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<p>This dissertation is at once a historical study of the emergence of U.S. hegemony through the lens of discourses and techniques of attention, and a sustained series of methodological reflections centering on how to write and think about historical dynamics of causality. Methodological emphasis is first on establishing a reconceptualization of the dynamics of scientific and commercial accumulation animating capitalist modernity. From there, this study maps the emergence of two intersecting truth technologies that I argue are central to the peculiar ways in which U.S. corporate capitalism has worked over the long twentieth century. These apparatuses of not-only scientific truth are the psychological problematic of attention as a model enabling the representation of, and intervention in, human cognition, and the Marginalist visualization of "the economy" as a welfare equilibrium. </p><p>Both technologies emerged in the final decades of the nineteenth century along with the trans-Atlantic proliferation of research universities, and subsequent re-organizations of the material bases, and representational strategies and practices, of authoritative truth-making. In the U.S., these developments effected a particular displacement and broad re-orientation of previously theological frameworks for understanding human cognition and the "Natural" order of society. I argue that one consequence of this displacement and re-orientation has been the formation of a governmental rationality of the U.S. "Market Republic" that takes the welfare equilibrium of a mass-market economy as its telos and idiom of rational order, while simultaneously rendering civic freedom a matter of choices made after paying the right kind of (primarily economic or scientific) attention. As my examples indicate, this rationality is not necessarily state-based, but rather unfolds medially as a series of conceptual-discursive and socio-technical conventions in three primary institutional sites of attention-gathering and market-making: early mass-circulation print culture, systematic corporate management, and modern research universities. In all three sites, my focus is on communication technologies conceived as staging procedures for the socialization and accumulation of attention.</p><p>As mentioned above, my historical horizon of significance for these investigations is the emergence of U.S. hegemony between 1870 and 1929. By conceptualizing hegemony in terms of a nation's intermediating position as a dominant global "center of (commercial and intellectual/scientific) calculation," I keep in play a general conception of accumulation wherein knowledge, money, and indeed, human attention, are all forms of currency that have kept U.S. hegemony current throughout the long twentieth century (1870 - present). At stake in this alternative account of capitalist accumulation and scientific knowledge as tightly linked networks is not the by-now-standard conflation of scientific and class-based authority to "make things mean;" but rather, an insistently historical, constructivist, and indeed relativist conceptualization of how resources and power systematically concentrate and disperse in the very micro-processes by which people think "truth" with their eyes and hands -- by what they look at, interface with, are constituted in terms of, and so on. To accomplish this, the study proceeds by holding together Giovanni Arrighi's macrosociological theory of world historical capitalism, Bruno Latour's microsociological account of the power of "immutable mobiles" in (scientific) modernity, and Michel Foucault's genealogical conception of history as well as his theory of governmentality (the "conduct of conduct" through practices of freedom).</p> / Dissertation

This dissertation is grounded in the belief that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is good for society. However, current indicators stemming from the marketplace raise concerns as to CSR's long term viability. In this dissertation, I argue that corporate social responsibility has reached a tipping point from which it may move to become a fully informed and dominant practice or recede into the status of a passing fad. This project is driven by the question,"What might be done to better ensure a fuller adoption of CSR as a standard business practice?" I am particularly interested in (1) why society needs CSR and (2) how CSR can be sustained. To answer this question, it will be necessary to engage the marketplace of commerce, understand CSR as it is currently implemented, and explore the relationship between CSR and neoclassical economic thought. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD / Dissertation

As the discipline of economics professionalized during the interwar period, two schools of thought emerged: institutionalism and neoclassical economics. By 1954, after the publication of Arrow and Debreu’s landmark article on general equilibrium theory, consensus formed around neoclassical economics. This outcome was significantly influenced by trends in the philosophy of science, notably the transformation from the logical empiricism of the Vienna Circle to an ‘Americanized’ version of logical empiricism that was dominant through the 1950s. This version of logical empiricism provided a powerful ally to neoclassical economics by affirming its philosophical and methodological commitments as examples of “good science”. This dissertation explores this process of consensus formation by considering whether consensus would be judged normatively appropriate from the perspective of three distinct approaches to the philosophy of science; Carl Hempel’s logical empiricism, Thomas Kuhn’s account of theory change and Helen Longino’s critical contextual empiricism. The conclusion is that there is no ‘consensus on consensus’. Longino’s approach reveals the ways in which alignments between mid-century philosophy of science and neoclassical economics mask the normative commitments implicit in both disciplines. Moreover, Longino’s alternative set of theoretical virtues reveal how questioning the standards of “good science” yields very different conclusions about both the scientific credentials and viability of institutional economics. My conclusion is that a pluralistic approach to the philosophy of science is essential to fully understanding the case study of mid-century economics. / Philosophy

This study mainly argues the role that neoliberalism and neoclassical economics (mainstream economics) have had through foreign aid in Latin America and its effects over the years. The mere ideology of a market-centered society has been detrimental for many already. What this study aims to do is to portray that it has had the same effect on our environment as well. From poverty to environmental destruction, the neglect of social and environmental factors in our political socio-economic system has had its toll worldwide. The constant aim forgrowth and neoliberal approach in politics cannot be simply reversed by applying SDG’s political strategies.The definition of sustainable development has been vague enough already to rely on it as a fix. Ecological Economics on the other hand may imply a factual solution within aid and politics in Latin America and around the world, as it would be environmental and humanitarian-based. Some of the finding of this study include a comparison between ecological economics and neoclassical economics and practical applications for ecological economics within foreign aid.

