Categoria: works, projects, publications

Mitschnitte des Seminars zur “Einführung in die Wirtschaftswissenschaften” auf der attac Sommerakademie

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, publications, works, works, projects, publications
Ein (unbearbeiteter) Audio-Mitschnitt des dreiteiligen Seminars auf der attac-Sommerakademie 2016 in Düsseldorf findet sich nun auf youtube.
In dem Seminar ging es vor allem um die Darstellung von Grundbegriffen und Grundkonzepten der Wirtschaftswissenschaft. Dadurch soll den Teilnehmern geholfen werden, aktuelle Berichterstattungen und Diskussionen genauer zu begreifen und die Konzepte zu verstehen, die hinter den verwendeten Begriffen wie Wert, Markt, Einkommen, Geld, Einkommen stehen.
Gegliedert ist das Angebot in drei Teile:
– (Vor-)Klassische Wirtschaftslehre: Die Herausbildung einer gesonderten Wirtschaftswissenschaft (Merkantilismus, Phy- siokraten, Klassik . . .)
– Der Streit um Wert und Verteilung: Markt und Staat (Keynesianismus und Neoliberalismus …)
– Perspektiven: Kann eine neue Wirtschaftswissenschaft jenseits von Wachstum und Vollbeschäftigung entstehen? (De-Growth, Vier-in-Einem-Perspektive, Soziale Qualität …)Ein kurzer Einführungstext und eine Zitat-Sammlung ist hier zu finden.

The Limits to Cheating History – Changing the Reference for Accounting

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, publications, works, works, projects, publications
I had been asked by the Academy of Social Sciences of Shanxi Province to write a contribution for their journal – some special challenge not because of the academy but as accounting is surely not my special working area. Still …, well …, challenges are there to be taken up, right?

The aim of the present article is to reflect on accounting in the light of the general developmental perspectives. From here, it will be concluded that accounting is requested to develop new perspectives, opening ways for socially responsible accounting.

The five developmental frictions are fundamentally defining factors in two respects:

(1) with their consideration we will be able to substantialise accounting, assessing it as means that is not neutral

(2) this way the consideration of these ruptures also allows us to see accounting as means that is systematically hiding – or disclosing – mechanisms behind the applied theory of value.

Such perspective highlights not least the need for questioning a fundamental presumption, namely the static perspective that is implicit in accounting. Though being employed with cash, finance, material flows and others, the fact that accounting deals with a given structure – the household – brings about a static perspective of self-referentiality.

I hope you find some inspirations in it.
The English draft document can be found here.
I do not know about possible requests for changes and the document will be translated (poor translator …).

Easily condemned …

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, works, works, projects, publications

It is easy to condemn the Brits for exiting – though it had been only part of them anyway. But is also easy that one overlooks the fundamental flaws of the formation to which they are turning the back. While writing on CSR, i.e. Corporate Social Responsibility, I found this definition on the Commission’s website:

What is CSR?

The Commission has defined CSR as the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society. CSR should be company led. Public authorities can play a supporting role through a smart mix of voluntary policy measures and, where necessary, complementary regulation.

Companies can become socially responsible by:

  • following the law;

  • integrating social, environmental, ethical, consumer, and human rights concerns into their business strategy and operations.

So, the European Union is a place where respecting the law is not an obligation, but a “bonus”?

There is surely much that the “remainers” have to think about in more serious terms: not the lack of legitimacy but the lack of legitime claims of being a legitimate integrative and integrating force.

There may be something to be learned from two contributions I wrote a while back:

… It is easy to chastise the children, and it likely to forget the failure of the parents …

Looking back: 教授给学生开设Workshop

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, Peter's Log, works, works, projects, publications

为了让学生学习更多的经济学知识及研究方法，提高学生自主学习能力，我院Peter Herrmann教授针对2014级金融学、会计学两个专业特别开设Workshop。经过面试并遴选40名学生后，Peter Herrmann教授围绕经济学开展一系列专题讨论，包括“大学与市场 (University and Markets)”，“金砖五国与薄荷四国 (From BRICS to MINT)”，“知识产权的维度 (Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights – Economics and Property)”等。在专题讨论中，Peter Herrmann教授引出话题，学生对各个话题进行深入讨论、发表见解，最后Peter Herrmann教授对主题进行总结，并提出一些问题留给学生课后思考。这种教学模式鼓励学生进行独立思考、自主研究。学生们纷纷表示受益匪浅。更令学生欣喜的是，Peter Herrmann教授给他们颁发了有他和学院教学副院长签名的结业证书。

