| Quarterly Newsletter N° 10 | April- June 2007 |
PEKEA NEWSLETTER
IN THIS ISSUE (click on a heading to jump to that section) :
1- A new step forward
2- Electronic Meeting of the Board
3- Call for Membership fees and Elections
4 - The social economy in Argentina, by José-Luis Coraggio
5 – Conferences, Publications and Websites
1- A new step forward
Dear friends,
The first group of “pekeists” asked me five years ago (September 2002) to organise, with the support of Yves Berthelot as a President Designate and Theotonio Dos Santos as a Vice President Designate, our collective work in order to outline a totally new way of thinking about economic activities so that we would become able to set up a new research programme and make feasible to launch as many projects as possible with new terms of reference.
We have made this first step, we built the new framework and it is available even if we still have, all of us, to internalise it, in our personal thinking and work. You find a synthesis of it as a short note that you may download from the website,
in English Click here
en Français Click here
en Español (available on the 5th of May)Click here.
Click here.
Feel free to translate it into your usual language so that it will be easier to share its contents with other people, academics, activists and citizens in your country. Please send us a copy of this translation.
Now we have a new step forward to make.
We have to write down terms of reference, based on our new framework, to deal with the most important items of research. This will be the job of our next conference in 2008 on the basis of a book which is in the making under the direction of Jean Louis Perrault to take stock of our past work in a more detailed manner than the short piece which is now available and that I have just mentioned.
Please check that you still agree with the directions we are taking, and try to find out, in the topics you are usually working on, how the collective findings of PEKEA are able to bend in a certain way the organisation of research: the way objectives are defined, the way the research is carried out. The new elected bureau will have the task to launch a call in the last quarter of 2007 to prepare this new step forward. Anyway we must already have this in mind.
My dear friends, I think that you feel excited by this new step forward to make and I will be pleased to meet you in the future to work with you in this direction. With my best regards.
Marc Humbert
Return to the top
2- Electronic Meeting of the Board
Summary of the points in discussion.
We had, as each year, a “spring” electronic meeting, to check what is going on and how to organise our work, and to inform all the members of the Board about the day to day life of the organisation.
This spring meeting was, to a certain extent, different from the previous ones as we have to move from one stage to a new stage of the existence of PEKEA and to organise elections before entering this new era. In point 3 of this newsletter we deal with this question of elections.
After the General Assembly Report, we had to go further and write a first outline of synthesis (which is mentioned in point 1 of this newsletter) and to take into accounts remarks that have been made by a few of you. We finally got only one written note by Bernard Billaudot. He presented his point in French in Dakar , and we made also a translation into English and Spanish you may download the text in three languages Click here
He underlined an important point on which we go on since the beginning: we do not want to move from the “Homo-economicus” paradigm to any other narrow conception of man. “Homo sapiens sapiens” is supposed to be a positive evolution from “Home erectus” and any narrow model which is only a part of Homo sapiens sapiens is leading to a dead-end. Human beings are sometimes selfish, sometimes altruistic and thus complexity is our lot.
Our radical dissidence is to move from a world seen as a set of relations between things, to a world taken as a set of relations between people. Doing so we do abandon any “neutral” or purely “technical” position since the main difference between things and people is that people have moral feelings and a “relative” autonomy of action: ethics and politics are brought into the picture. Thus we need in any analysis and research to take this into account and our last four conferences have brought elements to outline a new framework of analysis; a first synthesis is available as presented in point 1 of this newsletter.
Finally we have still to make progress on the alliance to organise with local governments and any idea and help on this is welcome. Michel Renault is our contact for this matter.
Return to the top
3- Call for Membership fees and Elections
Elections will be organised soon; in order to be allowed to vote you will need to have paid your membership fee.
The list of voters will be established according to the list of members of the network who will have paid their membership fee before the first of June.
Thus for those who have not paid yet, please send your payment in the form you prefer as soon as possible.
During the last General Assembly in Dakar and as according to our constitution Pdt Yves Berthelot informed us that he could not stand as a candidate for a next term but Yves Franchet agreed to stand as a candidate. The PEKEA Board decided to support Yves Franchet as a candidate and to give him the title of President Designate.
