Monthly Archives: January 2015

What is financialization? Marxism, Post-Keynesianism and Economic Sociology’s complementary theorizing

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

The economic crisis erupted in 2007-2008, commonly known around the world as the Global Financial Crisis and in the US as the Great Recession, highlighted – for those who deliberately or unintentionally have in recent years overlooked – the ascendancy of finance, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged banking system, capitalism, corporations, Economic Sociology, finance, financial crisis, financialization, households, Marxism, neoliberalism, Political economy, profit | 2 Comments

Karl Marx: “Capitalist production… disturbs the metabolic interaction between man and the earth.”

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

“Capitalist production… disturbs the metabolic interaction between man and the earth… All progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but of robbing the soil; all progress in increasing the fertility of … Continue reading →

Posted in Oleg Komlik | Tagged agriculture, capitalism, Karl Marx, labor | 1 Comment

Anti-austerity Syriza wins Greece election in the shadow of the crisis; but the Greek crisis is not just about Greece

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

What are the causes of the Greek debt crisis and what steps should be taken in order to get out of it? Who is to blame for the destruction of the Greek society after three rounds of harsh austerity measures … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged Greece, politics | 1 Comment

The incredible collapse of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger: corporatism, neoliberalism and globalization run amok

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

In 2008 Ireland experienced one of the most dramatic economic crises of any economy in the world. It remains at the heart of the international crisis, sitting uneasily between the US and European economies. Not long ago, however, Ireland was … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged banking system, comparative political economy, debt, Economic Sociology, embeddedness, financial crisis, financialization, fiscal sociology, globalization, Ireland, neoliberalism, Political economy, politics, varieties of capitalism | 1 Comment

What is Historical Sociology? Understanding the origins of the current social world and the consequences of its transformations

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

Sociology was created to explain historical change, although social sciences’ “founding fathers” disagreed over the nature of that change. Dealing mainly with topics which now can be easily associated with economic sociology and political economy (capitalism and labor), Karl Marx, Karl Polanyi, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged capitalism, Culture, gender, historical sociology, inequality, institutional change, institutions, social movements, state | Leave a comment

Religion, “free trade” and faithful globalization: producing a sacred vision of the economy

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

Religious leaders and groups can play a crucial role in economic and political life through their discourse; such discourse is a central way that they produce the sacred in the economic realm. This is true across a range of religious … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged Canada, Costa Rica, Culture, discourse, Economic Sociology, embeddedness, ideas, institutions, markets, neoliberalism, religion, trade, United States, values | Leave a comment

Economics of Simplism, or when real people ruin perfect economic models

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

from: Mankiw, Gregory. 2014. Principles of Economics. Cengage Learning. (P. 436) P.S. Homo Economicus should watch what he eats! 😉 *** Join the Economic Sociology and Political Economy community via Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / Google+ / Instagram / Tumblr

Posted in Economists quotes on economics, Funny | Tagged economics | 1 Comment

You, Soros and Zizek’s “Cultural Capitalism”: We all BUY our redemption from being consumerists

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

In this 10 minute discerning and animated talk, the audio in which is complemented by a visually stunning cartoon, a philosopher Slavoj Zizek discusses how ethics and charity have been co-opted by capitalism, and why this is problematic and amoral. … Continue reading →

Posted in Video | Tagged capitalism, consumerism, consumption, ethics, globalization, neoliberalism, Oscar Wilde, philanthropy | Leave a comment

International Political Economy scholars miss THE question of the 21st century: the rise of a global labor class living in poverty

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

In the recent years, more and more International Political Economy (IPE) scholars are dissatisfied with the current state of this field of research and desire to identify the ‘Big Questions’ of the 21st century. In this (open access) article, Benjamin … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged academia, capital, capitalism, class, development, global political economy, globalization, labor, Marxism, social sciences | 1 Comment

Latin American capitalism: multinational corporations, business groups, low skills and segmented labor markets

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

In the course of the last three decades, tectonic changes have occurred in much of Latin America: Many authoritarian governments have been replaced by democracies, and ‘free-market’ principles have supplanted many of the policies of the past. But the redevelopment … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged business groups, comparative political economy, Economic Sociology, institutional change, institutions, labor, Latin America, multinational corporations, Political economy, varieties of capitalism | 1 Comment

Economists are self-confident and regularly wrong, admits Columbia economics professor

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

From the horse’s mouth. Emanuel Derman, Economics Professor at Columbia University: “My gripe with economists is not that their models don’t work well – they don’t, look at the role of central banks in the financial crisis – but that … Continue reading →

Posted in Economists quotes on economics | Tagged academia, economics | Leave a comment

Ulrich Beck has died. His powerful concept of ‘Risk Society’ is relevant as never before

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

Renowned sociologist and social thinker Ulrich Beck has died. Ulrich Beck (Munich University and LSE) has become one of the world’s most famous intellectuals and most quoted social scientists in recent decades. Beck’s book Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (1986/1992) is … Continue reading →

Posted in Oleg Komlik | Tagged class, environment, globalization, modernity, risk society, social sciences, sociology of risk, Ulrich Beck | 4 Comments

Tax avoidance as “tax planning”: global accounting firms on the make

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

About 21 trillion dollars hoarded by wealthy elites in secretive offshore jurisdictions to avoid taxes in their home countries. The offshore hoard is protected by a highly-paid, industrious bevy of professional enablers in the private banking, legal, accounting, and investment … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers | Tagged accounting, corruption, fiscal sociology, globalization, institutional logics, institutions, money laundering, offshore, tax avoidance, taxation | 1 Comment

What is money? Can we grasp the current state of the economy as a crisis of money itself?

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Oleg Komlik

The latest crisis has incited substantial conversation about debt, banking, financialization, and the commodification of everyday life. All these issues are inherently related to money. But what exactly is money? Where does it come from? Who does make our money … Continue reading →