(from: http://www.bangor.edu.cn/xydt/201606/t20160622_50616.html)

Searching for a new way of Thinking Society for Today

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, social quality, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, works, projects, publications

A new piece, written together with Vyacheslav N. Bobkov, is titled

Searching for a new way of Thinking Society for Today—Noospheric Social quality

It is published in Volume 12, Issue 2 of the journal Ekonomika regiona [Economy of Region], on pages 451-462 (doi 10.17059/2016–2–11)

The abstract states:

Obviously, we face an economic crisis that dominates the headlines of daily newspapers, academic journals and features as the title of TV-and-radio casts alike. And, not withstanding political differences, there is widespread consensus that the economic crisis is only the tip of an iceberg. However, there is little readiness to go beyond the inherited fundamental assumptions of a “modern industrial capitalist market society”.
The article argues that all the categories are increasingly under threat. The social quality, the quality of life and the noosphere paradigm of global social development offer space for considerations that question societal developments not only on the phenomenological level. Instead, the authors ventilate gnoseological, ontological and axiological prerequisites of sustainable global social development. The noosphere paradigm is
enriched with the theories of social quality and the quality of life, thus contributing to the wider and diverse debates on what can be called people’s humanistic socialism. In view of the complexity of the impending transition from the present to a future global society with people’s humanistic socialism, it is necessary to plan it thoroughly, beginning with the support of the processes and institutions that currently provide a seedbed;
developing new transformational forms of the future features of global society has to go hand in hand with this. It makes sense to carry on with the conceptualization of questions bearing on the formation of nooshpheric social quality and its design.

Further information cane found on the researchgate site – https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Herrmann

Political Economy

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, publications, works, works, projects, publications

Three videos had been uploaded, presenting in German language the foundations of political economy.- Thank you to MrMarxismo.

 

Grundlagen der Politischen Ökonomie – Prof. Dr. Peter Herrmann – (attac Sommerakademie 2015 in Marburg). http://www.attac.de/bildungsangebot/s… – Sowohl in der Krisenanalyse der vergangenen Jahre als auch in der allgemeinen Diskussion und Darstellung von wirtschaftspolitischen Fragen finden sich oft zwei grundlegende Fehlannahmen:
o Vorgeschlagen wird ein Wirtschaftsverständnis, bei dem weitgehend ausgeblendet wird, dass es sich um inhärent soziale Verhältnisse handelt.
o Vorgeschlagen wird, dass es sich um nichtpolitische Verhältnisse handelt, bei denen es sich um reine Sachkonstellationen handelt – im Extrem können diese in Algorithmen gefasst werden.
Oft wendet sich gerade die linke Diskussion gegen solche Positionen, ohne die tatsächlichen Konzeptionen in Rechnung zu stellen.
Das Seminar will mit der Darstellung Klassischer, Marxistischer und Keynesianischer Konzepte zumindest die Grundbegriffe aufbereiten und damit auch Alternativen der Wirtschaftspolitik systematischer verstehbar zu machen.
Themen:
o Klassische Politische Ökonomie – Die Rechtfertigung des Nationalismus
o Keynes – Modernisierung der Nationalökonomie vor dem Hintergrund der Neuordnung der Welt
o Marx – Proletarier aller Länder – (wie) könnt ihr euch einigen?
Im Zusammenhang mit diesen Grundverständnissen werden auch weitere Konzepte (etwas Finanzialisierung, Lange Wellen etc.) aufgearbeitet.

我院教师参加上海论坛2016年会

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, Peter's Log, works, works, projects, publications

中南林业科技大学班戈学院, 2016

2016年5月28-30日，我院教师彼得.赫尔曼（Peter Herrmann）教授参加了在上海国际会议中心举办的上海论坛2016年会。

彼得.赫尔曼教授在 “中国与拉美：跨越太平洋的发展伙伴”高端圆桌会议上发表了 “增长和发展——互补还是矛盾？全球议程面临的挑战”（Growth and Development – Complement or Contradiction? Challenges for a Global Agenda）的主旨演讲。他指出，在面临国际发展挑战过程中，需要重视经济学教学的作用；呼吁政府在大力发展经济的同时考虑环境问题，出台长期的可持续经济政策；同时，他还提到，近期一些服务贸易协议文件的泄露可能会对中国经济发展造成严重的威胁。

本次圆桌会议旨在加强中国和拉美国家的多边合作，谋求两国的共同发展。会议邀请了政府、学术界、智库、企业机构等不同主体，共同研讨中国与拉美合作的前景和合作的模式，建言如何提升中拉整体合作水平和促进中拉多边关系发展。会议由复旦发展研究院金砖国家研究中心主任、复旦大学国际关系与公共事务学院副教授沈逸担任主席，巴西前驻华大使Luiz Augusto de Castro Neves先生和中国前驻巴西大使陈笃庆担任会议嘉宾。