Marc Humbert will try to organise a list of members of the future PEKEA board complying with our constitution’s wish to have a balanced representation of academic disciplines with a few activists and a relevant geographic distribution. Any other list is welcome, any list of candidates must reached PEKEA office before the 30th of June.
Elections will be organised under the direction of the past bureau, by mail, as it is allowed by our constitution.
Return to the top
4 - The social economy in Argentina, by José-Luis Coraggio
[…] Some variations of public policies: Social Economy?
In many countries, whether from the Centre or from the Periphery, national or local governments have taken initiatives for transferring productive resources to unemployed female and male workers, not only to relieve hunger and to satisfy their primary needs with their own production, but so that they may also undertake individually or by associating themselves, sustainable economic activities, expecting that, according to the common sense of liberalism, they would soon no longer need this transfer of public resources (considered as initial subsidies). It is not always easy to discover whether such policies are the public version of the second type of solution that we have formerly described. Anyhow, in a political system where there is a hegemonic force and its counter-hegemony, one thing is the intention of the public decision-maker and another thing will be the content that it will be given in the socio-political game which implements them.
[…]
Extract from :
CONCERNING THE SENSE OF LINKING THE LOCAL AND THE GLOBAL LEVEL FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIAL ECONOMY.
José Luis Coraggio, UNGS, Argentina,
Translation : Antoine R. Frouville
Download the full text in its English translation: Click here
Descargar el texto completo del autor en español : Click here.
Return to the top
5 – Conferences, Publications and Websites
Conferences
The REVES aisbl, the UNPD and the City of Livorno are pleased to inform you that the Conference on the role of Local Governments and of Social Economy for an Ethical Global, Durable and Pacific Development will take place on the 18 - 19th of May 2007 at Livorno, Italy. For consulting the program, filling in the inscription form or obtaining any other information, thank you to write to the following address : office@revesnetwork.net
On the10-11th May 2007, the Forum for social and solidarity finance 2007, Finance at the service of mankind and of the Planet will take place at Canterbury, in Kent, England. This conference is organised in partnership with the Charity Bank. The inscription period is now open. The complete program and on-line inscription may be obtained on the website Click here
Economics as a Moral Science . The programme for the Workshop of the Stirling Centre for Economic Methodology (SCEME) on 'Economics as a Moral Science' in Stirling on 19th May is now available at the following address: Click here, along with registration details and background information. Irene van Staveren, Radboud University Nijmegen and ISS, will attend to lead the discussion.
Les 7èmes rencontres internationales du Réseau Interuniversitaire de l'Economie Sociale et Solidaire se tiendront les 24 - 25 mai 2007 à Faculté des Sciences Economiques de l’Université de Rennes 1, France. Organisées par l’équipe rennaise, ces rencontres auront pour thème "L'économie sociale et solidaire face à ses responsabilités". L’appel à communication est officiellement clos. Cependant pour toute information complémentaire, merci de vous adresser à Madame Odile Castel: odile.castel@univ-rennes1.fr
The Conference Changing institutions (in developed democracies), Economics, politics and welfare , will be held on the 24 - 25th May 2007 at the “Carré des Sciences”, Ministry of Research. Organised by Bruno Amable et Donatella Gatti, the object of this conference is to gather a set of theoretical and applied studies exploring the factors which contribute to the make-up of institutional changes in developed countries. The contributions covering a large field of questions will be proposed : the role of the legislative and political institutions in the context of recent reforms, the influence of ideologies, the question of the endogeneity of institutions and the impact of economic performances on our institutional mechanisms. To obtain the list of speakers, please click here :
Click here
Heterodoxy Seminars of the Matisse. The CES-Matisse organises regular seminars whose object is to offer a frame for appropriating and making deeper use of the tools presented by heterodox works from different schools of thought (keynesian, marxist, regulationist, conventionalist, evolutionist, etc.). The next meetings of this seminar will be held from 16h to 18h30 at the “Maison des Sciences Economiques” (106 Boulevard de l’Hôpital, 75 013 PARIS), Conference rooms, 6th Floor, on the following days:
29 May 2007 : Luigi PASINETTI (Università Cattolica, Milano), The Cambridge’s keynesians (U.K.) : a school of thought unjustly forgotten.
