493 books match the query 'Theory' and 33 start with e

cover of Early Holistic Scoring of Writing: A Theory, a History, a Reflection

Early Holistic Scoring of Writing

A Theory, a History, a Reflection

Richard Haswell

Utah State University Press, 2019

What is the most fair and efficient way to assess the writing performance of students? Although the question gained importance during the US educational accountability movement of the 1980s and 1990s, the issue had preoccupied international language experts and evaluators long before. One answer to the question, the assessment method known as holistic scoring, is central to understanding writing in academic settings.
 
Early Holistic Scoring of Writing addresses the history of holistic essay assessment in the United Kingdom and the United States from the mid-1930s to the mid-1980s—and newly conceptualizes holistic scoring by philosophically and reflectively reinterpreting the genre’s origin, development, and significance.
 
The book chronicles holistic scoring from its initial origin in the United Kingdom to the beginning of its heyday in the United States. Chapters cover little-known history, from the holistic scoring of school certificate examination essays written by Blitz evacuee children in Devon during WWII to teacher adaptations of holistic scoring in California schools during the 1970s. Chapters detail the complications, challenges, and successes of holistic scoring from British high-stakes admissions examinations to foundational pedagogical research by Bay Area Writing Project scholars. The book concludes with lessons learned, providing a guide for continued efforts to assess student writing through evidence models.
 
Exploring the possibility of actionable history, Early Holistic Scoring of Writing reconceptualizes writing assessment. Here is a new history that retells the origins of our present body of knowledge in writing studies.
 
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cover of Eating in Theory

Eating in Theory

Annemarie Mol

Duke University Press, 2021

As we taste, chew, swallow, digest, and excrete, our foods transform us, while our eating, in its turn, affects the wider earthly environment. In Eating in Theory Annemarie Mol takes inspiration from these transformative entanglements to rethink what it is to be human. Drawing on fieldwork at food conferences, research labs, health care facilities, restaurants, and her own kitchen table, Mol reassesses the work of authors such as Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hans Jonas, and Emmanuel Levinas. They celebrated the allegedly unique capability of humans to rise above their immediate bodily needs. Mol, by contrast, appreciates that as humans we share our fleshy substance with other living beings, whom we cultivate, cut into pieces, transport, prepare, and incorporate—and to whom we leave our excesses. This has far-reaching philosophical consequences. Taking human eating seriously suggests a reappraisal of being as transformative, knowing as entangling, doing as dispersed, and relating as a matter of inescapable dependence.
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cover of Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization

Eccentric Culture

A Theory of Western Civilization

Rémi Brague

St. Augustine's Press, 2009

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cover of Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy

Ecofeminist Literary Criticism

Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy

Edited by Greta Gaard and Patrick D. Murphy

University of Illinois Press, 1998

Ecofeminist Literary Criticism is the first collection of its kind: a diverse anthology that explores both how ecofeminism can enrich literary criticism and how literary criticism can contribute to ecofeminist theory and activism.

Ecofeminism is a practical movement for social change that discerns interconnections among all forms of oppression: the exploitation of nature, the oppression of women, class exploitation, racism, colonialism. Against binary divisions such as self/other, culture/nature, man/woman, humans/animals, and white/non-white, ecofeminist theory asserts that human identity is shaped by more fluid relationships and by an acknowledgment of both connection and difference.

Once considered the province of philosophy and women's studies, ecofeminism in recent years has been incorporated into a broader spectrum of academic discourse. Ecofeminist Literary Criticism assembles some of the most insightful advocates of this perspective to illuminate ecofeminism as a valuable component of literary criticism.

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cover of Economic Engagements with Art, Volume 31

Economic Engagements with Art, Volume 31

Craufurd D. W. Goodwin and Neil de Marchi, eds.

Duke University Press, 0

Historically, economists have had very little to say about art: in the latter half of this century, that has begun to change. Difficult issues, like pricing and art valuation, the influence on pricing by what is fashionable in art, and the nature of the auction, have recently been tackled by economists in spite of elusive answers. Economic Engagements with Art suggests that taste and fashion in art need not be mysterious or outside rational discourse, and that they can be studied by economists to the great benefit of the discipline.
This volume, which deals mostly with painting, is divided into three sections that consider the interplay between art and economics from different perspectives. In the first section, Art and Economic Theory, economists clarify the need to construct a framework for understanding the roles of taste and fashion in art valuation. A historical view is considered in a piece about the teacher of Velasquez and artistic adviser to the Inquisition in Seville, who took into account not only market factors, like demand, but also the "truth" and the nobility of the artist’s profession and of the painting itself. Also in this section is an essay on Rousseau’s perspective on the worth of a painting based on its envy value in social circles; other contributions focus on William Stanley Jevons, a nineteenth century British political economist, whose problems with art stemmed from the uniqueness of each work, rendering definitive market and economic terms irrelevant. The second section of the book, Art and Economic Policy, looks at broader policy issues with regard to the historical role of art. Essays consider policy with respect to art exports and imports and federal patronage of the arts during theDepression; Lionel Robbins and the political economy of art; and the interplay among economy, architecture, and politics as shown in certain postwar Hilton hotels. In the final section, The Business of Art, a variety of perspectives are considered: the economics of art in early modern times, discussed in the context of both humanist and scholastic approaches; the pricing of pictures based on a study of the Smith-Reynolds connection; and the relationships between Otto Nuerath, graphic art, and the social order.
The first collaborative and historical treatment of the connection between art and economics, Economic Engagements with Art will appeal to people across, from history and economics to art history.

