==================== HES POSTING ===================== [Posted on behalf of John Lodewijks <[log in to unmask]> -- RBE] Societies, Journals, and Research in the History of Economics John Lodewijks University of New South Wales Margaret Schabas (1992: 191) has documented the impressive growth in our craft and the healthy increases in membership of societies for the study of the history of economics. Ignoring multiple subscriptions, it has been estimated that there are now more than 2,000 economists registered as members of one or other of the history of economics societies that exist. The Society for the History of Economic Thought in Japan has over 800 members, the North American History of Economics Society has 600 members, the various European Societies would easily account for another 700 and the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia has around 170 members. We do not have much information on the state of HET in Eastern and Central Europe but there is some evidence that since 1990 it has been progressively eliminated from universities of that region. In this brief paper we describe these various societies and ask more questions than we answer about the future of the sub-discipline in the concluding section. Associations and Conferences A scholarly movement needs an institutional base and an 'invisible college' or communications network. It requires scholarly publication outlets and an organisational core, usually in the form of conferences and learned societies. The Society for the History of Economic Thought in Japan was founded in April 1950 with 123 initial members. There is an annual meeting, with around 300 scholars in attendance and usually twenty papers presented, and various regional meetings. The Society has published the Annual Bulletin of the Society since 1963 and also produces a Newsletter. The Japanese Society also has an email list but the list is closed so that only its members may join. The Classical Economists (particularly Smith) and Marx have been popular research subjects in Japan with over 40 per cent of all papers delivered at the annual conference dealing with these topics over the 1950- 80 period. Since the early 1970s there has been a broadening of research interests with more scholars exploring Japanese economic thought, modern economics and Austrian contributions. The popularity of History of Thought in Japan partly reflects the fact that HET is a compulsory course in the department of economics of at least some 300 Universities and Colleges. Leading figures in Japanese HET include T. Negishi, Y. Shionoya, T. Tanaka, T. Tsuda and T. Nishizawa. It should also be mentioned that there is now a Japanese Society for the History of American Economics which publishes a Newsletter in Japanese. The North American History of Economics Society held its first annual conference in May 1974, after an exploratory meeting the previous year and began publishing the History of Economics Society Bulletin in 1979. This publication was in 1990 renamed the Journal of the History of Economic Thought (edited by D. A. Walker) and is in its nineteenth volume in 1997. In July 1997 the Society had its 24th annual meeting. The annual conference now runs over two and a half days and attracts up to 200 delegates. The number of papers delivered has grown from 12 to around 150! The series Perspectives in the History of Economic Thought, published first by Edward Elgar and now by Routledge, consisted first of selected papers from the annual conference and now presents papers selected by the President from the conference on a particular theme. Prominent individuals in the formation of HES include C.Goodwin, S. Hollander, G. Stigler, V. Tarascio, W. Grampp, F. Fetter, R. Eagley, R. Brandis, L. Moss and W. Samuels. James P. Henderson put together an oral conference with the founders of the HES and the tape is in the HES archive at Duke University. The Society has its own Manager of Electronic Information, R. Emmett, in charge of managing the HES List and the Society's web site: http://www.eh.net/HisEcSoc/ An ambitious goal of the HES List is to serve as the major English-language forum for international discussion of the history of economics and conference announcements. There are now over 400 HES email list subscribers in over 35 countries; half the subscribers are non-USA based. Australia has the fourth highest number of subscribers after the U.S., France and Canada. A searchable database of information on archival and manuscript collection resources in the history of economics has now been established (http://orbit.unh.edu/hes/archive.htm). There has been an increase of interest among historians of economics in primary archival research and the Duke Economists' Papers Project is of particular importance here. However, a journal which is published by Duke University Press and not sponsored by the HES is clearly the discipline's leading avenue for the publication of HET. History of Political Economy, is the foremost journal in the field of history of economics. It is now in its 28th volume and first came out in Spring 1969 (although its antecedents date back to the 1930s under the influence of J. Spengler at Duke). It is now a quarterly publication with a hardbound annual supplement. Its only editor has been Craufurd Goodwin whose vision, catholicity of interest and knack for detecting financial sources has been instrumental in enhancing and maintaining the status of HOPE and the American HES. N. De Marchi, and later A.W. Coats and E.R. Weintraub, enriched the sort of history and methodology of economics that was being initiated in America and