12 June 2007 : Ben FINE (SOAS - University of London), The Economics of Identity, the Identity of Economics and the General Impossibility of Methodological Individualism
Contact : Seminaire-Heterodoxies@univ-paris1.fr
The 9th International Workshop on Institutional Economics will be held on 21-22 June 2007 at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, England. The theme is "Property, money and firms: the forgotten role of law and the state".
Speakers, further details and booking information can be found on the following website:
Click here
The 11th annual Conference on Economy and Security , 5 – 7th July 2007
will be organised in Bristol, Great-Britain, and will be supported by the Economists for peace and security, the Group armaments’ production and trade, the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol.
For further informations concerning the call for contributions, thank you to click hereClick here or to contact Professor J. Paul Dunne, School of Economics, University of the West of England, UK, John2.Dunne@uwe.ac.uk
The Congress for Planetary Initiatives will take place at Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, on the 24 - 26 August 2007. It is intended to serve as an Open ended Global Concourse of New Ideas, Visions, and Initiatives, in All areas of social life. The Purpose of this Inter-Continental gathering, in the first instance, is to foster serious and immediate Dialog , in the hope of maintaining it on a continuing basis thereafter, between all the extant Paradigms/ World-Views/ Interests / Ideologies that have divided the Human World into disparate, and often feuding, Sectarian Groupings . The program and further informations may be obtained on the net: Click here
The annual Conference of the European Association for an Evolutive Political Economy (EAEPE) will be held at Porto, Portugal from 1 -3 November 2007. The adopted thematic will be : « Economic growth, Developement and Institutions – To take stock of the policies and of the necessity for an evolutive frame of Analysis. »
For complete information about this conference, please consult :
Click here
The 55th annual conference of JSPE (Japan Society of Political Economy) will be held on October 20 and 21, 2007, at Yokohama National University. Tetsuji Kawamura, Secretary General, Executive Office of JSPE invites us to make a proposal for this conference. The theme of the plenary session in this conference will be: How do we consider "society with increasing inequality"? Proposals must be sent no later than June 8, 2007, to:
Prof. Shinjiro HAGIWARA or Dr. Tomohiko SEKINE , E-mail: Jspecice@jspe.gssm.musashi.ac.jp
More information, see : Click here
Publications
L'association "Pour Politis" organise un débat avec les auteurs autour de la sortie du livre L’économie solidaire. Une perspective internationale , le mercredi 9 mai de 19h à 21h à La Passerelle, 3 rue Saint-Hubert- Paris 11ème (Métro Saint-Maur). Entrée libre sur inscription obligatoire aux coordonnées suivantes : nadine.darocha@cnam.fr ou au + 33 (0)1 40 25 10 85
Laurence Baranksi et Jacques Robin viennent de publier L’urgence de la métamorphose avec une préface de René Passet et une postface par Edgar Morin, chez Des idées et des hommes, Collection Convictions Croisées, Paris, 2007, 223 pages.
L’objectif de leur ouvrage est de faire « prendre conscience de ce que l’humanité est une émergence de l’aventure de l’univers, et de l’intégrer résolument dans nos manières de penser et d’agir. C’est une condition indispensable pour nous préparer à faire face aux défis qui menacent aujourd’hui la planète Terre et les sociétés humaines : défis non seulement écologiques, économiques, technologiques, informationnels, mais aussi politiques, culturels et spirituels. Donnons à l’humanité - disent-ils- une chance d’avenir. « Une nouvelle étape de son aventure peut commencer dès maintenant. A nous de nous y engager consciemment ». Propos des auteurs et extraits, cliquer ici Click here
Pierre Calame met en débat un Essai sur l’Oeconomie . Après une série de livres traitant des questions de gouvernance - L’Etat au cœur, La démocratie en miettes - Pierre Calame, Directeur de la Fondation Charles Léopold Mayer (FPH), France, a choisi d’explorer les conditions d’émergence de nouveaux modèles de production et de consommation, avec pour fil conducteur, un retour à l’étymologie du mot économie : « oïkos » et « nomos ».