Contributors
. Márcia Balisciano, William J. Barber, Neil de Marchi, Bertil Fridén, Crauford D. Goodwin, Guido Guerzoni, Robert J. Leonard, Harro Maas, Ernest Mathijs, Steven G. Medema, Bert Mosselmans, Zarinés Negrón, Marcia Pointon, Helen Rees, Toon van Houdt, Annabel Wharton, Sara Zablotney
[more]
cover of Economic Engagements with Art, Volume 31

Economic Engagements with Art, Volume 31

Craufurd D. W. Goodwin and Neil de Marchi, eds.

Duke University Press, 0

Historically, economists have had very little to say about art: in the latter half of this century, that has begun to change. Difficult issues, like pricing and art valuation, the influence on pricing by what is fashionable in art, and the nature of the auction, have recently been tackled by economists in spite of elusive answers. Economic Engagements with Art suggests that taste and fashion in art need not be mysterious or outside rational discourse, and that they can be studied by economists to the great benefit of the discipline.
This volume, which deals mostly with painting, is divided into three sections that consider the interplay between art and economics from different perspectives. In the first section, Art and Economic Theory, economists clarify the need to construct a framework for understanding the roles of taste and fashion in art valuation. A historical view is considered in a piece about the teacher of Velasquez and artistic adviser to the Inquisition in Seville, who took into account not only market factors, like demand, but also the "truth" and the nobility of the artist’s profession and of the painting itself. Also in this section is an essay on Rousseau’s perspective on the worth of a painting based on its envy value in social circles; other contributions focus on William Stanley Jevons, a nineteenth century British political economist, whose problems with art stemmed from the uniqueness of each work, rendering definitive market and economic terms irrelevant. The second section of the book, Art and Economic Policy, looks at broader policy issues with regard to the historical role of art. Essays consider policy with respect to art exports and imports and federal patronage of the arts during theDepression; Lionel Robbins and the political economy of art; and the interplay among economy, architecture, and politics as shown in certain postwar Hilton hotels. In the final section, The Business of Art, a variety of perspectives are considered: the economics of art in early modern times, discussed in the context of both humanist and scholastic approaches; the pricing of pictures based on a study of the Smith-Reynolds connection; and the relationships between Otto Nuerath, graphic art, and the social order.
The first collaborative and historical treatment of the connection between art and economics, Economic Engagements with Art will appeal to people across, from history and economics to art history.

Contributors
. Márcia Balisciano, William J. Barber, Neil de Marchi, Bertil Fridén, Crauford D. Goodwin, Guido Guerzoni, Robert J. Leonard, Harro Maas, Ernest Mathijs, Steven G. Medema, Bert Mosselmans, Zarinés Negrón, Marcia Pointon, Helen Rees, Toon van Houdt, Annabel Wharton, Sara Zablotney
[more]
cover of Economic Policy Reform: The Second Stage

Economic Policy Reform

The Second Stage

Edited by Anne O. Krueger

University of Chicago Press, 2000

In the 1980s, the formerly planned markets of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the developing nations of Latin America and East Asia embarked upon unprecedented efforts to alter their economic regimes. These first-stage reforms involved a major reconceptualization of the principal elements of the economy, private property, and trade. But in the wake of these reforms, the need for second-stage reforms—the implementation of more structural changes—arose; without the development of new regulatory agencies, tax reform initiatives, adjustments to trade policies, and enhancements in education, labor, and telecommunications, the prospects for economic growth engendered during the first-stage reforms might not be realized.

Economic Policy Reform: The Second Stage provides an incisive overview of the context of these crucial second-stage reforms with a thorough examination of the issues confronting the policymakers involved. Edited by Anne O. Krueger, it features studies from distinguished experts in various fields of economics. Each chapter of this book addresses a key issue in economic policy, examines the progress of reforms in the markets considered, and then explores what research might further aid leaders as they embark on fundamental changes.

Both a handbook for economists and practitioners and a theoretical exploration of the most significant challenges currently facing the economic world, this new book will be indispensable to anyone involved in the global economic scene.

