Anyone here been following the "post-autistic economics" movement? Yesterday the FAZ ran an article in the business section on the pae. Just found the october pae newsletter, below is the first part, slightly reformatted, from <http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/debt/current/msg00489.html>, where the student-petition is contained as well.
Greetings,
Anita
------------------- "sanity, humanity and science" post-autistic economics newsletter, No. 2, 3 October 2000
FRANCE
"It was in the beginning," opens the Le Monde article of September 13th, "a modest initiative, almost confidential. It has now become a subject of important debate which has put in a state of effervescence the community of economists. Should not the teaching of economics in universities be rethought?" (www.lemonde.fr/article/0,2320,93489,00.html )
The first issue of this newsletter reported on the events leading to this "effervescence". Briefly, they were as follows.
In June a small group of economics students put on the web (www.respublica.fr/autisme-economie ) a petition protesting against economics' "uncontrolled use of mathematics". This indulgence, it said, creates "a true schizophrenia" because the mathematics has "become an end in itself" resulting in an "autistic science". The petition called for an end both to this and to the repressive domination of neoclassical theory in the curriculum. The students called instead for a pluralism of approaches with emphasis on engagement with economic realities. Within two weeks the student petition had 150 signatures, many from France's most prestigious universities. The students publicized these results. On the 21st of June Le Monde picked up the story. It featured a lengthy and sympathetic article on the students' call for reform. ( www.lemonde.fr/article_impression/0,2322,72463,00.html ) Other French newspapers and magazines, as well as TV and radio, soon followed with the result that the number of signatures on the economics students' petition reached 600.
The perceived seriousness of the controversy increased when at the end of June some professors launched a petition of their own ( www.republica.fr/autisme-economie), backing the students and offering further analysis and evidence supporting the need for reform. The French minister of education announced that he was looking into the matter. Then in July everyone left for "the long vac".
Now they are returning and Le Monde has reopened the public debate. So too has the national radio network, "French Culture", which on 21 September carried a program on the controversy, featuring two students and a professor from the post-autistic camp. Nor has the government forgotten about it. Le Monde reports that Jack Lang, the minister of education, has informed it that soon he will be announcing "the formation of a commission charged with making an evaluation of the situation and submitting to him some proposals. An economist of renown has been approached about leading this investigation."
Meanwhile the students and the reformist academics are regrouping in preparation for the next stage of the campaign. A meeting of the petition signatories, now 800, is being held at the Sorbonne on October 4th. Student leaders, Olivier Vaury and Gilles Raveaud, report that following the Paris meeting the pluralists will organize and conduct debates in universities throughout France. (The movement which began in the capital is now nation-wide.) These debates will continue through mid-November. Then in December a big national meeting is being planned for Paris. This will include both students and teachers committed to reform and will develop detailed, concrete criticism and proposals. Speaking for the students, Raveaud adds, "and we will claim our place" in the governmental commission that is being set up.
The post-autistic economics movement in France is also looking forward to more coverage in periodicals, including economics journals. The national newspaper Libération, which featured a full page on the crises in economics in its July 31st issue, is planning another such feature for late October. Vaury reports that "we will have some important articles in Télérama (2.5 million readers) and there will be articles on this issue in L'Economie Politque (November edition)." Another article is scheduled to appear in the journal Alternatives Economiques.
Student leaders report, that when last summer it began to appear that the reform movement in France was not about to go away, some neoclassicists tried to dismiss it as a Trotskyite conspiracy which included Le Monde. This convinced no one, and since then things seemed to have moved on. For example, the week before last there was a conference at the Sorbonne, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the mainstream La Revue Economique. Attendees report that discussions spontaneously diverged to issues that have been raised by the reformists.
Watch this space for further developments.
GLOBAL
French economics students and teachers have found a formula for getting the reform of economics and economics teaching onto public and professional agendas. Its basic ingredients are two kinds of petition, a website (or sites) on which the petitions are posted for signing, and an email newsletter for co-ordinating and publicizing these. The pae newsletter wants to encourage and assist people everywhere to apply the "French formula", modified to fit local conditions. It also wishes to provide the means by which local, regional and national successes can be joined together and globalized. Toward these ends, it will offer the following.
Below, in this issue, is a students' petition and a teachers' petition. Both are based on the petitions circulated in France. Both are framed so as to be widely inclusive of groups and individuals seeking reform.
For those wishing to start up petition websites in English, pae_news at hotmail.com offers both the student and the teacher petitions in Microsoft FrontPage format, each with a signing page. These files can be loaded straight on to your website. They will be sent to you on request as attached documents. pae will operate (from 15 October) a website at www.paecon.net , featuring the following:
* hyperlinks with all petition websites,
* a geographical index of petition websites,
* tables of website results,
* a students' petition and a teachers' petition which can be "signed" by anyone visiting
the site, and lists of the petition signatories,
* documents related to the post-autistic economics movement,
* back issues of the post-autistic economics newsletter.