Category Archives: Oleg Komlik

What is Institutional Economics?

Posted on June 30, 2020 by

From William Dugger’s Underground Economics: A Decade of Institutionalist Dissent: “Institutionalism serves as the methodological conscience to the unrealistic neoclassicism that now dominates economics departments in U.S universities. Realism is the touchstone of institutionalism. Institutionalists may differ over many particulars, … Continue reading →

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The Feature of an Intellectual

Posted on June 6, 2020 by

F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that … Continue reading →

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Isaac Asimov on the thrill of learning and the peril of ignorance

Posted on April 9, 2020 by

While the Coronavirus pandemic and its probable consequences have caused many to recall the great Isaac Asimov‘s science fiction stories, his two beautiful and shrewd quotes which are no less relevant to our times sprang to my mind:  “[What’s exciting … Continue reading →

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Bruno Latour on Uncertainty and Knowledge

Posted on March 30, 2020 by

“The world is not a solid continent of facts sprinkled by a few lakes of uncertainties, but a vast ocean of uncertainties speckled by a few islands of calibrated and stabilized forms. Do we really know that little? We know … Continue reading →

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Neoliberalism, Varieties of Capitalism, and Coronavirus

Posted on March 10, 2020 by

Since Neoliberalism shaped and fortified the notion that ‘the economy’ precedes ‘society’, now that Coronavirus crisis requires to put society first — this is perceived by many as simply illogical and capricious. Looking at the crisis around the world demonstrates … Continue reading →

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Jacques Chirac: Tony Blair is New Labour, which means he’s several steps to the right of conservatives

Posted on February 1, 2020 by

“[Jacques Chirac] was a conservative. He was intrigued by New Labour. Sometimes he used to say “Tony Blair is New Labour, which means he’s several steps to the right of me”.” (Tony Blair, September 26, 2019) These excellent books elaborate … Continue reading →

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Arthur Miller: “An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted”

Posted on August 28, 2019 by

On the brink of 1975, New York Magazine devoted an issue to a look at the year 1949. A canonical playwright Arthur Miller contributed to this issue an essay on “the state of New York mind in that year” through his … Continue reading →

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Probably the best “Acknowledgments” ever (5)

Posted on August 4, 2019 by

“Contrary to the fashion in most prefaces, I will not add that “all mistakes and shortcomings are entirely my responsibility.” That is sheer bourgeois subjectivism. Responsibility in matters of these sorts is always collective, especially with regard to the remedying … Continue reading →

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Neither Market Nor State?

Posted on July 19, 2019 by

“And what if the choice had never been between Market and State organizations, between liberals and socialists, but instead between those who believe in the miracles of a pre-established harmony and those who refuse to ‘believe in miracles’? Could we … Continue reading →

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Are Entrepreneurs Dangerous to the Market Economy more than Marxists?

Posted on July 11, 2019 by

Yes — asserts regarding the odd question in the title one of the founders of Ordoliberalism Professor Franz Böhm: “The entrepreneurs […] in contrast with their emphatic declarations in favour of the market economy, are more inclined, at least, to … Continue reading →

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Erik Olin Wright has contributed to making utopias real

Posted on January 23, 2019 by

“Gramsci once described the struggle for social justice as requiring ‘pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.’ I believe in the world today we need an optimism of the intellect as well: an optimism grounded in our understanding of … Continue reading →

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Top 10 Most-read Economic Sociology and Political Economy Posts of 2018

Posted on December 22, 2018 by

As 2018 (already) comes to an end, I rounded up the top 10 most-read posts of the year on the Economic Sociology and Political Economy community blog. Six of these interesting, enlightening and thought-provoking posts were published in 2018 and the rest in previous … Continue reading →

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Galbraith vs. Friedman — “The emancipation of belief is the most formidable of the tasks of reform, the one on which all else depends”

Posted on November 23, 2018 by

John Kenneth Galbraith was one of the most famous and influential American economists and public intellectual of the post-WWII era. Galbraith, who leaned toward post-Keynesian economics embracing an institutionalist perspective, was a very prolific writer and his books (The Great … Continue reading →

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R.I.P. James March — “Success”

Posted on September 28, 2018 by

James G. March — a distinguished social scientist, great master of organisational and institutional theory, inspiring and towering intellectual, wonderful man, has passed away.  His voluminous, cross-generational, multi-topical, interdisciplinary, exceptionally influential scholarship does not need presentation — which is certainly the best … Continue reading →

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C. Wright Mills on Knowledge, Power, and the Moral Duty of the Intellectual

Posted on August 10, 2018 by

An eminent and brilliant sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) was deeply concerned with the responsibilities of social scientists in the post-World War II (American) society. Therefore he advocated for engagement of intellectuals in public life in contrast to merely conducting distant observations. … Continue reading →

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