Recently in Economcs Category
"Author"/"Pirate": Literary theory in the global commerce in ideas
FOREIGN LITERATURE STUDIES 30 (4): 140-154 AUG 2008
China's rich history of communal ownership of ideas places scholars specializing in Chinese literary theory In a unique position to reflect critically on today's alarming trend toward privatization in the sphere of ideas, information and knowledge. This trend is being driven by U. S. and E. U. software, entertainment and pharmaceutical industries, and China is today one of the chief targets of their campaign against information sharing. This essay focuses on the role that modern European literary theory has played in this trend. At the center of copyright and patent law is an individualistic model of creativity-termed "authorship" and "invention," respectively-which the law has inherited from literary theory, specifically, the body of theory that has come down to us from European Romanticism. In literary studies in the wake of structuralism and poststructuralism this individualistic vision has been giving way to more collaborative models of creative activ! ity, but the same cannot be said for the law. The essay examines how Romantic rhetoric operates in present-day copyright to construct authorial "others" such as the back, the plagiarist, and the pirate. The larger aim of the essay is to draw scholars specializing in Chinese literary theory into a growing international research collaborative devoted to the history and theory of intellectual property.
FOREIGN LITERATURE STUDIES 30 (4): 140-154 AUG 2008
China's rich history of communal ownership of ideas places scholars specializing in Chinese literary theory In a unique position to reflect critically on today's alarming trend toward privatization in the sphere of ideas, information and knowledge. This trend is being driven by U. S. and E. U. software, entertainment and pharmaceutical industries, and China is today one of the chief targets of their campaign against information sharing. This essay focuses on the role that modern European literary theory has played in this trend. At the center of copyright and patent law is an individualistic model of creativity-termed "authorship" and "invention," respectively-which the law has inherited from literary theory, specifically, the body of theory that has come down to us from European Romanticism. In literary studies in the wake of structuralism and poststructuralism this individualistic vision has been giving way to more collaborative models of creative activ! ity, but the same cannot be said for the law. The essay examines how Romantic rhetoric operates in present-day copyright to construct authorial "others" such as the back, the plagiarist, and the pirate. The larger aim of the essay is to draw scholars specializing in Chinese literary theory into a growing international research collaborative devoted to the history and theory of intellectual property.
A brief look at financial panics, past and present.
Vast Bailout by U.S. Proposed in Bid to Stem Financial Crisis
from New York Times, September 19, 2008
from Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2008
Panic of 1907
from The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
Financial Panics and Crises
from The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History
It's not uncommon for students to use information from the Web in research papers without closely evaluating it. One of criteria for evaluation should always be "currency" of the information. The Washington Post recently gave an excellent example of investors often make the same mistake. It has real world consequences. Take a look at the following article:
2002's News, Yesterday's Sell-Off, Sept. 9, 2008
In these jittery times, let's hope that most investors are making decisions based on current, reliable information!
Democracy Now! is a daily radio news show from a left-liberal perspective. Here's a discussion (written and in audio) with Nomi Prins (journalist and former investment banker) and Michael Hudson (Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City) on AIG and the other recent bailouts.
The Cato Institute has a daily podcast covering economic and political issues, both national and international. Here's the RSS feed: http://www.cato.org/rss/daily_podcast.xml.
Go here to the daily podcast homepage to see recent topics:
http://www.cato.org/dailypodcast/podcast-archive.php.
Subject Guide: Economics
In Our Time is a BBC radio program hosted by Melvyn Bragg that deals with a lot of interesting intellectual topics. Recently, he had an excellent program on enclosures in 18th century Britain. The Contributors were:
Rosemary Sweet, Director of the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester
Murray Pittock, Bradley Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow
Mark Overton, Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Exeter.
And there's a short bibliography provided. Check it out. Have a listen.
(Here's an article on Enclosures from the Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History.)
---Fred Rowland
.
Rosemary Sweet, Director of the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester
Murray Pittock, Bradley Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow
Mark Overton, Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Exeter.
And there's a short bibliography provided. Check it out. Have a listen.
(Here's an article on Enclosures from the Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History.)
---Fred Rowland
.
I found an interesting literature review from Web of Science that discusses the knowledge on development issues embedded within literary accounts.
The fiction of development: Literary representation as a source of authoritative knowledge
JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 44 (2): 198-216 FEB 2008
ABSTRACT: "This article introduces and explores issues regarding the question of what constitute valid forms of development knowledge, focusing in particular on the relationship between fictional writing on development and more formal academic and policy-oriented representations of development issues. We challenge certain conventional notions about the nature of knowledge, narrative authority and representational form, and explore these by comparing and contrasting selected works of recent literary fiction that touch on development issues with academic and policy-related representations of the development process, thereby demonstrating the value of taking literary perspectives on development seriously. We find that not only are certain works of fiction 'better' than academic or policy research in representing central issues relating to development but they also frequently reach a wider audience and are therefore more influential. Moreover, the line between fact and fiction is a very fine one, and there can be significant advantages to fictional writing over non-fiction."
---Fred Rowland
The fiction of development: Literary representation as a source of authoritative knowledge
JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES 44 (2): 198-216 FEB 2008
ABSTRACT: "This article introduces and explores issues regarding the question of what constitute valid forms of development knowledge, focusing in particular on the relationship between fictional writing on development and more formal academic and policy-oriented representations of development issues. We challenge certain conventional notions about the nature of knowledge, narrative authority and representational form, and explore these by comparing and contrasting selected works of recent literary fiction that touch on development issues with academic and policy-related representations of the development process, thereby demonstrating the value of taking literary perspectives on development seriously. We find that not only are certain works of fiction 'better' than academic or policy research in representing central issues relating to development but they also frequently reach a wider audience and are therefore more influential. Moreover, the line between fact and fiction is a very fine one, and there can be significant advantages to fictional writing over non-fiction."
---Fred Rowland
Through May 7, 2008, the library is having a trial of the online edition of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online (2nd Edition). In addition to the excellent content, the interface is very slick, browseable alphabetically and by topic, an advanced search that allows you to limit search to full-text, bibliographies, contributors, article titles, abstracts, keywords, and by topic.Kenneth J. Arrow, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, says "The New Palgrave will be an indispensable reference tool for both junior and senior scholars in economics and perhaps even more for the journalist or business executive. The topics are exhaustive."
Check it out today!
