George Demartino
Biographic Data
| ID | 331798 |
|---|---|
| NAME | George Demartino |
| GIVEN NAMES | George |
| FAMILY NAME | Demartino |
| SIGNATURE | DEMARTINO G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Denver |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8718-783X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The ethics of engaged scholarship in a complex world
Social scientists must grapple with how to pursue knowledge about an uncertain and complex world. This challenge is accentuated when scholars wish to engage responsibly with policy-makers and the public in the interests of social betterment. In this article, we use the scholarly literature on uncertainty and complexity to examine how these issues complicate the practice of engaged scholarship. We ground our analysis in interviews with publicly en…
Economics for an uncertain world
Uncertainty, where we do not know the likelihood of future events, dominates our world. This article examines how economics as a profession and discipline can address uncertainty. From Frank Knight to John Maynard Keynes to Friedrich von Hayek to George Shackle, economics has highlighted the importance of uncertain knowledge and distinguished this from calculable risk. In this article we show how such insights were lost through the rise of narrow…
The confounding problem of the counterfactual in economic explanation
Economists who have emphasized uncertainty have tended to draw a sharp epistemic distinction between an ascertainable past and an unknowable future. But in one critical respect – in extracting causal relationships – the epistemic distinction is unsustainable. Many types of causal arguments in economics depend on counterfactual reasoning. Counterfactualizing entails the construction of fictions about what would have happened or would happen in the…
Conversation with Deirdre McCloskey
Scientific judgment requires quantitative judgment, not endlessly more machinery.As lovely and useful as the machinery is, at the end, having skillfully used it
Irreparable ignorance, protean power, and economics
The ongoing crisis in mainstream economics has opened the door to recognition of true uncertainty. Economists are increasingly embracing uncertainty and tracing its implications for responsible economic practice and policy design that foregrounds rather than dismisses the limits to knowledge. Protean Power (PP) promotes a similar shift in international relations. PP advances a key distinction between operational and radical uncertainty. We argue …
The Tragedy of Economics
Economists cause harm as they try to do good: that is the tragedy of economics. That claim is a non-normative description, not an indictment of the profession. Harm arises because of the uneven impact across society of most economic policy interventions, and because of the irreparable ignorance economists face in their work. But the profession gives inadequate attention to the harm its practice induces—a claim that is both positive and normative.…
Econogenic Harm and the Case for ‘Economy Harm Profile’ Analysis
The economics profession aspires to promote the public good, defined variously as social welfare, freedom, justice, sustainability, and other valued goods. But the institutions, rules, and practices economists advocate in pursuit of that goal also cause harm. The profession has nevertheless been relatively inattentive to what I term ‘econogenic’ or economist-induced harm. An adequate engagement with econogenic harm would require new concepts, fra…
Reconstructing Globalization in an Illiberal Era
In their new indictments of global neoliberalism and the economic profession's culpability in its harms, Dani Rodrik and Joseph Stiglitz press the case for reconstructed globalization that generates benefits for all and not just for corporate and financial elites. Both books are deeply consistent with the insights of Karl Polanyi, who had identified the inherent contradictions of the project to create what he called a self-regulating economy. Lik…
The Economist's Oath
This paper responds to arguments presented by the four contributors to the symposium on The Economist's Oath, concerning the failure of the economics profession to recognize and respond appropriately to the daunting ethical questions that arise in the context of its work. The essay first explores the paternalistic sensibilities of many economists, who believe that their expertise grants them authority to decide for others. Second, the essay ackno…
Harming Irreparably
The global neoliberal project, which entailed inter alia financial liberalization that accelerated financialization of the world economy, was advocated by leading Austrian, Chicago School neoclassical, and New Keynesian economists, despite awareness that the project would harm many members of society even as it benefitted others. To the extent that they were efficacious in their advocacy, economists contributed to the imposition of serious harm. …
Ethical Economic Engagement in a World beyond Control
Political projects are often grounded in theoretical analyses that present themselves as adequate to the world they hope to transform. This is true of many projects on the right as well as many on the left. In contrast, J. K. Gibson-Graham refuse any such notion of adequacy. Their refusal substantially complicates the ethical dimensions of academic practice, especially for those scholars who seek to promote projects of economic emancipation and j…
Epistemic Aspects of Economic Practice and the Need for Professional Economic Ethics
