David Spencer
Biographic Data
| ID | 3588843 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Spencer |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Spencer |
| SIGNATURE | SPENCER D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7803-6105 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 213 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1966 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Embodied Citizenship: Track and Field and the Politics of Belonging in Postcolonial Barbados
Track and field has shaped national belonging in Barbados from independence in 1966 to the present. While Caribbean sport historiography has largely centred cricket as the primary arena of anticolonial expression, athletics has instead performed a different but equally significant nation-making function in a small postcolonial state. Embedded in the expansion of secondary education, annual school championships, regional competitions such as CARIF…
The wellbeing gap between immigrants and natives: The role of social integration
Introduction: Existing research has examined immigrants' subjective wellbeing and economic integration but less is known about whether multiple dimensions of social integration jointly account for differences in subjective wellbeing between immigrants and natives in the UK. This paper examines whether British identity, community involvement, neighborhood attachment and UK-based social networks help explain this disparity. Methods: The analysis us…
AI, automation and the lightening of work
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology poses possible threats to existing jobs. These threats extend not just to the number of jobs available but also to their quality. In the future, so some predict, workers could face fewer and potentially worse jobs, at least if society does not embrace reforms that manage the coming AI revolution. This paper uses the example of Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson’s recent book— Power and Progress (2023)—to illu…
The subjective well-being of immigrants and natives during Covid-19
This study investigates the subjective well-being of immigrants and natives in the United Kingdom (UK) during the Covid-19 pandemic. A novel aspect of this research is that we exploit the quasi-experimental nature of the pandemic to analyse the potential causal impact of neighbourhood embeddedness in mitigating the adverse shock on subjective well-being. We proxy subjective well-being by life satisfaction and consider neighbourly support and psyc…
Keynes as a post-growth economist
Marx, Keynes and the future of working time
This paper re-examines the different visions of the future of working time offered by Marx and Keynes. While Marx and Keynes differed radically on some fundamental matters, they agreed that society would benefit from reducing work time. The idea of society using technology to curtail work hours was a central aspect of their respective visions of a better future. The paper compares Marx’s and Keynes’s visions. It also considers the fate of their v…
Beyond Full Employment: Keynes and Kalecki on our Economic Future
This paper addresses the idea of creating an economy beyond full employmentnamely one that offers some work for people to do but also more abundant leisure time. It argues that this idea has endured in critical political economy. J.M. Keynes gave it support directly. Its realisation though raises concerns over the balance of power relations in society and the scope to use the productivity gains from technological progress to lighten work. Here us…
Efficiency vs. Meaningful Work: A Critical Survey of Historical and Contemporary Debates
This paper considers the trade-off between the demand for efficiency and the demand for meaningful work. It asks whether this trade-off should be treated as inevitable or potentially resolvable, at least under reformed conditions. It compares historical and contemporary debates where the trade-off features. It focuses initially on Adam Smith’s account of the division of labour in which less meaningful work is assumed to be the necessary price of …
Productivity growth and regional reindustrialisation: UK evidence
The re-emergence of industry – a process known as ‘reindustrialisation’ – has been widely acknowledged, especially in the United States and Europe. However, there are unanswered questions about the extent of any recent industrial revival in the UK. We present new evidence on reindustrialisation within and across UK regions. Our measures of reindustrialisation reveal that most regions outside London have reindustrialised to some extent. Furthermor…
Wage Theft and the Struggle over the Working Day in Hospitality Work: A Typology of Unpaid Labour Time
Drawing on Marxist political economy, this article examines wage theft in hospitality work. Through a detailed, qualitative study of workers' experiences in London hotels, a novel typology is developed that reveals how managers extract additional unpaid labour time through wage theft. The article argues that both the legal definition and existing academic formulations of wage theft fail to encompass the full range of ways that employers extract u…
The Geo-Strategic Impact of the Mexican Cartels
Cet article analyse les effets déstabilisateurs des cartels mexicains tant pour le pays où ils agissent qu’au niveau international
Automation and Well-Being: Bridging the Gap between Economics and Business Ethics
