ASSOCIATION FOR SOCIAL ECONOMICS CALL FOR PAPERS Annual Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings New Orleans, LA January 4-6, 2008 THEME: Inequality, Democracy, and the Economy >From the 1940s to the mid-1970s the distribution of income in the United States and many other countries showed little change. It was even said that tracking change in the distribution of income in the United States 'was like watching the grass grow.' Since the late 1970s income disparities have widened continually and wealth has become more and more concentrated. The United States exceeds all other developed countries in this regard. The United States also actively promotes global neoliberal economic policies throughout the world designed to remake the world economy on the American model. * What are the origins and sources of this historic change, what drives it today, and what can we expect of this process of change in the future? * Is democracy a casualty of rising inequality in income and wealth? How is democracy impacted in a world of concentrated economic power? * Is consumer culture the outcome of increasing inequality, the means to sustaining it, and the solution to the 'problem' of democracy? * How is rising economic inequality related to health care states and the health of nations? * Who has been abandoned in this historic change? Who are today's vulnerable populations? * What is the changing status and meaning of the individual? Why has social identity become important? What is the meaning of pluralism? * How are these issues being contested in economics? What is the relation of the recent new movements in economics to increasing inequality? Members and nonmembers of the Association for Social Economics are invited to submit proposals and complete sessions on these themes topics for the New Orleans ASE program. The program will begin Thursday evening January 3 with an opening plenary lecture followed by an ICAPE reception. Please send an abstract by email of 300 words or less by May 1, 2007 to: John Davis University of Amsterdam and Marquette University [log in to unmask] John Davis