elsewhere, in their positions as Associate Editors of HOPE. The post war growth in the history of economics started with a conference organized by Donald Winch and held in Sussex, England in January 1968. From this promising start the developments in Britain have been quite peculiar. The British have no formal organization whatsoever (no Secretary-Treasurer, Executive or President). They have informally-organized annual conferences. In response to European initiatives, the formation of a formal society was discussed in 1995 but not proceeded with. A proposal by Mark Blaug and Bernard Corry to initiate a HET journal occurred immediately prior to developments at Duke but was abandoned. The annual British conferences have always been very small, with a careful selection of speakers. Often there were fewer than 35 participants. Hence there are a small number of papers delivered but each paper has 30 minutes of detailed discussion. The average quality of these papers is very high. In contrast, the North American meeting can have three or four sessions running concurrently. Such a large volume of papers tends to produce a wide range of papers presented in terms of topics and quality. The large quantity of papers largely reflected the tyranny of distance in that North American scholars need to present papers in order to qualify for funding to attend far away conferences whereas in the UK distance and cost is much less of a problem. John Vint edits the History of Economic Thought Newsletter which began in 1969. It is now in its 58th number and has over 400 subscribers. The Newsletter and the annual conferences are strictly unrelated. British historians of thought that come to mind include R.D. Collison Black, M. Blaug, A.W. Coats, D.N. Winch, B.A. Corry, T.W. Hutchison, D.P. O'Brien, D.A. Collard, R. Backhouse, M. Morgan, A. Skinner, T. Brewer and S. Dow. Over the last decade, the history of economic thought in Europe has experienced a curiously uneven development with waning curriculum popularity being matched by amplified enterprise in research. The research activities have been stimulated by an increase in European publication, ranging from new and improved journals to the publication of conference proceedings. In terms of conferences the Europeans until recently have had only local or national meetings, there being no umbrella group for their activities as a whole. The French and the Italians form the two largest communities of historians of economics in Europe. The only field journal devoted to the history of economics in France is Economies et Societes, series Histoire de la pensee economique. Otherwise the two leading journals in economics, Revue economique and Revue d'economie politique do publish HET articles. A French association for the study of HET was established in the mid 1980s, the Association Charles Gide pour l'Etude de la pensee economique. In Italy Quaderni di storia dell'economia politica was established in 1983 and was recently renamed the History of Economic Ideas. R. Faucci, D. Cavalieri and M. Augello are key scholars here. There is also the Storia del Pensiero Economico (P. Barucci and now P. Roggi). In Italy HET is taught in one form or other in more than 50 Universities, where there are specialist chairs. There are societies and organizations in other countries, such as the Dutch-Flemish Society for the history of economic thought, the Erasmus Seminar on Philosophy and Economics and the annual conferences on German economics. This fragmented state of affairs has changed rapidly in the last few years. The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought was first published in September 1993 under the leadership of H. Kurz, J. L. Cardoso, A. Murphy and G. Faccarello. The first issue contained a message from the managing Editors that Historians of Thought needed to go on the offensive! Their subject had been marginalized or totally removed in many cases from the curriculum of their academic institutions. The European Conferences on the History of Economics (ECHE) is not a society, but an informal group of four (now six) people who decided to organize conferences in Europe. This group was created in 1994 by Jose Luis Cardoso, Albert Jolink, Robert Leonard and Philippe Fontaine (Michalis Psalidopoulos and Guido Erreygers have since joined). The aims of the Conferences are to have regular international contacts in a European setting to increase communication between individual scholars in European countries and to increase contact between European and non-European scholars. The first conference was in Rotterdam in 1995 with 70 papers presented and 100 participants. The second was in Lisbon in 1996 with 110 papers presented and 140 participants. The third conference in April 1997 was in Athens and the next one is scheduled for Antwerp in April 1998. In December 1995 the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET) was created by older members of the profession as a response to the previous initiative. It now has 250 members. Individuals that have been active here include J. Rosio, R. Faucci, H. Kurz, L. Pasinetti, A. Skinner, P.L. Porta, P. Steiner, R. Arena, G. Vaggi and C. Schmidt. Their first conference is in France in 1997 and the second in Bologna in 1998. The first Newsletter of this Society was the Winter 1996 issue and edited by John Vint. There appears to be no formal links between the EJHET, ECHE and ESHET. The History of Economic Thought Society of Australia was founded in 1981 by J.Wood, J. Pullen and R. Petridis. Bi-annual conferences were held until 1996 when annual conferences commenced. These meetings attract about 36 