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AISPE - Associazione Italiana per la Storia del Pensiero Economico
7th Aispe Conference
Conference venue and dates: Brescia, 23-25 January 2003
Local organisers:
Marco E. L. Guidi (Università di Brescia - Dipartimento di Studi Sociali)
Daniela Parisi (Università Cattolica di Milano - Istituto di Teoria Economica e Metodi
Quantitativi)
General topic: "The Changing Firm. Contributions from the history of economic thought"
Official languages: Italian, English
Invited speakers:
Gianfranco Dioguardi (Politecnico di Bari)
Arnold Heertje (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Enzo Pontarollo (Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, Milano)
Nathan Rosenberg (Stanford University)
Malcolm Rutherford (University of Victoria, BC)
The conference is divided into sessions devoted to the general topic and open sessions.
Some sessions will be in English only
Presentation of the general topic
The conference title is intentionally ambiguous, due to open interpretation of the
transitive or intransitive use of the verb "to change". A firm is indeed a place where
change occurs, and it is also an introducer of continuous innovation which reverberates
throughout the economic and social context.
This theme has been the centre of reflection for economists from the very beginning of
this science. From Cantillon, Beccaria and Smith, up to recent days, research into
technological, organisational and institutional change has hinged on business, considering
firms both in their internal elements and in the relations with the outside world. The
sources of development have been identified in the agents who compose firms and in the
productive and organisational mechanisms which characterise them. This both where progress
is considered endogenous to businesses, and in the opposite case, where it is assumed to
be a termination of proceses originating outside the enterprise. The reflections of
economists on technological and organisational change has always been mixed with attempts
to define the nature of a firm and to construct rigorous theory of its economic function
and the evolution of its structures.
In summary, these development referred to problems regarding: (1) technical development
within the firm; (2) institutional and organisational change in the firm; (3) relations
between businesses and the external environment.
This conference is intended to collect contributions on the complex of themes in the light
of certain unifying historic interrogatives regarding:
the relationships between the study of the diverse forms of progress generated by firms
and the creation of the general analytical tools employed by the economists;
the relationship between continuity and discontinuity, in the history of thought, on this
theme: the relationship between the controversies of theoretical, ideological, and social
nature, and the progressive accumulation of knowledge (sometimes thanks to re-discoveries,
sometimes rather by processes of conceptual hybridisation);
the relationship between the socio-cultural contextualisation of past theories (the
typical attitude of the historian of thought), and the possibility of using these
contributions to fertilise and renovate current theoretical research, enriching it with
interpretative instruments and new investigative perspectives (the approach preferred by
economists, business economists, economic historians and sociologists);
the identification of national styles and traditions * for example the Italian mode *
which demonstrate continuous interest for these themes; the interactions and exchanges
between these styles and traditions.
Aispe award
An "Aispe award" will be assigned to the best paper presented at any session of the
conference by a researcher who, at the expiry date for submission of papers, is under 35
years of age. Details on the Aispe award are avaiable in the Aispe website.
The registration fee is free for all those under 35 not permanently employed by
universities.
Deadlines
Scholars who would like to give a paper either on the general topic or in open sessions
are asked to send a title and an abstract of no more than 150 words by September 15th
2002.
The scientific committee will screen the proposals. Notice of acceptance will be sent by
October 15th 2002.
The deadline for the submission of papers is December 10th 2002.
After the conference, the Scientific Committee will evaluate the possibility of publishing
a selection of papers on the general topic in vol. 1 of "Quaderni Aispe".
Scientific Committee
Francesco Asso, Piero Bini, Riccardo Faucci, Marco Guidi, Daniela Parisi, Riccardo
Realfonzo, Annalisa Rosselli.
Local organising committee
Marco Guidi, Terenzio Maccabelli, Luca Michelini, Daniela Parisi, Giovanni Pavanelli,
Claudia Rotondi, Mario Taccolini
Further information about the conference will be provided on our web site:
(http://dipartimento1.dse.uniroma1.it/aispe/aispe/.asp)
Marco E. L. Guidi
Dipartimento di studi sociali
Università di Brescia
Via S. Faustino 74/B
25122 Brescia Italy
tel. +39 030 2988 878 (office)
+39 030 2988 896 (department)
fax +39 030 2988 893
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Daniela Parisi
Istituto di teoria economica e metodi quantitativi
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
via Necchi, 5
20123 Milano Italy
tel. +39 02 7234 2471 (office)
+39 02 7234 2918 (institute)
fax +39 02 7234 2923
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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