Contributors:
Vittorio Corbo
Cimon Cowan
Sebastian Edwards
Stephan Haggard
Michael Kremer
Steven Matusz
Frederic S. Mishkin
Jonathan Morduch
Roger G. Noll
Miguel A. Savastano
T. Paul Shultz
Mary M. Shirley
T.N. Srinivasan
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Vito Tanzi
David Tarr
Aaron Tornell
[more]
cover of Economics and the Antagonism of Time: Time, Uncertainty, and Choice in Economic Theory

Economics and the Antagonism of Time

Time, Uncertainty, and Choice in Economic Theory

Douglas Vickers

University of Michigan Press, 1994

Presenting a rigorous examination of the place and significance of time in economic theory, Douglas Vickers takes up the interrelated issues of uncertainty, ignorance, and criteria of choice. In the discussion of these questions he explains that the conventional thought-forms of probability are not generally applicable to theory-building in economics. To remedy this he provides a completely new paradigm of choice.The extent to which time has influenced, or been excluded from, economic theory is discussed on four levels: the banishment of time in general equilibrium theory; the incorporation of logical time, in pseudotemporal dynamic analysis in some widely adopted mathematically structured systems; the construction of ceteris paribus dynamics based on conventionally determined behavior; and the analysis of in-time economics, or the results of incorporating into economic theorizing historic time, ignorance, and uncertainty in a nonprobabilistic sense. A scheme of choice and decision making is presented that incorporates the concept of “potential surprise” in place of probability.Economic theorists and scholars in related disciplines will appreciate the originality of the book’s critique of the neoclassical system; its tracing of some of the most relevant intellectual history that sets off the traditions of Keynes and the post-Keynesians from the neoclassical system; the clarification of the meaning of—and the dissent from—probability theorizing in economics; and the treatment of the relevant epistemological foundations of the subject.
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cover of Economics as a Social Science: An Approach to Nonautistic Theory

Economics as a Social Science

An Approach to Nonautistic Theory

Andrew M. Kamarck

University of Michigan Press, 2002

Economics as a Social Science is a highly readable critique of economic theory, based on a wide range of research, that endeavors to restore economics to its proper role as a social science. Contrary to conventional economic theory, which assumes that people have no free will, this book instead bases economics on the realistic assumption that human beings can choose; that we are complex beings affected by emotion, custom, habit, and reason; and that our behavior varies with circumstances and times. It embraces the findings of history, psychology, and other social sciences and the insights from great literature on human behavior as opposed to the rigidity set by mathematical axioms that define how economics is understood and practiced today.
Andrew M. Kamarck demonstrates that only rough accuracy is attainable in economic measurement, and that understanding an economy requires knowledge from other disciplines. The canonical hypotheses of economics (perfect rationality, self-interest, equilibrium) are shown to be inadequate (and in the case of "equilibrium" to be counterproductive to understanding the forces that dominate the economy), and more satisfactory assumptions provided. The market is shown to work imperfectly and to require appropriate institutions to perform its function reasonably well. Further, Kamarck argues that self-interest does not always lead to helping the general interest.
Economics as a Social Science examines and revises the fundamental assumptions of economics. Because it avoids jargon and explains terms carefully, it will be of interest to economics majors as well as to graduate students of economics and other social sciences, and social scientists working in government and the private sector.
Andrew M. Kamarck is former Director, Economic Development Institute, the World Bank.
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cover of Economics for Everyone, Second Edition: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism

Economics for Everyone, Second Edition

A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism

Jim Stanford

Pluto Press, 2015

Economics is too important to be left to the economists. This book provides the information you need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn't).

Through clear bite-sized chapters interspersed with illuminating illustrations, this is an antidote to the abstract and ideological way that economics is normally taught and reported on in in media. Key concepts such as finance, competition and wages are explored, and their importance to everyday life is revealed. It answers questions such as 'Do workers need capitalists?', 'Why does capitalism harm the environment?', and 'What really happens on the stock market?'.

The book is supported with a comprehensive set of web-based course materials including videos for popular economics courses.
[more]
cover of Economizing Mind, 1870–2015: When Economics and Psychology Met . . . or Didn’t

Economizing Mind, 1870–2015

When Economics and Psychology Met . . . or Didn’t

Marina Bianchi and Neil De Marchi, special issue editors

Duke University Press, 2016

A supplement to History of Political Economy

Economists and psychologists share an interest in explaining how people make the choices that they do. However, economists have tended to stress individual rationality, shaped by economic motives and expressed in formal logical or mathematical models, while psychologists have preferred to identify influences through experimentation. In recent decades, behavioral economics has bridged the two fields and challenged the traditional economic assumption that individuals choose rationally. The essays collected here provide a longer view and reflect on episodic contact between psychology and economics beginning in the late nineteenth century. They help explain why meaningful, sustained joint inquiry eluded both disciplines for so long and usefully complement the recent inclination of researchers in each field to find inadequacy in the other.