This paper explores ethical burdens facing the economics profession which are associated with epistemic features of economic practice. Economists exert power over those they purport to serve by virtue of epistemic asymmetry between themselves and others, i.e., the intellectual monopoly they enjoy over a vitally important body of knowledge. But they also face the problem of epistemic insufficiency, which implies that they may do substantial harm a…
Capabilities, Equality, and Class Justice
(2011). Capabilities, Equality, and Class Justice: A Reply to Wilde. Global Discourse: Vol. 2, Part 1: Examining the Contemporary Relevance of Marxism, pp. 39-47
The Entailments of Entailments
In Market Sense: Toward a New Economics of Markets and Society, Philip Kozel examines the intellectual “entailments” that infuse the work of Marxian and non-Marxian scholarship on globalization and the market economy. Kozel illuminates the ways in which entailment thinking interferes with complex social analysis and efficacious political interventions. This essay examines the contributions of the book, and explores some of the many forms in which…
On Marxism, Institutionalism, and the Problem of Labor Exploitation
In Are Worker Rights Human Rights? Ric McIntyre explores the unintended manner in which rights discourse may impede the project to empower labor in today's globally integrated economy, while offering a synthesis of critical insights from the institutionalist and Marxian traditions. In his synthesis McIntyre draws on the related concepts of convention and class, on the one hand, and reasonable value and exploitation, on the other. This essay pursu…
On the politics of global economy, global justice
In this paper I respond to the symposium on my book Global Economy, Global Justice: Normative Objections and Policy Alternatives to Neoliberalism, with contributions by William Milberg, Julie Graham, Maliha Safri, and Eray Düzenli. This paper explores a topic just briefly mentioned in Global Economy, Global Justice—namely, the politics associated with the pursuit of the form of justice that I advance in the book. I argue that the book's principal…
Realizing class justice
A Comment on "Globalization and Neoliberalism," by David Kotz
(2002). A Comment on 'Globalization and Neoliberalism,' by David Kotz. Rethinking Marxism: Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 80-85
Global Economy, Global Justice
This text presents a devastating critique of the currently fashionable idea of globalisation. Using comprehensive and non-technical language this book looks at the world's cultural and value diversity, and questions whether it is possible to impose a global policy, given these differences. Topics covered include:* theories of distribution and welfare* what leads to a good economic outcome?* Egalitarian theories of welfarism* global neoliberalism …
Demonstration' Drives, 'Predatory' Drives
Against global neoliberalism
(1996). Against global neoliberalism: Normative principles and policy alternatives. New Political Science: Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 21-42
Beyond the Competitiveness Debate
It is tempting to believe that we live in an era when powerful international economic forces have overwhelmed the ability of progressive constituencies to affect the quality of life and other social and economic circumstances in developed and developing countries alike. How, after all, are organizations of labor, women, environmentalists, and others-all still largely domestically situated and substantially fragmented-to make a meaningful imprint …
The Necessity/Contingency Dualism in Marxian Crisis Theory
Trade-Union Isolation and the Catechism of the Left
Realizing class justice
Ethical Economic Engagement in a World beyond Control
Political projects are often grounded in theoretical analyses that present themselves as adequate to the world they hope to transform. This is true of many projects on the right as well as many on the left. In contrast, J. K. Gibson-Graham refuse any such notion of adequacy. Their refusal substantially complicates the ethical dimensions of academic practice, especially for those scholars who seek to promote projects of economic emancipation and j…
Epistemic Aspects of Economic Practice and the Need for Professional Economic Ethics
This paper explores ethical burdens facing the economics profession which are associated with epistemic features of economic practice. Economists exert power over those they purport to serve by virtue of epistemic asymmetry between themselves and others, i.e., the intellectual monopoly they enjoy over a vitally important body of knowledge. But they also face the problem of epistemic insufficiency, which implies that they may do substantial harm a…
Economics for an uncertain world
Uncertainty, where we do not know the likelihood of future events, dominates our world. This article examines how economics as a profession and discipline can address uncertainty. From Frank Knight to John Maynard Keynes to Friedrich von Hayek to George Shackle, economics has highlighted the importance of uncertain knowledge and distinguished this from calculable risk. In this article we show how such insights were lost through the rise of narrow…
Trade-Union Isolation and the Catechism of the Left
The ethics of engaged scholarship in a complex world
Social scientists must grapple with how to pursue knowledge about an uncertain and complex world. This challenge is accentuated when scholars wish to engage responsibly with policy-makers and the public in the interests of social betterment. In this article, we use the scholarly literature on uncertainty and complexity to examine how these issues complicate the practice of engaged scholarship. We ground our analysis in interviews with publicly en…
