With apologies for cross-posting!

We are looking for TWO more papers by PhD students or post-docs for the
workshop mentioned below!
Deadline has been extended to 28 March.


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Call for Papers

Ideological Competition in Economics: Economists and Economic
Discourses in Germany and France 1980-2007.

Colloque ‘Junior’ CIERA (Centre Interdisciplinaire d’Études et de
Recherches sur l’Allemagne).

Maison Heinrich Heine, Paris, 17 and 18 June 2011


Organisers: Jochen F. Mayer (University of Edinburgh) and Peter Schaefer
(Universities of Trento / Paris IV - Sorbonne)


The recent economic and financial crisis revealed, among other things,
an epistemological crisis in economics. For the first time in decades,
both public and professional spheres are rethinking all the ‘big
questions’ (e.g. growth, (un-)
employment, distribution of wealth). It seems as if the consensus view
that growth is best achieved by unshackling markets and investors has
crumbled – and a whole new set of theories are competing to take its place.

On the occasion of such a double crisis (epistemological and
economic-governmental), we will scrutinise the more recent ideological
competition among economic expertise, the public sphere, the market, and
the political arena in France and Germany since c.1980. More
specifically, we are interested in the foundations of this particular
scientific and political authority over the last three decades, and how
it might be best described and analysed.

In both countries, economic ideas and concepts have arguably been
developed within specific economic schools and scientific fields; their
use as determinants of economic policy, or even societal development
would need to be analysed within distinct political and social
environments. For example, the influence of ‘mathematical formalism’ in
post-war German economics might fruitfully be analysed as
‘epistemological generational conflict’ (Hesse 2010) in the context of
the Bildungsexpansion during the 1960s, when ordo-liberal traditions
were sidelined by upcoming generations of ‘modern economists’.
Similarly, one might investigate how the appointment of an important
number of new chairs in economics in East Germany influenced the
evolution of the discipline.
In France, a more statist institutional make-up has arguably divided the
production of economic discourse between technocratic and academic
trajectories, with strong differences in training and conceptual
orientation between the two (Fourcade 2009). Here, the cleavages rather
seem to run through the Grandes Écoles (l’ENSAE, Polytechnique, l’ENA,
HEC and Sciences-Po) and university-based economic practitioners, where
particular heterodox schools were produced (e.g. regulation school and
post-Keynesian trends). However, when it comes to alliances with the
politico-administrative field, a comparably homogeneous mix of economic
theories, techniques, and models in economics seems to prevail (cf.
Lebaron 2000).
We invite contributions to this debate that go beyond the usual
interpretation of a ‘monetarist’ or ‘neoliberal’ revolution in economics
since the 1980s. Rather we encourage contributors to explore
epistemological and political transformations in both spaces of
knowledge in an empirically sound and plausible manner. Comparative case
studies are also welcome.

The following questions may guide our workshop:

-	Which economic discourses and agendas have been particularly
important, and which have been sidelined in both countries? Following
from this, which forces are to be held accountable for boundaries
between orthodox and heterodox economics (e.g. mathematical formalism)
and to what effect?

-	What is the relationship in both settings between economic and
non-economical discourses, such as the media, popular culture, other
(quasi-)
scientific disciplines (e.g. management theories) and politics? And how,
with regard to specific cases, does the ‘rhetoric of economics’
(McCloseky 1998) rely on informal methods and metaphors to communicate
its theories to non-economical spheres?

-	What role do leading institutions play in terms of cognitive and
normative agenda setting, such as the Grandes Écoles in France, economic
research institutes in Germany, and international organisations (OECD,
World Bank, IMF) or societies (e.g. Mont Pèlerin)?

-	Are there typical careers for economists (e.g. transnationalisation of
the profession, entanglement with banks and other private actors), and
if so, how have hiring policies and patterns of research funding, as
well as scientific job requirements (publications, methods of analysis)
changed and what have been the effects of such changes?

We hope to be able to tackle these questions from an interdisciplinary
perspective. In particular, we welcome papers with a science studies,
economic sociology and geography, and/or economic history background, as
well as empirical case studies.

Expression of interest (including institutional affiliation and
discipline) and abstract (approx. 300 words in English, German or
French, including title) should be sent by 28 March 2011 to:
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Successful applicants will be informed by 31 March 2011 and are kindly
asked to hand in their full paper version by 15 May 2011.

For successful applicants most of the expenses for travel and
accommodation will be covered. We hope to publish a selection of the
papers that are delivered at this conference.

For more information on a ‘Colloque Junior’, please see
http://www.ciera.fr/ciera/spip.php?rubrique136



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