Contributors: Marina Bianchi, Simon J. Cook, Neil De Marchi, José Edwards, Tiziana Foresti, Craufurd D. Goodwin, Judy L. Klein, Harro Maas, Ivan Moscati, John Staddon, Andrej Svorenčík
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cover of Effective Teaching of Technical Communication: Theory, Practice, and Application

Effective Teaching of Technical Communication

Theory, Practice, and Application

Michael J. Klein

University Press of Colorado, 2021

Drawn from quantitative and qualitative work of practitioners in the field, this edited collection provides an update to the Staples and Ornatowski's influential Foundations of Teaching Technical Communication (1997). The collection is organized around the broad themes of expanding pedagogy, shaping curriculum, incorporating technology, and engaging community. In each section, authors illustrate their experiences with teaching in the university technical communication classroom, addressing topics such as rethinking the role of internships, redesigning student learning outcomes for assessment practices, incorporating ethics into the technical communication classroom, using visual communication in community context, and engaging plain language. These sixteen chapters, taken as a whole or individually, provide readers with insights and examples into teaching technical communication in the 21st century.

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cover of Eight Women Philosophers: Theory, Politics, and Feminism

Eight Women Philosophers

Theory, Politics, and Feminism

Jane Duran

University of Illinois Press, 2005

Spanning over nine hundred years, Eight Women Philosophers is the first singly-authored work to trace the themes of standard philosophical theorizing and feminist thought across women philosophers in the Western tradition. Jane Duran has crafted a comprehensive overview of eight women philosophers--Hildegard of Bingen, Anne Conway, Mary Astell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Taylor Mill, Edith Stein, Simone Weil, and Simone de Beauvoir--that underscores the profound and continuing significance of these thinkers for contemporary scholars.
Duran devotes one chapter to each philosopher and provides a sustained critical analysis of her work, utilizing aspects of Continental theory, poststructuralist theory, and literary theory. She situates each philosopher within her respective era and in relation to her intellectual contemporaries, and specifically addresses the contributions each has made to major areas such as metaphysics/epistemology, theory of value, and feminist theory. She affirms the viability and importance of recovering these women's overlooked work and provides a powerful answer to the question of why the rubric "women philosophers" remains so valuable.
 
[more]
cover of Electromagnetic Waveguides: Theory and applications

Electromagnetic Waveguides

Theory and applications

S.F. Mahmoud

The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 1991

There are several ways to classify electromagnetic waveguides. Depending on their boundaries, they can be classified into waveguides with perfectly reflecting walls or finite impedance walls, as well as open waveguides. In terms of their applications, there are the low attenuation and low delay distortion waveguides for telecommunication, the low crosspolar field waveguides used as feeds for reflector antennas in frequency reuse schemes, as well as the leaky feeders in continuous access communication systems. There are also the natural waveguides such as tunnels and the earth-ionosphere waveguide.
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cover of Emotion and Meaning in Music

Emotion and Meaning in Music

Leonard B. Meyer

University of Chicago Press, 1961

"Altogether it is a book that should be required reading for any student of music, be he composer, performer, or theorist. It clears the air of many confused notions . . . and lays the groundwork for exhaustive study of the basic problem of music theory and aesthetics, the relationship between pattern and meaning."—David Kraehenbuehl, Journal of Music Theory

"This is the best study of its kind to have come to the attention of this reviewer."—Jules Wolffers, The Christian Science Monitor 

"It is not too much to say that his approach provides a basis for the meaningful discussion of emotion and meaning in all art."—David P. McAllester, American Anthropologist

"A book which should be read by all who want deeper insights into music listening, performing, and composing."—Marcus G. Raskin, Chicago Review

[more]
cover of Energy Culture: Art and Theory on Oil and Beyond

Energy Culture

Art and Theory on Oil and Beyond

Imre Szeman

West Virginia University Press, 2019

Energy Culture is a provocative book about oil’s firm grip on our politics and everyday lives. It brings together essays and artwork produced in a collaborative environment to stimulate new ways of thinking and to achieve a more just and sustainable world.

The original work collected in Energy Culture creatively engages energy as a social form through lively arguments and artistic research organized around three vectors of inquiry. The first maps how fossil fuels became, and continue to be, embedded in North American society, from the ideology of tar sands reclamation projects to dreams of fiber optic cables running through the Northwest Passage. The second comprises creative and artistic responses to the dominance of fossil fuels in everyday life and to the challenge of realizing new energy cultures. The final section addresses the conceptual and political challenges posed by energy transition and calls into question established views on energy. Its contributions caution against solar capitalism, explore the politics of sabotage, and imagine an energy efficient transportation system called “the switch.” Imbued with a sense of urgency and hope, Energy Culture exposes the deep imbrications of energy and culture while pointing provocatively to ways of thinking and living otherwise.