Some economists now predict that technology will eliminate many millions of jobs and lead to a future without work. Much debate focuses on the accuracy of such a prediction—whether, or at what rate, jobs will disappear. But there is a wider question raised by this prediction, namely the merits or otherwise of automating work. Beyond estimating future job losses via automation, there is the normative issue of whether the quality of life would be e…
Technology and work: Past lessons and future directions
This paper addresses arguments that suggest life would be better if machines took the place of humans in work. These arguments are highly topical and remain central to modern debates on automation. Yet, as argued in this paper, they have a long history. They draw strength from different ideas including about the value of work and free time. These ideas also fit with broader agendas that address futures beyond capitalism. The paper uses a review o…
Furloughing and Covid-19: Assessing regulatory reform of the state
This article assesses regulatory reform of the state in the context of the move to furloughing in the UK. It establishes that furloughing was a successful response to the COVID-19 crisis, partly because it challenged the traditional UK crisis response of non-state intervention in the labour market. Furloughing prevented higher unemployment and enabled a swifter recovery. The article also identifies the limits of furloughing (not least its tempora…
No automation please, we’re British: Technology and the prospects for work
This article assesses the impact and probably limits of automation. It looks, in particular, at the case of the UK economy. The prospects for automation are seen as necessarily uncertain and potentially regressive in their effects, with technology likely to sustain a large number of low-quality jobs. The deep-seated problems of the UK economy—low-investment, low-productivity and low-real wages—are seen as key impediments to forms of automation th…
Fear and hope in an age of mass automation: Debating the future of work
Alternative perspectives from economics and political economy now agree that work is set to disappear through the impact of mass automation. Some worry about the negative effects on unemployment and inequality, while others see the opportunity to extend free time. This paper confronts and criticises these perspectives. It addresses previous visions of an automated (‘workless’) future presented by Marx and Keynes and shows the enduring barriers to…
Deaf citizens as jurors in Australian courts: Participating via professional interpreters
Australian deaf citizens are currently not permitted to perform jury duty, primarily due to their inability to hear the evidence and deliberate without the help of interpreters. Although interpreters are routinely employed to interpret for defendants or witnesses in court, current legal frameworks do not permit interpreters to enter the deliberation room as a ‘thirteenth person’, for fear that they may influence the jurors in their decision-makin…
Jury instructions: Comparing hearing and deaf jurors’ comprehension via direct or mediated communication
This project investigated the capacity of deaf people using Australian Sign Language (Auslan) to serve as jurors. Following on from a pilot study with 6 deaf and 6 hearing people acting as ‘jurors’ (see Napier & Spencer, 2007, 2008), this project replicated the method of the earlier study, and compared the level of comprehension of 30 deaf jurors to a control group of 30 non-deaf (‘hearing’) jurors from three different major cities in Australia; …
Work in and beyond the Second Machine Age: The Politics of Production and Digital Technologies
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, in their widely read and politically impactful book The Second Machine Age, highlight the costs and benefits of digital technologies for the volume and quality of work and identify reforms designed to ensure that digital technologies deliver net advantages to workers and society more generally. This article offers a critique of their thesis. Specifically, it criticizes the authors for their neglect of the nexu…
From happiness to social provisioning: Addressing well-being in times of crisis
The paper offers a critique of happiness research based on subjective well-being (SWB) data and proposes an alternative approach to the study of well-being drawing on the political economy tradition. The World Happiness Report (WHR) interpretation of the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on SWB data is used to illustrate the problems with happiness research and the merits of an alternative political economy approach to well-being. The develop…
Developing an understanding of meaningful work in economics: The case for a heterodox economics of work
The idea that work has meaning and is meaningful beyond its contribution to consumption has been largely absent from mainstream economics. This paper gives reasons for why mainstream economics has neglected the idea of meaningful work. It identifies the idea of the disutility of work, the assumption of free choice on the part of workers and the use of a formal and individualistic method as key constraints on the ability of mainstream economics to…
Understanding the Global Financial Crisis: Sociology, Political Economy and Heterodox Economics