papers presented over three days, with no multiple sessions. The Ninth Conference was held in 1996. HETSA membership expanded by a hefty 75% over 1991-93 and by another 25% since then. The Society published the HETSA Newsletter and then Bulletin until 1991 when the History of Economics Review appeared, under the editorship of J. Lodewijks. Prominent contributors to HETSA not elsewhere mentioned include P. Groenewegen, B. Gordon, J. Pullen, J. King and T. Endres. The Centre for the Study of the History of Economic Thought at the University of Sydney under the directorship of Peter Groenewegen should also be noted in the Australian context. There are a number of other journals and associations with a more narrowly focussed interest in particular economists or schools of thought. For example, there are a number of journals and societies that deal with the work of Marx. The Marshall Studies Bulletin was first published in 1991 and the Managing editor is T. Raffaelli and the publication is distributed free of charge. Donald Walker was instrumental in establishing The Walras Society in 1994. This society is devoted to the study of the work of Leon Walras and closely related topics and plans an information network, meetings and a Review of Walrasian Studies. The International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society publishes the Journal of Evolutionary Economics and runs quite spectacular conferences. There are also Adam Smith and John Locke Societies and an "Invisible College" of Researchers in Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance history of economic thought, founded by S. Todd Lowry. Perhaps one of the best funded and most active organizations is the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation devoted to the works of Henry George and taxation issues. Incidentally, 1997 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Henry George and the Foundation has organized a conference to commemorate this in New York in November. Austrian and libertarian thought is published by the Liberty Press and in the Review of Austrian Economics and Journal of Libertarian Studies. There is an Austrian Economics Programme at NYU. Other journals concentrating on particular economists or schools of thought include the Journal of Economic Issues (Institutionalists -- there is also an active Association for Evolutionary Economics), Scottish Journal of Political Economy (Smith), Manchester School of Economics and Social Studies (Jevons) and the American Journal of Economics and Sociology (Henry George, American institutionalism). The latter journal is now under the editorship of Laurence Moss, Past President of the History of Economics Society. It should also be mentioned that under the editorship of Ingrid Rima (and her successor) space for history of economic thought articles was always found in the Eastern Economic Journal. Similarly HET is published regularly in the Canadian Journal of Economics and the Cambridge Journal of Economics. Warren Samuels' publication Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology is an excellent venue for papers in HET that exceed the normal page limit requirements of a journal. This series is now edited jointly by Samuels and Jeff Biddle at Michigan State. Malcolm Rutherford and Mary Morgan now have an American Economics Network, which is a mailing list of individuals who are working on the history of American economics. Omar Hamouda (York University) has a newsletter for the HET that is circulated among scholars located in Ontario universities and a few others. The Veblen Society for the History and Philosophy of Economics, a regional club serving the American mid-west (meeting are usually held in Chicago), holds regular seminars on all topics and does not focus specifically on Veblen. Finally, the New England History of Economic Thought Club was renamed in 1979 as the Kress Society and meets monthly between September and May. The web site for the superb Kress Collection in the HET is: http://library.hbs.edu/kress.htm A Curious Interlude: The Network for Economic Methodology One area where there has been an abundance of work in the last few decades has been that of economic methodology. Notable examples include the work of Roger Backhouse, Mark Blaug, Bruce Caldwell, Larry Boland, D. Wade Hands, Daniel Hausman, John Pheby and Neil de Marchi. It was intriguing to see the rise of this movement especially in terms of its influence at the American history of thought meetings. This was curious for a number of reasons; one is that traditional historians had mixed feelings about this intrusion, some seeing methodology as a substitute for not complement to, much less an essential component of, the history of economic analysis. Be that as it may, in 1989 the International Network for Economic Method was established. Leading figures in the formation of the Network to develop closer links among economic methodologists were Victor Mok, Henry Woo and Daniel Fusfeld. Methodus was the Network's bulletin and this was renamed the Journal of Economic Methodology in 1994. Places with a particular strength in the methodology and philosophy of economics include the University of Notre Dame, University of Pittsburgh and the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. There is also now an International Economics and Philosophy Society which has an email list (IEPS-L). In addition to the Journal of Economic Methodology, the journal Economics and Philosophy has brought a greater level of sophistication to methodological concerns, drawing in a number of philosophers. It may be the case that the history of