[more]
cover of Energy and Structure: A Theory of Social Power

Energy and Structure

A Theory of Social Power

By Richard Newbold Adams

University of Texas Press, 1975

All social structures are essentially power structures dependent on energy. The concept of power and the role of energy in social organization are crucial and timely concerns, especially in light of the current apprehension about future energy resources. In Energy and Structure, Richard N. Adams argues that social power affects humanity's approach to ecological, economic, and political problems, directing people to seek solutions that are often deceptively shortsighted.

Adams, an anthropologist, proposes that social power is directly derived from control over energy processes. He identifies how power and mentalistic structures constitute fundamental determinants that shape the lives of people at all stages of cultural development, forcing them to accept alternatives often far removed from their desires. His central thesis is that the amount of power in any system varies with the amount of control exercised over the environment and that increasing power and control lead to increasing centralization of decision-making, social marginalization, and environmental despoliation. Thus the more highly developed societies, by virtue of their greater controls, are responsible for the greater ultimate subordination and destruction of human potential, as humanity combines technological advances with a growing inability to exercise good judgment with respect to our own survival.

Energy and Structure begins with an examination of the basic theory of social power—what it is and how it works. Adams defines and differentiates between the concepts of power and control, authority and legitimacy, power domains and levels. He then examines the underlying metatheory of energetic and mentalistic structures and provides an analytic model of the evolution of power, from the primitive band to modern nations. He predicts the emergence of supranational blocs and discusses other future possibilities. Throughout, his theoretical points are solidly supported by examples drawn from a wide range of cultures.

[more]
cover of English for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice

English for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice

Diane Belcher, Editor

University of Michigan Press, 2009

The field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is among the richest areas of second language research and practice because increasing globalization and changing technologies spawn new modes of intercultural connection and new occasions for second language use. English for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice compasses this burgeoning field by presenting new research and commentary from some of the field’s leading scholars.

This volume explores ESP from academic (secondary and tertiary), occupational (business, medical, and legal), and socio-cultural perspectives. Recurring motifs throughout the volume are the effects of globalization, English as a lingua franca, and the impact of migrant populations. One of the major questions this volume seeks to answer is, How can ESP instructors meet their own teacher knowledge needs? Also considered is, How have ESP practitioners succeeded in gaining control of the knowledge they need to address their students’ needs?

[more]
cover of Enterprise Exit Processes in Transition Economies: Downsizing, Workouts, and Liquidation

Enterprise Exit Processes in Transition Economies

Downsizing, Workouts, and Liquidation

Leszek Balcerowicz

Central European University Press, 1998

The rebirth of competition and the extensive "exit" that has resulted are among the most important developments in Central Europe since the demise of Communism. This text examines why, how, and to what extent enterprises have reduced their size or left the market altogether during the first years of the transition from socialism to capitalism in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.
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cover of Entropy Economics: The Living Basis of Value and Production

Entropy Economics

The Living Basis of Value and Production

James K. Galbraith and Jing Chen

University of Chicago Press, 2025

Economists dream of equilibrium. It’s time to wake up.

In mainstream economics, markets are ideal if competition is perfect. When supply balances demand, economic maturity is orderly and disturbed only by shocks. These ideas are rooted in doctrines going back thousands of years, yet, as James K. Galbraith and Jing Chen show, they contradict the foundations of our scientific understanding of the physical and biological worlds.

Entropy Economics discards the conventions of equilibrium and presents a new basis for thinking about economic issues, one rooted in life processes—an unequal world of unceasing change in which boundaries, plans, and regulations are essential. Galbraith and Chen’s theory of value is based on scarcity, and it accounts for the power of monopoly. Their theory of production covers increasing and decreasing returns, uncertainty, fixed investments over time, and the impact of rising resource costs. Together, their models illuminate key problems such as trade, finance, energy, climate, conflict, and demography.

Entropy Economics is a thrilling framework for understanding the world as it is and will be keenly relevant to the economic challenges of a world threatened with disorder.

[more]
cover of Equality of Permission: The Politics of Feasible Liberalism

Equality of Permission

The Politics of Feasible Liberalism

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

University of Chicago Press, 2026

From a revered public intellectual, an essential argument for the political preconditions of a liberal society. 

Liberalism has always suffered from messaging challenges. It simultaneously implies a pursuit of individual liberty and social equality, two projects often regarded as at odds. Or: Liberal means the opposite of conservative. Except when it doesn’t. The list goes on. 

Liberal bard Deirdre Nansen McCloskey understands these rhetorical troubles. Equality of Permission is her stirring and career-defining intervention on this essentially contested yet critical topic—a forceful case for liberalism as our best hope, and an essential vision of the political conditions necessary for its survival. McCloskey prescribes a liberalism built around liberty from the bottom up: “equality before the law and equality of political and economic permissions,” lightly administered.