This article argues that collective development of an understanding of the global financial crisis and ensuing austerity requires an alliance between sociology, 'heterodox economics' and related disciplines within the broad tradition of 'political economy'. It introduces 'heterodox economics' as a body of thought that emerged in response to the failure of mainstream economics to theorise coherently the capitalist system as a whole, suggesting tha…
A preliminary investigation of cognitive function in rheumatoid arthritis patients on long-term methotrexate treatment
Some studies suggest that cognitive function is impaired in rheumatoid arthritis patients. One possible influence may be commonly used rheumatoid arthritis treatment, methotrexate. This study examined cognitive function in long-term methotrexate users with rheumatoid arthritis and, using a 24-hour pre- and post-methotrexate dose administration, investigated whether there may be transient cognitive function changes. Rheumatoid arthritis patients (…
Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces in Iraq
"Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces in Iraq." Small Wars & Insurgencies, 23(2), pp. 376–377
Not all that it might seem: Why Job Satisfaction Is Worth Studying Despite It Being a Poor Summary Measure of Job Quality
Interest in data on job satisfaction is increasing in both academic and policy circles. One common way of interpreting these data is to see a positive association between job satisfaction and job quality. Another view is to dismiss the usefulness of job satisfaction data, because workers can often express satisfaction with work where job quality is poor. It is argued that this second view has some validity, but that survey data on job satisfactio…
Not all that it might seem: Why Job Satisfaction Is Worth Studying Despite It Being a Poor Summary Measure of Job Quality
Interest in data on job satisfaction is increasing in both academic and policy circles. One common way of interpreting these data is to see a positive association between job satisfaction and job quality. Another view is to dismiss the usefulness of job satisfaction data, because workers can often express satisfaction with work where job quality is poor. It is argued that this second view has some validity, but that survey data on job satisfactio…
Fear and hope in an age of mass automation: Debating the future of work
Alternative perspectives from economics and political economy now agree that work is set to disappear through the impact of mass automation. Some worry about the negative effects on unemployment and inequality, while others see the opportunity to extend free time. This paper confronts and criticises these perspectives. It addresses previous visions of an automated (‘workless’) future presented by Marx and Keynes and shows the enduring barriers to…
Work in and beyond the Second Machine Age: The Politics of Production and Digital Technologies
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, in their widely read and politically impactful book The Second Machine Age, highlight the costs and benefits of digital technologies for the volume and quality of work and identify reforms designed to ensure that digital technologies deliver net advantages to workers and society more generally. This article offers a critique of their thesis. Specifically, it criticizes the authors for their neglect of the nexu…
Counterurbanisation: The local dimension
Braverman and the Contribution of Labour Process Analysis to the Critique of Capitalist Production - Twenty-Five Years On
This paper seeks to reassess the contributions made by Braverman and subsequent labour process writers to the critique of capitalist production. Braverman's main motivation lay with the subversion of pro-capitalist ideologies. He identified deskilling tendencies with the capitalist imperative of accumulation in order to promote the case for revolutionary change. The labour process debate that Braverman helped to initiate, while successful in broa…
No automation please, we’re British: Technology and the prospects for work
This article assesses the impact and probably limits of automation. It looks, in particular, at the case of the UK economy. The prospects for automation are seen as necessarily uncertain and potentially regressive in their effects, with technology likely to sustain a large number of low-quality jobs. The deep-seated problems of the UK economy—low-investment, low-productivity and low-real wages—are seen as key impediments to forms of automation th…
Understanding the Global Financial Crisis: Sociology, Political Economy and Heterodox Economics
This article argues that collective development of an understanding of the global financial crisis and ensuing austerity requires an alliance between sociology, 'heterodox economics' and related disciplines within the broad tradition of 'political economy'. It introduces 'heterodox economics' as a body of thought that emerged in response to the failure of mainstream economics to theorise coherently the capitalist system as a whole, suggesting tha…
Counterurbanisation and rural depopulation revisited: Landowners, planners and the rural development process
Wage Theft and the Struggle over the Working Day in Hospitality Work: A Typology of Unpaid Labour Time
Drawing on Marxist political economy, this article examines wage theft in hospitality work. Through a detailed, qualitative study of workers' experiences in London hotels, a novel typology is developed that reveals how managers extract additional unpaid labour time through wage theft. The article argues that both the legal definition and existing academic formulations of wage theft fail to encompass the full range of ways that employers extract u…
