Category Archives: Oleg Komlik

Making History

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Oleg Komlik

Voltaire: “Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.”                            “En effet, l’histoire n’est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs.”      … Continue reading →

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“…The time was ripe for the fascist solution.”

Posted on January 8, 2021 by Oleg Komlik

“When things are obvious or clear, using ‘obvious’ or ‘clear’ is redundant. Use these words sparingly in your writing”, noticed Robert Gallager. I recalled this technical advice while thinking about writing something, let’s call it, substantial in the light of … Continue reading →

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Top 10 Most-read Economic Sociology and Political Economy Posts of 2020

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

This holiday season looks, and feels, different. As 2020 comes to an end, probably many of us have never greeted the new year with so much hope, despite all concerns and some skepticism. Anyway, I’m sending you and your loved … Continue reading →

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Corporate Bodies Have No Soul

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

William Hazlitt (1778 – 1830) was an English essayist, writer, and social commentator. He is considered one of the greatest masters of the English language, but despite his very high standing among historians of literature and art, his work is … Continue reading →

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Foucault: Neoliberalism Redefined Homo Economicus

Posted on November 18, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

Michel Foucault, a lecture at the Collège de France, March 1979: “The characteristic feature of the classical conception of homo economicus is the partner of exchange and the theory of utility based on a problematic of needs. In neo-liberalism — … Continue reading →

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The ES/PE community on social media

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

Dear email subscribers and WordPress subscribers to the Economic Sociology and Political Economy community blog, this post is mainly for you. Wouldn’t you like to know and recall, what we talked about the day before the Nobel Prize in Economic … Continue reading →

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Discipline and Punish: The Challenge of Teaching

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

While I was preparing a syllabus for a new course, two entertaining sayings jumped to my mind. The first was made by the master — Michel Foucault. During one of his lectures at Victoria University in Toronto in 1982, he … Continue reading →

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Tributes to David Graeber

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

David Graeber’s death shocked and saddened so many around the world… The bundles of emotions, memories and appreciation are being reflected in the incessant stream of obituaries and tributes. Links to a handful of them are collected here. Bruno Latour: … Continue reading →

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Rest in Power, David Graeber – the Activist-scholar who Lived the Coupling of Theory and Praxis

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

A prominent social scientist and committed public intellectual David Graeber has died. This is devastating news and an enormous loss… Graeber was an original thinker, distinguished researcher, incredible writer, and vigorous speaker. He genuinely embodied the amalgam of scholarship and … Continue reading →

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Democracy vs. Irony, Tragedy and Pathos

Posted on July 31, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

Disturbing events in several countries around the world during this turbulent time sprang to my mind a sharp observation by a prominent and influential American thinker and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination … Continue reading →

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What is Institutional Economics?

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

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 Oleg Komlik

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 Oleg Komlik

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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Coronavirus and the Economy

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

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Bruno Latour on Uncertainty and Knowledge

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Oleg Komlik

“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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