The state, McCloskey argues, is increasingly the source of our discontents—an illiberal institution, hindered by a quixotic fixation on pursuing equality of wealth or opportunity. Equality of Permission evangelizes for a better, and earlier, version of liberalism—that of John Locke, Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Henry David Thoreau—as against a top-down quest for an unattainable utopia. McCloskey shows that statism in pursuit of a chimerical general will, even when well-intentioned, leads to tyranny.

Brimming with energy and erudition, drawing on wisdoms from Alexis de Tocqueville to Mae West, Equality of Permission is McCloskey at the peak of her powers—brilliant, lacerating, garrulous, funny, worldly, and warm. Amid intense debate over the use and abuse of government institutions, McCloskey shares her singular vision for a true democracy, one grounded in respect and conducive to universal human flourishing.

[more]
cover of Equality of Permission: The Politics of Feasible Liberalism

Equality of Permission

The Politics of Feasible Liberalism

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

University of Chicago Press, 2026

From a revered public intellectual, an essential argument for the political preconditions of a liberal society. 

Liberalism has always suffered from messaging challenges. It simultaneously implies a pursuit of individual liberty and social equality, two projects often regarded as at odds. Or: Liberal means the opposite of conservative. Except when it doesn’t. The list goes on. 

Liberal bard Deirdre Nansen McCloskey understands these rhetorical troubles. Equality of Permission is her stirring and career-defining intervention on this essentially contested yet critical topic—a forceful case for liberalism as our best hope, and an essential vision of the political conditions necessary for its survival. McCloskey prescribes a liberalism built around liberty from the bottom up: “equality before the law and equality of political and economic permissions,” lightly administered.

The state, McCloskey argues, is increasingly the source of our discontents—an illiberal institution, hindered by a quixotic fixation on pursuing equality of wealth or opportunity. Equality of Permission evangelizes for a better, and earlier, version of liberalism—that of John Locke, Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Henry David Thoreau—as against a top-down quest for an unattainable utopia. McCloskey shows that statism in pursuit of a chimerical general will, even when well-intentioned, leads to tyranny.

Brimming with energy and erudition, drawing on wisdoms from Alexis de Tocqueville to Mae West, Equality of Permission is McCloskey at the peak of her powers—brilliant, lacerating, garrulous, funny, worldly, and warm. Amid intense debate over the use and abuse of government institutions, McCloskey shares her singular vision for a true democracy, one grounded in respect and conducive to universal human flourishing.

[more]
cover of Essays in History: Financial, Economic, Personal

Essays in History

Financial, Economic, Personal

Charles P. Kindleberger

University of Michigan Press, 1999

Essays in History is a collection of papers and articles covering a breathtaking span across the twentieth century and delving into such diverse topics as economic and financial crises in the sixteenth century, retirement reading for bankers, and a first-hand account of the genesis and formation of the Marshall Plan. Who else to explore such far-flung topics and bring such intelligence and wit to them but Charles P. Kindleberger?Readers will find here a strong view on the need for economic history to guide theoretical research. They will also detect Kindleberger’s doubtfulness regarding economic theory based on assumptions that all participants in society are honest, well informed, and make their judgments independently. And finally, readers will be led to the conclusion that, in light of these views, those who think that finance and the economy should be completely unregulated are woefully misguided.The book’s foreword by Peter Temin, economics professor at MIT and former student and colleague of Kindleberger’s, provides a warm and informative introduction to the life and work of this formidable economist and delightful writer.
[more]
cover of Essays in Positive Economics

Essays in Positive Economics

Milton Friedman

University of Chicago Press, 1966

"Stimulating, provocative, often infuriating, but well worth reading."—Peter Newman, Economica

"His critical blast blows like a north wind against the more pretentious erections of modern economics. It is however a healthy and invigorating blast, without malice and with a sincere regard for scientific objectivity."—K.E. Boulding, Political Science Quarterly

"Certainly one of the most engrossing volumes that has appeared recently in economic theory."—William J. Baumol, Review of Economics and Statistics
[more]
cover of Essays on Economics and Economists

Essays on Economics and Economists

R. H. Coase

University of Chicago Press, 1994

How do economists decide what questions to address and how to choose their theories? How do they tackle the problems of the economic system and give advice on public policy? With these broad questions, Nobel laureate R. H. Coase, widely recognized for his seminal work on transaction costs, reflects on some of the most fundamental concerns of economists over the past two centuries.

In fifteen essays, Coase evaluates the contributions of a number of outstanding figures, including Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, Arnold Plant, Duncan Black, and George Stigler, as well as economists at the London School of Economics in the 1930s.

Ronald H. Coase was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1991.
[more]
cover of Essays on Economics and Economists

Essays on Economics and Economists

R. H. Coase

University of Chicago Press, 1994

This is an auto-narrated audiobook version of this book. 

How do economists decide what questions to address and how to choose their theories? How do they tackle the problems of the economic system and give advice on public policy? With these broad questions, Nobel laureate R. H. Coase, widely recognized for his seminal work on transaction costs, reflects on some of the most fundamental concerns of economists over the past two centuries.