economics and economic methodology are moving apart now. They have different institutional bases and are developing different communication networks. Methodology has more philosophers involved in it, while some influential historians of economics are moving closer to history, economic history and science studies. An extreme version of the "historians of economics should interact more with historians of science" theme is presented by Schabas (1992). She suggests that we should give up trying to speak to, and seek approval from, economists and merge with the history of science. Historians of science speak primarily to one another, and do not need to win the respect of scientists. Historians of economics should follow a similar strategy and break away, or talk more to different audiences by publishing in standard history or history of science journals. Articles on the history of economics now regularly appear in the history of science publications. The most important journal here is Isis but Schabas article notes several others. While some commentators have urged that a more hospitable market for the historian of economics might be the history of science or history proper, the rate of conversion so far has been quite small. Other observers want a more rigid demarcation of what constitutes genuine history of economics and the screening of material that masquerades as history but really advances some heterodox research agenda. Reflections To those within the history of thought community the present appears as a very fruitful and productive period for the sub-discipline. We have noted the impressive growth of these scholarly societies. We are overwhelmed by the quantity of books being published in our field by Edward Elgar, Routledge, JAI Press, Thoemmes Press and the Cambridge University Press with its 'Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics' series. The entrepreneurial efforts of Mark Blaug, Craufurd Goodwin and Warren Samuels should especially be mentioned with their connections to a number of these publishing houses. The initial impetus to these publication ventures was probably the Croom Helm volumes entitled Critical Assessments of Leading Economists and edited by John Wood and primarily targeted at the Japanese market. On the journal front the result is just as pleasing. Where there was once just one specialist journal, History of Political Economy, there are at least six journals. Now in addition to HOPE, we have Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology and Journal of the History of Economic Thought. In Australia there is the History of Economics Review. In Europe we have the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought and History of Economic Ideas, among the English language journals. Despite this frenzy of activity we should not lose sight of our marginal position within the profession as a whole. Even in North America most historians of economic thought live in isolation. Only in a few schools - Duke, Toronto, Illinois, Michigan State, Massachusetts, Wake Forest, Auburn, Notre Dame, York, Utah, NYU, George Mason and the New School - are there assembled sizeable numbers of historians of economics. The state of research in our field is much more encouraging than the teaching situation or its status in the profession. Indeed this sense of embattlement with courses in HET being steadily under threat or eliminated was the key stimulus that led younger historians of thought to establish its first journal, History of Political Economy, in the late 1960s. There appears to be an contradiction between the recent explosion of HET literature and the sub-discipline's increasing marginalization in the profession (Lodewijks 1995). These comments apply with lesser strength in the European context as HET is still an important sub-discipline. The Aggregation in France, an exam that enables people to become full Professors, still includes a "lesson" in the history of economics. A number of concerns arise in response to this juxtaposition. First, is the surge of publications in HET likely to continue? If not, as A.W. Coats recently suggests is likely, what are the implications for the sub-disciple? Secondly, there are genuine concerns about the quality of scholarship associated with the recent flood of contributions, particularly the loose refereeing of books by particular publishing houses. The role and impact of electronic communication needs to be considered here. While the CD-ROMS of major authors and the scanning of non-copyright HET material (via Rod Hay and Tony Brewer) provides a wonderful public "good" for researchers, the almost unrestricted communications on the HES list may lead to Gresham's Law! While the List has over 400 members there are only about 10 really active participants and certain individuals have an irrepressible urge to comment on all issues. Thirdly, with the aging and retirement of some of the crafts' most well-known and scholarly contributors, there are concerns about the future. *First draft was written on 25 November 1996. Presented at Duke University for discussion on 17 December, 1996. The comments of Ross Emmett, Philippe Fontaine, Craufurd Goodwin, Peter Groenewegen and Roy Weintraub are much appreciated. Selected References Lodewijks, John. 1995. Relevance, Scholarship and the Historian of Economics. History of Economic Ideas III.2: 131-155. Schabas, Margaret et al. 1992. Breaking Away: History of Economics as History of Science. Minisymposium: The History of Economics and the History of Science. History of Political Economy 24.1: 185-247. ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]