Pulling out of landed property: The Oxford colleges and the Church Commissioners
This paper assesses the extent to which the Oxford colleges—like the Church Commissioners—have transferred capital out of landed property as part of a broader project of asset re‐structuring. It argues that explanation lies in changes to the rules of accumulation, which were the outcome of a series of political and ideological conflicts between the colleges and the central state
From Pain Cost to Opportunity Cost: The Eclipse of the Quality of Work as a Factor in Economic Theory
I would like to thank two anonymous referees for useful comments on an earlier draft of this article. I am also very grateful for the comments of Andrew Brown, John King, Malcolm Sawyer, Gary Slater, Ian Steedman, and Michael White. Remaining errors are mine alone
Love's labor's lost? the disutility of work and work avoidance in the economic analysis of labor supply
This paper explores the origins and evolution of the concept of the disutility of work. The original formulation of this concept developed by Stanley Jevons and by Alfred Marshall recognizes the variability of work motives stressing the effects of both the quantity and quality of work on labor supply. Subsequent writers, notably Lionel Robbins, and later Gary Becker, focus on the opportunity cost of work time, to the neglect of the content of wor…
Reformulating the ‘closed’ parish thesis: Associations, interests, and interaction
Technology and work: Past lessons and future directions
This paper addresses arguments that suggest life would be better if machines took the place of humans in work. These arguments are highly topical and remain central to modern debates on automation. Yet, as argued in this paper, they have a long history. They draw strength from different ideas including about the value of work and free time. These ideas also fit with broader agendas that address futures beyond capitalism. The paper uses a review o…
Getting personnel: Contesting and Transcending the ‘New Labour Economics
This article seeks to critique and transcend the economics of personnel, a new and fast growing area of mainstream labour economics that focuses upon the study of human resources issues. Personnel economics is presented by its founder Edward Lazear as a superior alternative to research in other established fields, including HRM and the sociology of work. It is argued against Lazear that personnel economics offers a limited and flawed conception o…
Landed property, commoditisation, and the re-making of rural locales: The case of the Oxford Colleges
Oxford Collegiate Landownership, Commoditisation, and the State: A Case of 'Real' Regulation
In this paper I focus upon the increasing tendency of the Oxford colleges to treat their landed property as a commodity. I begin by arguing that the theory of action in context offers considerable potential for studying the nature of their landownership and the manner in which they have formulated and pursued their property interests. Following this, I examine the extent to which the colleges have shifted their capital out of landed property and …
The subjective well-being of immigrants and natives during Covid-19
This study investigates the subjective well-being of immigrants and natives in the United Kingdom (UK) during the Covid-19 pandemic. A novel aspect of this research is that we exploit the quasi-experimental nature of the pandemic to analyse the potential causal impact of neighbourhood embeddedness in mitigating the adverse shock on subjective well-being. We proxy subjective well-being by life satisfaction and consider neighbourly support and psyc…
Efficiency vs. Meaningful Work: A Critical Survey of Historical and Contemporary Debates
This paper considers the trade-off between the demand for efficiency and the demand for meaningful work. It asks whether this trade-off should be treated as inevitable or potentially resolvable, at least under reformed conditions. It compares historical and contemporary debates where the trade-off features. It focuses initially on Adam Smith’s account of the division of labour in which less meaningful work is assumed to be the necessary price of …
From happiness to social provisioning: Addressing well-being in times of crisis
The paper offers a critique of happiness research based on subjective well-being (SWB) data and proposes an alternative approach to the study of well-being drawing on the political economy tradition. The World Happiness Report (WHR) interpretation of the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on SWB data is used to illustrate the problems with happiness research and the merits of an alternative political economy approach to well-being. The develop…
Work is a Four-Letter Word: The Economics of Work in Historical and Critical Perspective
The article highlights and explains the neglect of the activity of work in much of the mainstream economics literature. The neglect of work is seen to have denied space for mainstream economists to engage with the full range of possibilities for progress in human well-being. The article also considers perspectives on work from within heterodox or non-mainstream economics and argues that these perspectives provide a superior foundation for the the…
The ‘work as bad’ thesis in economics: Origins, evolution, and challenges