In fifteen essays, Coase evaluates the contributions of a number of outstanding figures, including Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, Arnold Plant, Duncan Black, and George Stigler, as well as economists at the London School of Economics in the 1930s.

Ronald H. Coase was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1991.
[more]
cover of Essential Tensions in Archaeological Method and Theory

Essential Tensions in Archaeological Method and Theory

Todd L. Vanpool

University of Utah Press, 2003

Archaeological theory, some say, seems to have fragmented into a thousand fundamentalisms. By working on a broader set of empirical issues than ever before, archaeologists are indeed applying and refining a variety of perspectives. Yet the editors of this volume make a case that it is appropriate for archaeologists to use a logical variety of theoretical structures to answer different kinds of questions, combining approaches as necessary.


In that spirit of plurality, contributors to this volume identify an important theoretical or methodological problem and present an argument regarding its solution. They also provide a critical evaluation of the current state of archaeological method and theory, illustrating that such recurrent issues as the role of agency and the importance of social considerations in the formation of archaeological research dominate current theoretical development.

By presenting both the range of important questions and a variety of answers, this volume contributes to the 'essential tension' that will further the growth of archaeological theory.

[more]
cover of Europe (in Theory)

Europe (in Theory)

Roberto M. Dainotto

Duke University Press, 2007

Europe (in Theory) is an innovative analysis of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ideas about Europe that continue to inform thinking about culture, politics, and identity today. Drawing on insights from subaltern and postcolonial studies, Roberto M. Dainotto deconstructs imperialism not from the so-called periphery but from within Europe itself. He proposes a genealogy of Eurocentrism that accounts for the way modern theories of Europe have marginalized the continent’s own southern region, portraying countries including Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal as irrational, corrupt, and clan-based in comparison to the rational, civic-minded nations of northern Europe. Dainotto argues that beginning with Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws (1748), Europe not only defined itself against an “Oriental” other but also against elements within its own borders: its South. He locates the roots of Eurocentrism in this disavowal; internalizing the other made it possible to understand and explain Europe without reference to anything beyond its boundaries.

Dainotto synthesizes a vast array of literary, philosophical, and historical works by authors from different parts of Europe. He scrutinizes theories that came to dominate thinking about the continent, including Montesquieu’s invention of Europe’s north-south divide, Hegel’s “two Europes,” and Madame de Staël’s idea of opposing European literatures: a modern one from the North, and a pre-modern one from the South. At the same time, Dainotto brings to light counter-narratives written from Europe’s margins, such as the Spanish Jesuit Juan Andrés’s suggestion that the origins of modern European culture were eastern rather than northern and the Italian Orientalist Michele Amari’s assertion that the South was the cradle of a social democracy brought to Europe via Islam.

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Everyone Loves Live Music

A Theory of Performance Institutions

Fabian Holt

University of Chicago Press, 2020

For decades, millions of music fans have gathered every summer in parks and fields to hear their favorite bands at festivals such as Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Glastonbury. How did these and countless other festivals across the globe evolve into glamorous pop culture events, and how are they changing our relationship to music, leisure, and public culture? In Everyone Loves Live Music, Fabian Holt looks beyond the marketing hype to show how festivals and other institutions of musical performance have evolved in recent decades, as sites that were once meaningful sources of community and culture are increasingly subsumed by corporate giants.
 
Examining a diverse range of cases across Europe and the United States, Holt upends commonly-held ideas of live music and introduces a pioneering theory of performance institutions. He explores the fascinating history of the club and the festival in San Francisco and New York, as well as a number of European cities. This book also explores the social forces shaping live music as small, independent venues become corporatized and as festivals transform to promote mainstream Anglophone culture and its consumerist trappings. The book further provides insight into the broader relationship between culture and community in the twenty-first century. An engaging read for fans, industry professionals, and scholars alike, Everyone Loves Live Music reveals how our contemporary enthusiasm for live music is more fraught than we would like to think.

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Everything for Sale

The Virtues and Limits of Markets

Robert Kuttner

University of Chicago Press, 1999

In this highly acclaimed, provocative book, Robert Kuttner disputes the laissez-faire direction of both economic theory and practice that has been gaining in prominence since the mid-1970s. Dissenting voices, Kuttner argues, have been drowned out by a stream of circular arguments and complex mathematical models that ignore real-world conditions and disregard values that can't easily be turned into commodities. With its brilliant explanation of how some sectors of the economy require a blend of market, regulation, and social outlay, and a new preface addressing the current global economic crisis, Kuttner's study will play an important role in policy-making for the twenty-first century.

