University of Siena)
Non-Probabilistic Alternatives to Subjective Probability Theory
in the 1950s: George L. S. Shackle’s Utopia
|
8:00
pm
Conference Dinner (Restaurant Ruben's Brasserie) |
SATURDAY,
March 27th
9:30
am
Stephen Meardon (Bowdoin College, Brunswick)
Liberal versus Imperial Utopia and a Paradox of American Trade
Politics |
|
11:00
am
Jane
Finucane and Charles Larkin (Trinity College, University of
Dublin)
The Economy of Utopia in Seventeenth-Century England
|
|
12:00
am
María
Blanco González (Universidad San Pablo-CEU, Madrid)
Achille-Nicolas Isnard: Against the Enlightened Utopia
|
|
2:30
pm
Alfonso Sánchez Hormigo (University of Zaragoza)
Saint-Simonism, Rational Socialism and Proudhonian Influences.
The Economic Thinking of Ramon de la Sagra
|
|
3:30
pm
António Almodovar and Pedro Teixeira (CEMPRE, Universidade
do Porto)
Who’s an Utopian Anyway? Catholic Social Economics Between
1890 and 1930
|
List
of participants
António
Almodovar, CEMPRE, Universidade do Porto.
Haim Barkai, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
María Blanco González, Universidad San Pablo-CEU, Madrid.
José Luis Cardoso, ISEG, Technical University of Lisbon.
Nina Davydova, National University of Culture, Kiev.
Jane Finucane, Trinity College, University of Dublin.
Philippe Fontaine, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan and London
School of Economics and Political Science.
Tetyana Ivanova, National University of Culture, Kiev.
Albert Jolink, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Nina Kaltenbrunner, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
Hansjörg Klausinger, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Administration.
Charles Larkin, Trinity College, University of Dublin.
Andrés Lazzarini, University of Roma Tre and University of
Buenos Aires.
Robert Leonard, Université du Québec à Montréal.
Aladar Madarasz, Hungarian Academy of Science.
Wolfgang Mayrhofer, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
Stephen Meardon, Bowdoin College, Brunswick.
Denis Melnik, Saint Petersburg University.
Gertraude Mikl-Horke, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Administration.
Ewald Nowotny, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
J. Hanns Pichler, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
Olga Popsuy, National University of Culture, Kiev.
Christian Ragacs, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
Werner Raza, Chamber of Labour, Vienna.
Peter Rosner, University of Vienna.
Alfonso Sánchez Hormigo, University of Zaragoza.
Claus Thomasberger, University of Applied Sciences, Berlin.
Thomas E. Uebel, University of Manchester.
Altug Yalcintas, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Carlo Zappia, University of Siena.
Organising
Committee
José
Luís Cardoso (Technical University of Lisbon),
Philippe Fontaine (Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan),
Albert Jolink (Erasmus University Rotterdam),
Robert Leonard (Université du Québec à Montréal),
Hansjörg Klausinger (Vienna University of Economics and Business)
|