L’Essai sur l’Oeconomie est en cours d’écriture. Mais son auteur a opté pour sa mise en ligne, afin de compléter et d’enrichir son propos, mettre en débat les hypothèses avancées, proposer un processus de travail collectif, susciter le débat. Les commentaires des uns et des autres seront par la suite intégrés au livre lors de sa publication.
Pour réagir sur le premier chapitre de l’Essai : l’évolution des systèmes de production et d’échange, de la partie I L’émergence d’un changement de perspective, merci de vous rendre sur le site Click here, section débats.
Romain Kroës a le plaisir de nous annoncer la publication de son livre La Perversion du Capital aux Editions du Sextant, Collection Décodeur, Paris, 2007. L’Editeur présente ainsi l’ouvrage : « Sur quelles croyances repose le capitalisme ? Puisant aux sources les plus anciennes de la pensée économique, l'auteur bouscule les idées reçues : non, ce ne sont pas les profits qui font les investissements, mais le contraire. Keynes, Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Hayek, Friedman et bien d'autres sont convoqués ensuite, non pour servir de modèles ou de contre-modèles, ce qui serait vain, mais pour être dépassés. Et si l'Etat devait réapprendre à jouer son rôle en économie ? Reprendre l'initiative de l'investissement, pour stimuler la croissance et résorber le chômage ? Se libérer des contraintes du traité de Maastricht, pour renouer avec le progrès social ? La synthèse des connaissances acquises aujourd'hui par l'homme, en un mot sa culture, ne lui permettrait-elle pas, enfin, de maîtriser son économie et son avenir ? ». Pour accéder à la présentation de l’auteur, à la dédicace et aux extraits, merci de cliquer ici Click here
Websites and newsletters
L’association Survie édite bimestriellement La lettre des biens mondiaux . Son site BPEM (Click here) relais ses activités de promotion des Biens publics à l’échelle mondiale (BPEM) et la lettre à pour objet de recenser des nouvelles qui sont passées inaperçues du grand public, ou ont vite étés effacées par des actualités plus croustillantes. Sans prétendre à une impossible exhaustivité, ses auteurs « cherchent à montrer des jalons, des pistes à explorer, des combats à populariser, des réflexions à engager… [convaincus que] l’avenir est dans ces prises de conscience citoyennes, leur contagion mondiale, et non – bien au contraire - dans la foi en d’improbables régulations marchandes arbitrées par le système aveugle et erratique des marchés financiers ». Pour consulter les lettres de BPEM, merci de vous rendre sur le site ou de cliquer ici Click here
Le GRESEA, Groupe de Recherche pour une Stratégie Economique Alternative , est aussi bien un lieu de réflexion, d’analyse et de proposition qu’un centre de formation et d’information sur les mécanismes et les acteurs de l’économie internationale et en particulier sur la dimension Nord-Sud de cette dernière. Ses recherches portent principalement sur les mécanismes, de plus en plus complexes, de l’économie mondiale et leurs impacts tant sociaux qu’économiques, écologiques et culturels, tant au Nord qu’au Sud. Le GRESEA publie sa lettre d'information mensuelle pour faciliter l'accès à ses travaux d'éducation et appelle ses lecteurs à donner leurs avis et commentaires. Vous pouvez retrouver l’ensemble de ses lettres sur son site à Click here, rubrique nos bulletins ou directement sur cette page Click here
Information
Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute announced that it will award its annual Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought to development economists to Jomo Kwame Sundaram of the United Nations and to the Economist Steven DeCanio , recently recognised for his innovative work concerning climatic changes. The ceremony of the prize awards will take place in the autumn 2007 at the Tufts University and the prizewinners will deliver there conferences on the theme: “Climatic Changes, Economic Development, and Global Equity.”
So as to know more about the Leontief Prize on the GDAE’s website, please click here:
Click here
Return to the top
| PEKEA President: Yves BERTHELOT yves.berthelot@unog.ch Executive Secretary: Marc HUMBERT Marc.Humbert@univ-rennes1.fr Scientific VPdt : Theotonio DOS SANTOS theotoni@terra.com.br Treasurer: Danièle BENEZECH daniele.benezech@univ-rennes1.fr |
PEKEA Newsletter Chief editor : Robert Frouville |