Desperately seeking social approval: Adam Smith, Thorstein Veblen and the moral limits of capitalist culture

Adam Smith and Thorstein Veblen shared much in matters of economic ontology. Both dismissed the very notion of an autonomous economic self and instead investigated the processes through which self and other are mutually constituted under changing cultural traditions of individual aspiration. Their strikingly similar critiques of status-oriented consumption and concern for the moral basis of the market economy are established in this manner. However, the political implications of their analyses point in different directions, with Veblen being the more radical. The Smithian individual can always use spectatorial insights to assert through genuinely praiseworthy behaviour personal moral distance from social norms of status-oriented consumption. The Veblenian individual, by contrast, has no such capacity for elevating abstract moral principles above socially-situated conduct, as mind and environment co-evolve in line with changing material circumstances of life. For Veblen, the rise of status-oriented consumption itself acted as a form of moral self-education that more deeply entrenched the social norms of ownership out of which it arose, thus the impossibility of an autonomous economic self was matched by the impossibility of an autonomous moral self. To his way of thinking, moral degradation in conspicuous consumption was irredeemably inscribed into the whole cultural structure of capitalism.     

The end of the world as we know it: Popular music's cultural mobility

Abstract

Popular music has moved to the centre of economic life, suggesting a shift in the political economy of advanced societies. The transition has been marked by a concomitant shift in the centrality of popular music in social life, assisted by new technologies. More importantly, the changes have been brought about by the reorganization of record company ownership and activity since the 1980s. This paper suggests that cultural studies could apply aspects of the research and analysis methods developed in institutional economics, to a study of the relationship between cultural and economic formations. Institutional economics, especially as proposed by Thorstein Veblen, provides a pragmatic critique for cultural industries in an era of globalization and rising corporate power. In this paper I have used institutional economics to illustrate how the shift in the organization of popular music has taken place within the corporate economy. The use of popular music as a feature of the corporate economy has involved the expansion of all forms of entertainment into the information economy. This convergence of activities and interests located in and around popular music is described by the term ‘cultural mobility’.     

维布伦高等教育思想述评——《美国高深知识》研读

维布伦不仅是20世纪美国著名的经济学家和社会学家,也是高等教育哲学中理性主义的卓越代表。《美国高深知识》是维布伦高等教育思想的代表作。他对知识的重要意义、大学的组织形式以及他所处时代美国高等教育发展中存在的问题都有独到的看法,并揭示了现代高等教育的本质。他的高等教育观念体现了理性主义者的一种价值取向,有其合理的一面,但也有一些观点从社会发展实践的角度看有一定的局限性。     

基于凡勃伦效应的城市交通拥堵定价理论研究

依据新古典经济学对城市交通拥堵的论述,通过对比国内外数据,可以看出我国私人汽车的消费中具有明显的凡勃伦效应,该效应能给私家车消费者带来额外正效用,导致交通社会收益和私人收益不一致,并在原有基础上加剧了交通拥堵,此时征收以庇古税为基础的交通拥堵费将不能解决拥堵问题。     

施穆勒纲领与演化经济学的起源

运用"历史-伦理"方法,揭示制度之间复杂的相互关系及其演化,把理论、历史与政策融于一体的研究框架是熊彼特曾称之为"施穆勒纲领"的主要内容.施穆勒纲领经过新新历史学派经济学家桑巴特、韦伯、斯皮索夫等人发展后,对熊彼特产生了决定性的影响,同时,它也对美国老制度学派的诞生产生了直接的影响,作为演化经济学最重要的两个流派,新熊彼特学派和美国老制度学派在德国历史学派中有其起源.施穆勒纲领虽然是一种朴素的和直觉上契合了现代宇宙观的原始形态的演化经济学研究纲领,但它却强调了现代演化经济学发展中所忽视的伦理要素和欠发达经济等问题,特别是在当代社会,如何减少社会经济发展过程中的社会排斥已经成为演化经济学的研究前沿.因此,重新认识作为演化经济学先驱思想的以施穆勒为代表的德国历史学派具有重要的理论和现实意义.     

凡勃伦对伊尼斯传播理论的影响研究

伊尼斯的传播研究与其政治经济学研究一脉相承，特别是受到凡勃伦及其创立的制度经济学的深刻影响。这种影响突出表现在三个方面:方法论的启发；加深对技术重要性的认识；提供了一些重要概念和命题。伊尼斯恰恰是在这些方面为媒介环境学奠定了重要基础。