"The best survey of the limits of free markets that we have. . . . A much needed plea for pragmatism: Take from free markets what is good and do not hesitate to recognize what is bad."—Jeff Madrick, Los Angeles Times

"It ought to be compulsory reading for all politicians—fortunately for them and us, it is an elegant read."—The Economist

"Demonstrating an impressive mastery of a vast range of material, Mr. Kuttner lays out the case for the market's insufficiency in field after field: employment, medicine, banking, securities, telecommunications, electric power."—Nicholas Lemann, New York Times Book Review

"A powerful empirical broadside. One by one, he lays on cases where governments have outdone markets, or at least performed well."—Michael Hirsh, Newsweek

"To understand the economic policy debates that will take place in the next few years, you can't do better than to read this book."—Suzanne Garment, Washington Post Book World


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Experimental Economics

Theory and Practice

John A. List

University of Chicago Press, 2025

A landmark practical guide from the twenty-first-century pioneer in economics.

Experimental economics—generating and interpreting data to understand human decisions, motivations, and outcomes—is today all but synonymous with economics as a discipline. The advantages of the experimental method for understanding causal effects make it the gold standard for an increasingly empirical field. But until now the discipline has lacked comprehensive and definitive guidance for how to optimally design and conduct economic experiments.

For more than 30 years, John A. List has been at the forefront of using experiments to advance economic knowledge, expanding the domain of economic experiments from the lab to the real-world. Experimental Economics is his A-to-Z compendium for students and researchers on the ground floor of designing, conducting, analyzing, and interpreting data that they generate. List seeks not only to guide readers on how to develop and implement their experimental projects—everything from design to administrative and ethical considerations—but to help them avoid all the mistakes he’s made in his career, too. Experimental Economics codifies its author’s refined approach to the design, execution, and analysis of laboratory and field experiments. It is a milestone work poised to become the definitive reference for the next century of economics (and economists).

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Experimenting with Social Norms

Fairness and Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Jean Ensminger

Russell Sage Foundation, 2014

Questions about the origins of human cooperation have long puzzled and divided scientists. Social norms that foster fair-minded behavior, altruism and collective action undergird the foundations of large-scale human societies, but we know little about how these norms develop or spread, or why the intensity and breadth of human cooperation varies among different populations. What is the connection between social norms that encourage fair dealing and economic growth? How are these social norms related to the emergence of centralized institutions? Informed by a pioneering set of cross-cultural data, Experimenting with Social Norms advances our understanding of the evolution of human cooperation and the expansion of complex societies. Editors Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich present evidence from an exciting collaboration between anthropologists and economists. Using experimental economics games, researchers examined levels of fairness, cooperation, and norms for punishing those who violate expectations of equality across a diverse swath of societies, from hunter-gatherers in Tanzania to a small town in rural Missouri. These experiments tested individuals’ willingness to conduct mutually beneficial transactions with strangers that reap rewards only at the expense of taking a risk on the cooperation of others. The results show a robust relationship between exposure to market economies and social norms that benefit the group over narrow economic self-interest. Levels of fairness and generosity are generally higher among individuals in communities with more integrated markets. Religion also plays a powerful role. Individuals practicing either Islam or Christianity exhibited a stronger sense of fairness, possibly because religions with high moralizing deities, equipped with ample powers to reward and punish, encourage greater prosociality. The size of the settlement also had an impact. People in larger communities were more willing to punish unfairness compared to those in smaller societies. Taken together, the volume supports the hypothesis that social norms evolved over thousands of years to allow strangers in more complex and large settlements to coexist, trade and prosper. Innovative and ambitious, Experimenting with Social Norms synthesizes an unprecedented analysis of social behavior from an immense range of human societies. The fifteen case studies analyzed in this volume, which include field experiments in Africa, South America, New Guinea, Siberia and the United States, are available for free download on the Foundation’s website:www.russellsage.org.
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Explorations in Economic Sociology

Richard Swedberg

Russell Sage Foundation, 1993

Since the mid-1980s, as public discourse has focused increasingly on the troubled economy, many social scientists have argued the need for more analysis of the social relationships that undergird economic life. The original essays in Explorations in Economic Sociology represent the most important work in this renewed field and employ a rich variety of research methods—theoretical, ethnographic, and historical—to illustrate its key concerns. Explorations in Economic Sociology forges innovative social theories of such economic institutions as money, markets, and industry. Although traditional economists have identified markets as driven solely by the forces of supply and demand, social factors frequently intervene. Sales at auction are determined not simply by a seller's personal knowledge of customers. Shareholder attitudes and employee organization influence everything from the way firms borrow money to the way corporate performance is measured. Firms themselves operate in social networks in which trust is a crucial factor in settling the terms for cooperation or competition. Throughout the essays in this volume, the contributors point the way to developing a more healthy economy by fostering productive industrial networks, avoiding disintegration at management levels, and anticipating the consequences of the shift from manufacturing to service industries. Explorations in Economic Sociology is a pioneering work that bridges the gap between social theory and economic analysis and demonstrates the importance of this union in achieving an effective understanding of economic issues. The book should stimulate new interest in economic sociology by bringing together many of its most fundamental voices.
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