Irreparable ignorance, protean power, and economics
The ongoing crisis in mainstream economics has opened the door to recognition of true uncertainty. Economists are increasingly embracing uncertainty and tracing its implications for responsible economic practice and policy design that foregrounds rather than dismisses the limits to knowledge. Protean Power (PP) promotes a similar shift in international relations. PP advances a key distinction between operational and radical uncertainty. We argue …
Harming Irreparably
The global neoliberal project, which entailed inter alia financial liberalization that accelerated financialization of the world economy, was advocated by leading Austrian, Chicago School neoclassical, and New Keynesian economists, despite awareness that the project would harm many members of society even as it benefitted others. To the extent that they were efficacious in their advocacy, economists contributed to the imposition of serious harm. …
Reconstructing Globalization in an Illiberal Era
In their new indictments of global neoliberalism and the economic profession's culpability in its harms, Dani Rodrik and Joseph Stiglitz press the case for reconstructed globalization that generates benefits for all and not just for corporate and financial elites. Both books are deeply consistent with the insights of Karl Polanyi, who had identified the inherent contradictions of the project to create what he called a self-regulating economy. Lik…
Beyond the Competitiveness Debate
It is tempting to believe that we live in an era when powerful international economic forces have overwhelmed the ability of progressive constituencies to affect the quality of life and other social and economic circumstances in developed and developing countries alike. How, after all, are organizations of labor, women, environmentalists, and others-all still largely domestically situated and substantially fragmented-to make a meaningful imprint …
Trade-Union Isolation and the Catechism of the Left
The Necessity/Contingency Dualism in Marxian Crisis Theory
Beyond the Competitiveness Debate
It is tempting to believe that we live in an era when powerful international economic forces have overwhelmed the ability of progressive constituencies to affect the quality of life and other social and economic circumstances in developed and developing countries alike. How, after all, are organizations of labor, women, environmentalists, and others-all still largely domestically situated and substantially fragmented-to make a meaningful imprint …
Against global neoliberalism
(1996). Against global neoliberalism: Normative principles and policy alternatives. New Political Science: Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 21-42
Demonstration' Drives, 'Predatory' Drives
Global Economy, Global Justice
This text presents a devastating critique of the currently fashionable idea of globalisation. Using comprehensive and non-technical language this book looks at the world's cultural and value diversity, and questions whether it is possible to impose a global policy, given these differences. Topics covered include:* theories of distribution and welfare* what leads to a good economic outcome?* Egalitarian theories of welfarism* global neoliberalism …
A Comment on "Globalization and Neoliberalism," by David Kotz
(2002). A Comment on 'Globalization and Neoliberalism,' by David Kotz. Rethinking Marxism: Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 80-85
Realizing class justice
On the politics of global economy, global justice
In this paper I respond to the symposium on my book Global Economy, Global Justice: Normative Objections and Policy Alternatives to Neoliberalism, with contributions by William Milberg, Julie Graham, Maliha Safri, and Eray Düzenli. This paper explores a topic just briefly mentioned in Global Economy, Global Justice—namely, the politics associated with the pursuit of the form of justice that I advance in the book. I argue that the book's principal…
On Marxism, Institutionalism, and the Problem of Labor Exploitation
In Are Worker Rights Human Rights? Ric McIntyre explores the unintended manner in which rights discourse may impede the project to empower labor in today's globally integrated economy, while offering a synthesis of critical insights from the institutionalist and Marxian traditions. In his synthesis McIntyre draws on the related concepts of convention and class, on the one hand, and reasonable value and exploitation, on the other. This essay pursu…
Capabilities, Equality, and Class Justice
(2011). Capabilities, Equality, and Class Justice: A Reply to Wilde. Global Discourse: Vol. 2, Part 1: Examining the Contemporary Relevance of Marxism, pp. 39-47
The Entailments of Entailments
In Market Sense: Toward a New Economics of Markets and Society, Philip Kozel examines the intellectual “entailments” that infuse the work of Marxian and non-Marxian scholarship on globalization and the market economy. Kozel illuminates the ways in which entailment thinking interferes with complex social analysis and efficacious political interventions. This essay examines the contributions of the book, and explores some of the many forms in which…
Ethical Economic Engagement in a World beyond Control
Political projects are often grounded in theoretical analyses that present themselves as adequate to the world they hope to transform. This is true of many projects on the right as well as many on the left. In contrast, J. K. Gibson-Graham refuse any such notion of adequacy. Their refusal substantially complicates the ethical dimensions of academic practice, especially for those scholars who seek to promote projects of economic emancipation and j…