This paper argues that in all major of epochs of economic thought – mercantilist, classical, and neoclassical – work has been portrayed as an unloved necessity. Politically, the treatment of work as a necessary evil has created undue pessimism about the prospects for progress in the quality of work and has helped to justify repressive policies to compel the working population to work hard. The ‘work as bad’ thesis, however, has been challenged by…
Shirking the Issue? Efficiency wages, work discipline and full employment
This paper assesses recent neoclassical and radical contributions to the analysis of unemployment as a labour disciplinary device, in particular, those of Shapiro & Stiglitz and Bowles & Gintis. These authors share a common set of premises, notably on the conception of the effort decision, that present severe obstacles to the understanding of productivity constraints on full employment. The models of Shapiro & Stiglitz and Bowles & Gintis identif…
Book on the Rack: Reply
Journal Article Book on the Rack: Reply Get access David Spencer David Spencer Milwaukee, Wisconsin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 11, Issue 4, October 1966, Page 118, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/11.4.118 Published: 01 October 1966
All for One: Arguments for the Labour Trial of the Century on the Real Meaning of Unionism
Counterurbanisation: The local dimension
Counterurbanisation and rural depopulation revisited: Landowners, planners and the rural development process
Peru‐Ecuador 1995: The evolution of military tactics from the conflict of 1981
The military tactics employed by Ecuador and Peru in the 1995 Cenepa River Valley conflict evolved directly from the experiences of both countries during their previous clash in the same general region during 1981. The Peruvian generals, thinking that they could conduct a brief campaign tried to evict the Ecuadorans from their border posts using the tactics that had proved successful 14 years previously. The Ecuadorans had carefully reviewed the …
Landed property, commoditisation, and the re-making of rural locales: The case of the Oxford Colleges
Oxford Collegiate Landownership, Commoditisation, and the State: A Case of 'Real' Regulation
In this paper I focus upon the increasing tendency of the Oxford colleges to treat their landed property as a commodity. I begin by arguing that the theory of action in context offers considerable potential for studying the nature of their landownership and the manner in which they have formulated and pursued their property interests. Following this, I examine the extent to which the colleges have shifted their capital out of landed property and …
Reformulating the ‘closed’ parish thesis: Associations, interests, and interaction
Pulling out of landed property: The Oxford colleges and the Church Commissioners
This paper assesses the extent to which the Oxford colleges—like the Church Commissioners—have transferred capital out of landed property as part of a broader project of asset re‐structuring. It argues that explanation lies in changes to the rules of accumulation, which were the outcome of a series of political and ideological conflicts between the colleges and the central state
Braverman and the Contribution of Labour Process Analysis to the Critique of Capitalist Production - Twenty-Five Years On
This paper seeks to reassess the contributions made by Braverman and subsequent labour process writers to the critique of capitalist production. Braverman's main motivation lay with the subversion of pro-capitalist ideologies. He identified deskilling tendencies with the capitalist imperative of accumulation in order to promote the case for revolutionary change. The labour process debate that Braverman helped to initiate, while successful in broa…
Shirking the Issue? Efficiency wages, work discipline and full employment
This paper assesses recent neoclassical and radical contributions to the analysis of unemployment as a labour disciplinary device, in particular, those of Shapiro & Stiglitz and Bowles & Gintis. These authors share a common set of premises, notably on the conception of the effort decision, that present severe obstacles to the understanding of productivity constraints on full employment. The models of Shapiro & Stiglitz and Bowles & Gintis identif…
Social and Economic Motivation at Work: Theories of Motivation Reassessed
Love's labor's lost? the disutility of work and work avoidance in the economic analysis of labor supply
This paper explores the origins and evolution of the concept of the disutility of work. The original formulation of this concept developed by Stanley Jevons and by Alfred Marshall recognizes the variability of work motives stressing the effects of both the quantity and quality of work on labor supply. Subsequent writers, notably Lionel Robbins, and later Gary Becker, focus on the opportunity cost of work time, to the neglect of the content of wor…
From Pain Cost to Opportunity Cost: The Eclipse of the Quality of Work as a Factor in Economic Theory
I would like to thank two anonymous referees for useful comments on an earlier draft of this article. I am also very grateful for the comments of Andrew Brown, John King, Malcolm Sawyer, Gary Slater, Ian Steedman, and Michael White. Remaining errors are mine alone
The Political Economy of Work
Against the background of increasing interest in the changing nature and quality of work, The Political Economy of Work offers a new and unique assessment of the theoretical analysis of work. The author challenges some common preconceptions about work and promotes an original approach to the field, contemplating the nature and development of ideas on work and its impact on human well-being drawing on such burgeoning literatures as the 'economics …
