Radical Economics: A university course

I am teaching 'New Radical Political Economy' in the politics dept, where Green GLA member Darren Johnson studied, at Goldsmiths College, University of London. It's a third year course, if your interested, I am just a humble Visiting Tutor but the full time political economy lecturer Georg Menz provides some other interesting political economy units.

The aim of my course unit is to bring the subject of radical political economy up to date by looking critically at the ideas of a range of anti-capitalist and otherwise radical schools of economics. I try to have a look at everybody from Amartya Sen to Major Douglas, my collegue, looking over my shoulder, suggests this may be a little too broad!


Well you can judge because I am placing lecture notes, reading lists, even a few film suggestions on my New Radical Political Economy blog, contributions and criticism as the course unfolds will be very welcome.

I look at Greens, autonomists, marxists, monetary reformers, ecofeminists...etc, trying to explain their economic ideas and to critique them.

The big debate seems to be how can we run an economy that meets human needs without compromising environmental quality, how can economics act as a tool rather than a master of human beings? How can an economy act to maximise human potential?

Open source and social sharing seem to be to provide particularly interesting topics to examine when debating these questions....I also look at Parecon, LETs and of course, commons regimes.

here is the course outline/reading list

1. Introduction:
Legrain, P. (2003) Open World: Truth About Globalisation. New York: Little Brown.
Wall (2005) Ch 1.
Wolf, M. (2004) Why Globalization Works: The Case for a Global Market Economy. Yale: Yale University Press

2. Globalisation in Question
Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. (1999) Globalization in Question: The International Economy and the Possibilities of Governance. Oxford: Polity.
Wall (2005) Ch 1.
Weiss, L. (1997) Globalization and the Myth of the Powerless State
New Left Review September-October 1997, pp. 3–27

II. Schools
3. Soros and Stiglitz
Cammack, P. (2002) Attacking the Poor, New Left Review January-February 2002, pp. 125–34
Latham, R. (1997) ‘Globalization and Democratic Provisionism; Re-reading Polanyi’, New Political Economy, 2: 53-63.
Soros, G. (199 The Crisis of Global Capitalism. London: Little, Brown and Co.
Stiglitz, J. (2002) Globalization and its Discontents. London: Allen Lane
Wall (2005) Ch 2.

4. Korten’s anti-corporate critique
Korten, D. (2001) When Corporations Rule the World. San Francisc: Kumarian Press.
Wall (2005) Ch 3.

5. No Logo and beyond
Klein, N. (2000) No Logo, London: Harper Collins
Mertes,T. (2000) On No Logo ( review) New Left Review , July-August 2000, pp. 168–72
Wall (2005) Ch 3.

6. Development as freedom.
Sen, A. (1999) Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

7. Green localism
Morris, D. (1996) Free Trade: The Great Destroyer, Mander, J. and Goldsmith, E. (eds.) (1996) The Case Against the Global Economy: and for a turn towards the local. San Fransisco: Sierra Club.
Wall (2005) Ch 4.
Woodin, M. and Lucas, C. (2004) Green Alternative to Globalisation: A Manifesto. London: Pluto Press.

8. Global monetary reform
Grahl, J. (2001) The Sway of Finance? ( review) May-June 2001, pp. 149–53
Hutchinson, F., Mellor, M. and Olsen, W. (2002) The Politics of Money: Towards sustainability and economic democracy. London: Pluto.
Patomaki, H. (2001) Democratising Globalization: The Leverage of the Tobin Tax. London: Zed Press.
Wall (2005) Ch 5.

9. Marxist approaches to globalisation
Desai, M. (2004) Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of State Socialism. London: Verso.
Fine, B and Saad-Filho, A. (2004) Marx’s Capital. London: Pluto
Wall (2005) Ch 6.

10. Marxist approaches to globalisation 2
Callinicos, A. (2003) An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Castro, F. (2003) On Imperialist Globalization: Two Speeches. London: Zed.
McNally, D. (2002) Another World is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism, Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing.
Wall (2005) Ch 6.

11. Autonomism and Empire 1.
Dyer-Witheford, N. (1999) Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-technology Capitalism. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Glick, M. and Brenner, R. (1991) The Regulation Approach: Theory and History
New Left Review, July-August 1991, pp. 45–119.
Read, J. (2003) The Micro-politics of Capital. State University of New York Press.
Wall (2005) Ch 7.
Wright, S. (2002) Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism. London: Pluto Press.

12. Autonomism and Empire 2.
Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2001) Empire. New York: Harvard University Press.
Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2001a) From Movement to Society Anon. On Fire: The Battle of Genoa and the anti-capitalist movement. London: One-off Press.
Balakrishnan, G. (2000) Hardt and Negri’s Empire ( review)
New Left Review, September-October 2000, pp. 142–8

13. Autonomism and Empire 3.
Capital and Class, no.85. Spring 2005 special issue on autonomism and diy culture
Dinerstein, A, (2003) Power or counter-power: the dilemma of the Piquetero movement in Argentina post-crisis. Capital and Class, no.81, autumn 2003

14. Ecosocialism and globalisation
Wall (2005) Ch 8.
Foster, J. (2002) Ecology Against Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press
Kovel, J. (2002) The Enemy of Nature. New York: Zed Press.

15. Feminist approaches to globalisation

Bennholdt-Thomsen, V. and Mies, M. (1999) The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalised Economy. London: Zed Press.
Peterson, J. and Lewis, M. (1999) The Elgar Companion to Feminist Economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Shiva, V. (198 Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. London: Zed Press.

III. Alternatives
16. Fair trade, free trade and embedded markets
Barret Brown, M. (1993) Fair trade : reform and realities in the international trading system. London: Zed Press.
Thekaekara, S. (2003) Beating the System: Local solutions to the globalisation crisis. London: New Economics Foundation

17. LETS, micro credit and monetary reform
Boyle, D. (ed.) (2002) The Money Changers: Currency Reform from Aristole to E-Cash. London: Earthscan.

18. Parecon and other experiments in participatory economics
Albert, M. (2004) Parecon. Life After Capitalism. London: Verso.
Wainwright, H. (2003) Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy. London: Verso

19. Open Source
Frow, J. (1996) Information as Gift and Commodity, New Left Review , September-October 1996, pp. 89–108
Moody, G. (2001) Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Wall (2005) Ch 9.

20. Social sharing beyond cyber space
Klein, N. (2001) Reclaiming the Commons, New Left Review, May-June 2001, pp. 81–9
Ostrom, E. (1991) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wall (2005) Ch 9.