“上海论坛”是目前在上海举办的最具国际影响力的品牌论坛之一。论坛创始于2005年，由复旦大学和韩国高等教育财团主办,复旦发展研究院承办，迄今已成功举办了十届。论坛每年5月在上海举办年会。

本次论坛的主题为“互联互通与创新：迈向亚洲命运共同体”。上海市常务副市长屠光绍、复旦大学校长许宁生、教育部国际合作与交流司司长许涛、韩国SK株式会社董事长兼首席执行官崔泰源出席开幕式并致辞。开幕式由复旦大学党委书记魏小鹏主持。来自全球智库、高校、政府、企业、媒体等机构的代表和嘉宾共700余人参加了论坛。

How to write a bestseller and get a Pulitzer Award?

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, Peter's Log, projects, works, works, projects, publications

I am not sure if I missed something, or if it was just a rumor about some things that went wrong around that time?

What makes capital provision work so well in America is the security and regulation of our capital markets, where minority shareholders are protected. Lord knows, there are scams, excesses, and corruption in our capital markets. That always happens when a lot of money is at stake. What distinguishes our capital markets is not that Enrons don’t happen in America—they sure do. It is that when they happen, they usually get ex- posed, either by the Securities and Exchange Commission or by the business press, and get corrected. What makes America unique is not Enron but Eliot Spitzer, the attorney general of New York State, who has doggedly sought to clean up the securities industry and corporate board-rooms. This sort of capital market has proved very, very difficult to duplicate outside of New York, London, Frankfurt, and Tokyo. Said Foster, “China and India and other Asian countries will not be successful at innovation until they have successful capital markets, and they will not have successful capital markets until they have rule of law which protects minority interests under conditions of risk… We in the U.S. are the lucky beneficiaries of centuries of conditions of risk… We in the U.S. are the lucky beneficiaries of centuries of economic experimentation, and we are the experiment that has worked.”

From: Thomas L. Friedman: The World is Flat; New York: Picador: 2007: 332 f.

Well, the Friedmans, be it Thomas or Milton, don’t understand that we face what James Galbraith calls

The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth

as reviewed here.
One important point is, and that is another way of thinking about the end of the normal, the need to question the normal or at least part of it. Three (we always strive for trinities) essential parts of the normal were: growth, growth, and some form of regulation – and indeed Friedman talks about such regulation. But what he does not say is that this had been about marginal forms of social distribution, limited control of excesses and in particular/not least about securing the conditions of and for growth. It is interesting that even this is now largely taken away. As we know since recently, namely the leak of the TISA-Annex on the Annex on State Owned Enterprises the role of securing the conditions of and for growth is now under the increasing pressure of being finally, formally and completely handed over to the ‘market’. This is globalisation not simply by imposing specific structures and conditions on other countries but by establishing the control
Freedom and democracy – the flattening of the world by fattening the few global players.

Does one ‘super-corporation’ run the global economy? Study claims it could be terrifyingly unstable

The Network of Global Corporate Control – Research Article

The Network of Global Corporate Control – Annex

Indeed, I took up on some of the issues of the supposedly flattened world not only recently in Havana (here for for a background paper), but now again during the Shanghai Forum, presenting on ‘Growth and Development – Complement or Contradiction? Challenges for a Global Agenda‘ – more information can be found here.

Shanghai Forum 

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, publications, works, works, projects, publications

Under the title

Growth and Development – Complement or Contradictions

I looked at some challenges for a global agenda.

This contribution had been part of the  China and Latin America round table, organised by the Centre for BRICS Studies, Fudan Development Institute in the framework of the Shanghai Forum 2016.

The participation was also the public commencement of the cooperation between the Centre for BRICS studies and the BRICS laboratory at EURISPES, Rome.

A background document can be found here, a recording of the presentation can be found here.

From my contribution to the discussion it should be added that the current “shift towards China and the BRICS” should be seen in a world systems perspective, indicating the need of a move away from the mode of production that leaves the old centres EU and USA behind: their ability to offer answers to today’s challenges. The challenge we face together, however, is not about shifting to a new centre but to develop a new overall systemic approach to antroponomic challenges. The Brazilianisation, going hand in hand with the so-called trade agreements (TTIP …) should be dismantled as what they are: protectionist systems that are increasing exclusionary competition- making this point was actually welcomed by many of the participants from Latin America.