The ‘work as bad’ thesis in economics: Origins, evolution, and challenges
This paper argues that in all major of epochs of economic thought – mercantilist, classical, and neoclassical – work has been portrayed as an unloved necessity. Politically, the treatment of work as a necessary evil has created undue pessimism about the prospects for progress in the quality of work and has helped to justify repressive policies to compel the working population to work hard. The ‘work as bad’ thesis, however, has been challenged by…
Labour Supply, Employment and Unemployment in Macroeconomics: A Critical Appraisal of Orthodoxy and a Heterodox Alternative
The paper begins with a critical evaluation of the modelling of the individual supply function of labour in orthodox economics. The varying ways in which the aggregate labour supply curve has been represented in macroeconomics texts is then outlined. A proposal for a simple representation of the aggregate labour supply curve based on economic, social and institutional realities is then provided. Finally the implications of our discussion for macr…
Work is a Four-Letter Word: The Economics of Work in Historical and Critical Perspective
The article highlights and explains the neglect of the activity of work in much of the mainstream economics literature. The neglect of work is seen to have denied space for mainstream economists to engage with the full range of possibilities for progress in human well-being. The article also considers perspectives on work from within heterodox or non-mainstream economics and argues that these perspectives provide a superior foundation for the the…
Getting personnel: Contesting and Transcending the ‘New Labour Economics
This article seeks to critique and transcend the economics of personnel, a new and fast growing area of mainstream labour economics that focuses upon the study of human resources issues. Personnel economics is presented by its founder Edward Lazear as a superior alternative to research in other established fields, including HRM and the sociology of work. It is argued against Lazear that personnel economics offers a limited and flawed conception o…
Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces in Iraq
"Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces in Iraq." Small Wars & Insurgencies, 23(2), pp. 376–377
Not all that it might seem: Why Job Satisfaction Is Worth Studying Despite It Being a Poor Summary Measure of Job Quality
Interest in data on job satisfaction is increasing in both academic and policy circles. One common way of interpreting these data is to see a positive association between job satisfaction and job quality. Another view is to dismiss the usefulness of job satisfaction data, because workers can often express satisfaction with work where job quality is poor. It is argued that this second view has some validity, but that survey data on job satisfactio…
A preliminary investigation of cognitive function in rheumatoid arthritis patients on long-term methotrexate treatment
Some studies suggest that cognitive function is impaired in rheumatoid arthritis patients. One possible influence may be commonly used rheumatoid arthritis treatment, methotrexate. This study examined cognitive function in long-term methotrexate users with rheumatoid arthritis and, using a 24-hour pre- and post-methotrexate dose administration, investigated whether there may be transient cognitive function changes. Rheumatoid arthritis patients (…
Understanding the Global Financial Crisis: Sociology, Political Economy and Heterodox Economics
This article argues that collective development of an understanding of the global financial crisis and ensuing austerity requires an alliance between sociology, 'heterodox economics' and related disciplines within the broad tradition of 'political economy'. It introduces 'heterodox economics' as a body of thought that emerged in response to the failure of mainstream economics to theorise coherently the capitalist system as a whole, suggesting tha…
Developing an understanding of meaningful work in economics: The case for a heterodox economics of work
The idea that work has meaning and is meaningful beyond its contribution to consumption has been largely absent from mainstream economics. This paper gives reasons for why mainstream economics has neglected the idea of meaningful work. It identifies the idea of the disutility of work, the assumption of free choice on the part of workers and the use of a formal and individualistic method as key constraints on the ability of mainstream economics to…
From happiness to social provisioning: Addressing well-being in times of crisis
The paper offers a critique of happiness research based on subjective well-being (SWB) data and proposes an alternative approach to the study of well-being drawing on the political economy tradition. The World Happiness Report (WHR) interpretation of the impact of the Global Financial Crisis on SWB data is used to illustrate the problems with happiness research and the merits of an alternative political economy approach to well-being. The develop…
Economics (30 works) · Political science (30 works) · Law (24 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (16 works) · Politics (16 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (15 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Engineering (12 works) · Epistemology (12 works)