Epistemic Aspects of Economic Practice and the Need for Professional Economic Ethics
This paper explores ethical burdens facing the economics profession which are associated with epistemic features of economic practice. Economists exert power over those they purport to serve by virtue of epistemic asymmetry between themselves and others, i.e., the intellectual monopoly they enjoy over a vitally important body of knowledge. But they also face the problem of epistemic insufficiency, which implies that they may do substantial harm a…
Harming Irreparably
The global neoliberal project, which entailed inter alia financial liberalization that accelerated financialization of the world economy, was advocated by leading Austrian, Chicago School neoclassical, and New Keynesian economists, despite awareness that the project would harm many members of society even as it benefitted others. To the extent that they were efficacious in their advocacy, economists contributed to the imposition of serious harm. …
The Economist's Oath
This paper responds to arguments presented by the four contributors to the symposium on The Economist's Oath, concerning the failure of the economics profession to recognize and respond appropriately to the daunting ethical questions that arise in the context of its work. The essay first explores the paternalistic sensibilities of many economists, who believe that their expertise grants them authority to decide for others. Second, the essay ackno…
Econogenic Harm and the Case for ‘Economy Harm Profile’ Analysis
The economics profession aspires to promote the public good, defined variously as social welfare, freedom, justice, sustainability, and other valued goods. But the institutions, rules, and practices economists advocate in pursuit of that goal also cause harm. The profession has nevertheless been relatively inattentive to what I term ‘econogenic’ or economist-induced harm. An adequate engagement with econogenic harm would require new concepts, fra…
Reconstructing Globalization in an Illiberal Era
In their new indictments of global neoliberalism and the economic profession's culpability in its harms, Dani Rodrik and Joseph Stiglitz press the case for reconstructed globalization that generates benefits for all and not just for corporate and financial elites. Both books are deeply consistent with the insights of Karl Polanyi, who had identified the inherent contradictions of the project to create what he called a self-regulating economy. Lik…
The Tragedy of Economics
Economists cause harm as they try to do good: that is the tragedy of economics. That claim is a non-normative description, not an indictment of the profession. Harm arises because of the uneven impact across society of most economic policy interventions, and because of the irreparable ignorance economists face in their work. But the profession gives inadequate attention to the harm its practice induces—a claim that is both positive and normative.…
Conversation with Deirdre McCloskey
Scientific judgment requires quantitative judgment, not endlessly more machinery.As lovely and useful as the machinery is, at the end, having skillfully used it
Irreparable ignorance, protean power, and economics
The ongoing crisis in mainstream economics has opened the door to recognition of true uncertainty. Economists are increasingly embracing uncertainty and tracing its implications for responsible economic practice and policy design that foregrounds rather than dismisses the limits to knowledge. Protean Power (PP) promotes a similar shift in international relations. PP advances a key distinction between operational and radical uncertainty. We argue …
The confounding problem of the counterfactual in economic explanation
Economists who have emphasized uncertainty have tended to draw a sharp epistemic distinction between an ascertainable past and an unknowable future. But in one critical respect – in extracting causal relationships – the epistemic distinction is unsustainable. Many types of causal arguments in economics depend on counterfactual reasoning. Counterfactualizing entails the construction of fictions about what would have happened or would happen in the…
Economics for an uncertain world
Uncertainty, where we do not know the likelihood of future events, dominates our world. This article examines how economics as a profession and discipline can address uncertainty. From Frank Knight to John Maynard Keynes to Friedrich von Hayek to George Shackle, economics has highlighted the importance of uncertain knowledge and distinguished this from calculable risk. In this article we show how such insights were lost through the rise of narrow…
The ethics of engaged scholarship in a complex world
Social scientists must grapple with how to pursue knowledge about an uncertain and complex world. This challenge is accentuated when scholars wish to engage responsibly with policy-makers and the public in the interests of social betterment. In this article, we use the scholarly literature on uncertainty and complexity to examine how these issues complicate the practice of engaged scholarship. We ground our analysis in interviews with publicly en…
Political science (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Economics (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Economic Theory and Institutions (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (11 works) · Positive economics (10 works) · Epistemology (9 works)