Este trabalho fará uma sistematização de três esquemas analíticos voltados ao exame da crise ecológica gerada pelo atual sistema global de produção e consumo - a Economia Ecológica, a Economia Ambiental Neoclássica e o Marxismo Ecológico. Uma apresentação estruturada dos referidos conjuntos teóricos será exposta, à medida que se comparam as suas principais premissas, objetos de análise e lógica, prosseguindo para o exame das suas teorias do valor. Esta exposição pavimentará o caminho para uma análise dos conceitos de sustentabilidade adotados pela Economia Ambiental Neoclássica, pela Economia Ecológica e pelo Marxismo Ecológico. Assim, se buscará aferir a forma com que um conjunto de meta premissas opera a construção de um esquema teórico dedicado a analisar a crise ecológica, como ele se reflete na construção de uma teoria do valor, e, mais adiante, em como se traduz na sua própria concepção de sustentabilidade / This work will systematize three analytical schemes aimed at examining the ecological crisis generated by the current global production and consumption model - Ecological Economics, Neoclassical Environmental Economics and Ecological Marxism. A structured presentation of these theoretical sets will be exposed, as their main premises, objects of analysis and logic are compared, continuing to examine their theories of value. This exhibition will pave the way for an analysis of the concepts of sustainability adopted by Neoclassical Environmental Economics, Ecological Economics and Ecological Marxism. Thus, one will try to gauge how a set of meta premises operates the construction of a theoretical framework dedicated to analyzing the ecological crisis, as it is reflected in the construction of a value theory, and, later, how it translates into its own conception of sustainability

Este trabalho fará uma sistematização de três esquemas analíticos voltados ao exame da crise ecológica gerada pelo atual sistema global de produção e consumo - a Economia Ecológica, a Economia Ambiental Neoclássica e o Marxismo Ecológico. Uma apresentação estruturada dos referidos conjuntos teóricos será exposta, à medida que se comparam as suas principais premissas, objetos de análise e lógica, prosseguindo para o exame das suas teorias do valor. Esta exposição pavimentará o caminho para uma análise dos conceitos de sustentabilidade adotados pela Economia Ambiental Neoclássica, pela Economia Ecológica e pelo Marxismo Ecológico. Assim, se buscará aferir a forma com que um conjunto de meta premissas opera a construção de um esquema teórico dedicado a analisar a crise ecológica, como ele se reflete na construção de uma teoria do valor, e, mais adiante, em como se traduz na sua própria concepção de sustentabilidade / This work will systematize three analytical schemes aimed at examining the ecological crisis generated by the current global production and consumption model - Ecological Economics, Neoclassical Environmental Economics and Ecological Marxism. A structured presentation of these theoretical sets will be exposed, as their main premises, objects of analysis and logic are compared, continuing to examine their theories of value. This exhibition will pave the way for an analysis of the concepts of sustainability adopted by Neoclassical Environmental Economics, Ecological Economics and Ecological Marxism. Thus, one will try to gauge how a set of meta premises operates the construction of a theoretical framework dedicated to analyzing the ecological crisis, as it is reflected in the construction of a value theory, and, later, how it translates into its own conception of sustainability

Since 1970s neoclassical economics has been identified as a major obstacle for reaching sustainability. Despite the world's growing attention to sustainability education, there has been just few attempts to assess the content and the competency building of sustainable development (SD) postgraduate programs. None has been evaluating if and how economics is integrated in such curricula. This study fills this gap in the empirical research by conducting a novel assessment of six leading SD transdisciplinary master programs in Sweden. Our study uses a qualitative approach to inquire how these programs teach students to understand, challenge and reorient dominant neoclassical economics and the reasoning behind it. Results revealed that the absence of an agreed-upon definition of both the economy and sustainability lead to the wide range of approaches on how to introduce the place and the role of the economy. Every program relies on their own understanding, perspectives and resourcefulness, while agreeing that their teaching should challenge neoclassical economics and engage their students in the various scales of system change. Yet, the time allocated to economics teaching does not exceed 8% of the programs ECTS. We argue that economics should take a much bigger place in postgraduate SD education. A proposed “transdisciplinary economics” calls for more collaboration with students, academia and outside of academia in a joint search for economic alternatives.

No / This important and highly original book explores the application of economics to the subject of hate via such diverse topics as war, terrorism, road rage, witchcraft mania, marriage and divorce, and bullying and harassment.

Since its beginnings, and more clearly since the mid 1800, Economics has been resting on the assumption that economic agents make rational decisions, maximizing their utility or well-being according to their own preferences and interests. The economic order resulting from that plurality of rational decisions is regarded as an efficient and Pareto-optimum one. Several authors have questioned the validity of those assumptions, and this has entailed a gradual transformation of the assumptions. This paper discusses the problems faced by the idea of a fully rational Homo economicus, the adjustments and defensive measures adopted by various tendencies within Economics to overcome those problems and counter various related theoretical and methodological criticisms. The paper also discusses more recent conceptions of economic reality that are at variance with the traditional view, especially those linked to behavioural, institutional and evolutionary Economics. / Desde sus inicios, y más claramente desde mediados del siglo XIX, la Economía se ha basado en el supuesto de que los agentes económicos toman decisiones racionales, maximizando su utilidad o bienestar de acuerdo a sus propias preferencias e intereses. El orden económico resultante de esa pluralidad de decisiones es considerado óptimo o eficiente. Diversos autores han cuestionado la validez de estos supuestos y ello ha motivado una gradual transformación de esos mismos supuestos. En este artículo se examinan los problemas que enfrenta la noción de un Homo economicus completamente racional, las correcciones y medidas defensivas adoptadas por distintas tendencias dentro del análisis económico a fin de resolver esos problemas y contrarrestar críticas teóricas y metodológicas, y el desarrollo reciente de algunas concepciones de la realidad económica que se apartan de aquella concepción tradicional, en especial las vinculadas a la economía conductual, a la economía institucional y a la economía evolucionaria.