1,720,977 research outputs found
Sul ritorno dell'economia politica
No full textThe transformations of political economy since its formative period in the late 16th-early 17th century (Bodin, Botero, Serra, Monthchrestien) defines its object as a field of possibilities. A dynamic (that is, historical) view of political economy is therefore a condition for identifying the relationship between different theoretical frameworks addressing the economic domain. The relationship between ends and means is central to the conceptual structuring of that domain and is at the root of the cleavages and overlaps that characterize the dynamics of economic theory. This essay highlights the central role of interdependencies in the construction of economic theory and highlights their importance both for identifying the internal structure of constraints in the economy and for assessing the relative weights of partial interests that are at the origin of collective actions. The essay also highlights the intertwining of material and social interdependencies in the dynamics of economic theory, and discusses the relationship between partial interests and forms of systemic interest. The latter relationship highlights the possible coexistence of coalitions and conflicts within the same system of interdependencies and makes such coexistence to depend on the internal, multi-level structure of interdependencies in the polity. This analytical framework is then applied to the assessment of multiple possible visualizations of systemic interest in the Eurozone
Political Economy: Outlining a Field
No full textPolitical economy has regained a central position among the academic subjects dealing with the polity and the economy. This development is not a
mere reclaiming of intellectual traditions. It is also the expression of increasing awareness that the linkage between the economy and the polity is fundamental
to the understanding of contemporary societies. This paper argues that the mutual relationship between the economy and the polity is rooted
in the collective dimension of the provision and utilization of material resources. This collective dimension presupposes the coordination of human
actions such as those entailed by the division of labour, which in turn requires multi-layered organizational arrangements and governance structures.
The organization of this field depends on the way in which the objectives of different individuals and groups relate to one another, and on the
constraints posed by the material sphere on the attainment of those objectives. Because the organization of the material sphere depends on the weights attached to the objectives of different individuals or groups, the provision and utilization of material resources are inherently political. At the same time, achievement of
objectives requires complex arrangements concerning the material sphere, which poses internally structured constraints that also depend on the specific objectives
being pursued. For example, the division of labour required for pursuing full employment may be different from that required for pursuing maximum growth.
The objectives and constraints relevant to the material needs of the polity belong to multiple levels of analysis (micro, meso and macro) and relate to
multiple levels of agency (say, individuals, productive sectors and states)
Political Economy as Theory of Society
No full textPolitical economy is concerned with the material life of the polity. It historically developed by emphasizing the interdependencies between relevant
economic units in the polity under consideration and/or the relationship between political (systemic) objectives and the means available to achieve
those objectives.The intertwining of the instrumental and positive points of view has remained a feature of economic reasoning ever since. However, the two
points of view entail a different emphasis on different features of the economy. This difference led Lionel Robbins to contrast the ‘materialist’ and
the ‘scarcity’ definition of the subject matter of economics. The split between the ‘materialist’ and the ‘scarcity’ approach relates to the point of
view adopted in addressing that issue. The scarcity approach considers the dispositional activity per se, independently of which specific objectives that
activity should achieve (the ‘de gustibus non est disputandum ’ condition is central to that point of view). The materialist approach identifies a specific
objective (how to achieve a self-sustaining economic system) and highlights the material requirements to fulfil that objective. In short, the scarcity
approach presupposes but does not investigate material (structural) conditions, while the ‘materialist’ approach presupposes but does not investigate
dispositional activity. This paper puts forward a view of political economy that brings together the attention for dispositional activity and for the
structure of material conditions within the polity
The Eurozone as a Political Economy Field
No full textThis chapter argues that the Eurozone's vicissitudes highlight multiple interfaces between economics and politics. More specifically, they reveal the manifold interdependencies at work within and across the domains of the European economy and poltical space. The recent Eurozone history highlights manifold conflicts of interest within and across levels of aggregation (supranational, national, sectoral). Overall, it exposes serious internal tensions in the constitution of the Eurozone and of the EU as a whole. The chapter outlines the format of a new approach to the political economy of the Eurozone aimed at detecting economic and political intetrdependencies across different levels of decision making within the Eurozone as an economic and political domain
Framing the Political Economy of the Eurozone: Structural Heuristics for Analysis and Policy
No full textThis contribution addresses the political economy of the Eurozone building upon a strand of economic analysis that represents interdependencies at intermediate levels of aggregation. It is argued that the further step is to use those models not only for studying economic interdependencies but also as heuristics for interdependencies that are potentially both economic and political. The research programme advocated here can be seen as compatible with approaches outside economic analysis that do investigate intermediate levels of aggregation such as sectors (McCormick) but are not based on explicit models of interdependencies.This contribution outlines a conceptual shift through two analytical steps. First, it argues that alternative representations of division in society provide a heuristics that goes beyond the economic sphere strictly conceived and that can be used as investigative tool for the political economy at large. Second, it maintains that alternative representations of productive interdependencies can be used for political economy analysis. This approach provides the building blocks for studying the 'material constitution' of the Eurozone, by which we mean the set of relatively persistent interdependencies among its units, which span the economic and political spheres
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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