The evolving notion of relevance: an historical perspective to the 'economics made fun' movement
Journal of Economic Methodology 19 (3):303-316 (2012)
| Abstract | This paper aims to study the ?economics made fun? literature with regard to its main purpose: popularizing economics. We shed an historical light on such literature by showing that its main strategy for introducing economics to non-specialists had already been tried in the 1970s in what were described as ?issues-oriented? textbooks. We show that both literatures, as introductory enterprises, were responses to similar challenges. The first one is the problem of economic illiteracy, a problem that has concerned teachers in economics since the early 1960s. Both literatures did offer an interesting response to perceived shortcomings of introductory courses. The second challenge came from the attacks on economics and its teaching for their lack of relevance. We explore how the notion of relevance evolved in time and how both literatures attempted to respond to the criticisms of their time accordingly. By addressing these questions, our study explores how economists used these introductory enterprises to disseminate a certain image of them and their discipline in comparison to other social scientists and non-specialists, and how these representations evolved in time | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesErwin Dekker & Paul Teule (2012). Economics Made Fun, and Made Fun Of: How 'Fun' Redefines the Domain and Identity of the Economics Profession. Journal of Economic Methodology 19 (4):427-437.
N. Emrah Aydinonat (2012). The Two Images of Economics: Why the Fun Disappears When Difficult Questions Are at Stake? Journal of Economic Methodology 19 (3):243-258.
Diane Coyle (2012). The Paradox of Popularity in Economics. Journal of Economic Methodology 19 (3):187-192.
Peter Spiegler (2012). The Unbearable Lightness of the Economics-Made-Fun Genre. Journal of Economic Methodology 19 (3):283-301.
Edward Nik-Khah & Robert Van Horn (2012). Inland Empire: Economics Imperialism as an Imperative of Chicago Neoliberalism. Journal of Economic Methodology 19 (3):259-282.
Ricardo F. Crespo, Reappraising Austrian Economics' Basic Tenets in the Light of Aristotelian Ideas.
Jack Vromen (2012). Finding the Right Levers: The Serious Side of 'Economics Made Fun'. Journal of Economic Methodology 19 (3):199-217.
Maurice Lagueux (2004). The Forgotten Role of the Rationality Principle in Economics. Journal of Economic Methodology 11 (1):31-51.
Tony Lawson (1997). Economics and Reality. Routledge.
Robert S. Goldfarb (1995). The Economist-as-Audience Needs a Methodology of Plausible Inference. Journal of Economic Methodology 2 (2):201-222.
Robert S. Goldfarb (1997). Now You See It, Now You Don't: Emerging Contrary Results in Economics. Journal of Economic Methodology 4 (2):221-244.
Daniel M. Hausman (1992). Essays on Philosophy and Economic Methodology. Cambridge University Press.
Thomas Mayer (1998). Boettke's Austrian Critique of Mainstream Economics: An Empiricist's Response. Critical Review 12 (1-2):151-171.
James Maclaurin & Tim Cochrane (2012). Progress in Evolutionary Economics. Journal of Bioeconomics 14 (2):101-14.
Collin Rice & Joshua Smart (2011). Interdisciplinary Modeling: A Case Study of Evolutionary Economics. Biology and Philosophy 26 (5):655-675.
Analytics
Monthly downloads
Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
|
Added to index2012-10-03Total downloads0Recent downloads (6 months)0How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
