The Conference of Socialist Economists (CSE) describes itself as an international, democratic membership organisation committed to developing a

materialist Materialism is a form of philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materia ...

critique of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

, unconstrained by conventional academic divisions between subjects.

History

CSE's origins lie in the general upsurge in

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

politics in the United Kingdom in the 1960s spurred by disillusion with the Labour government of

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

, and more specifically in a corresponding dissatisfaction with orthodox economic theory. A first conference in January 1970 was attended by 75 people, mainly economists, who discussed papers on the

capital controversy The Cambridge capital controversy, sometimes called "the capital controversy"Brems (1975) pp. 369–384 or "the two Cambridges debate", was a dispute between proponents of two differing theoretical and mathematical positions in economics that star ...

, the state of

development economics Development economics is a branch of economics that deals with economic aspects of the development process in low- and middle- income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth and structural c ...

, and the internationalisation of capital. A second conference in October of the same year attracted 125 participants (including 20 from abroad) and considered the economic role of the state in modern capitalism. This event proved to be the founding conference, deciding to set up CSE as a permanent organisation, to organise a further conference on Britain and the EEC, and to investigate launching a journal. This further conference (December 1971) saw the launch of the ''Bulletin of the CSE'', with the first issue containing four of the conference papers. The ''Bulletin'' was succeeded in 1977 by a refereed journal, ''

Capital & Class ''Capital & Class'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the fields of politics and economics, especially concerning Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical ...

'', which continues to be published. Notwithstanding its name and history, both CSE and ''Capital & Class'' live up to the declared aim of being unconstrained by conventional academic subject divisions. Probably only a minority of CSE members are professional economists, and the journal's contents range over the whole of the social and human sciences. Common Sense was Journal of the Edinburgh Conference of Socialist Economists. John Holloway was a member of the conference.

History

See also

Bibliography

References

External links