Julian Saurin @ Free University Brighton |
Alternative economics :
a critique of political economy
Course Outline
Course Summary This course is an introduction to political economy. Political economy is the old name for Economics and part of this course will show why the old phrase is both more appropriate but still in need of criticism. We will focus on introducing and elaborating the concept of value and valuing, and will therefore show how Economics’ focus on financial value so often distorts or even misleads us from a broader and more varied political economic understanding of value. An initial way of thinking about the concept of value is just to say ‘value means whatever matters’ or ‘value refers to what something is worth’. No previous formal study of economics is assumed for this course. This course, as a social science course, will also show how in formal scientific study we need to move constantly from abstract concepts to concrete examples and back again if we want to understand and explain the world. Most people seem to find it easier to study concrete examples first, before thinking more systematically about concepts (or even theories). Therefore we shall examine concepts of value by looking closely at four concrete fields of economics : First we’ll look at money (finance); then consumption and exchange (trade); then production (making) and finally labour (work). As we look at real-life cases and examples in these four fields – including real-life examples that students are encouraged to offer – we’ll begin to see just how narrow Economics has been and how much more promising a wider political economy could be. Most of us assume that the main thing of value in the economy – and certainly the main way of measuring value – is money. We all think we know what money is, we use it (or don’t) every day. But what is money ? Is it those coins and notes in our pocket ? Is that the same stuff as the digits on a bank statement or the electricity bill we owe ? We’ll look at a variety of financial instruments of which, say, cash, is just one kind. Who or what makes money, and indeed how can money even be made ? We’ll take a look not only at central banks but also at the re-emergence of local currency schemes. Why and how does it seem as if the value of money changes ? Can value be stored in money ? We’ll look at debt and credit and the key question of time in the workings of finance. What is the connection between holding money and political, social or economic power ? After briefly examining money (financial values), we turn to the value expressed in consumption and exchange (trade) After all, most of us need to get hold of money precisely in order to buy goods and services for consumption, for example, food and accommodation (Most people in the world do not acquire money for purposes of saving or investment). So let’s look at how value is realized in consumption. The five pound note that I can’t eat, when exchanged at Happy Shopper for a packet of biscuits, transforms into a gastronomic value. Doesn’t it ? but the rhubarb that you’ve grown on your allotment and for which there was no exchange of money allows a much more delectable consumption; a higher value possibly. But what kind of value ? To enjoy consumption, just like the use of money, presupposes that things of value have been produced. In this section of the course we examine the production of value. Where does value come from ? How is it accumulated (how is it lost) ? What kinds of activities count as production and which activities of have been ignored or discounted ? For example, why, broadly speaking, has production and reproduction of the household and family (life, living, flourishing) been unpaid whilst, say, production of weapons (death, killing, repression) been paid ? We need to ask who carries out production, for whom is production carried out, and what kinds of things are produced and for what reasons are they produced. Finally, to reverse and complete the economic circuit, any discussion of production leads us to its presupposition, namely, labour. Human beings in society are constantly making and remaking the world around us. We are homo faber (‘man-the-maker’). Given our guiding concern with the question of value, we need to ask how does labour produce value ? To do so we first need to ask what labour is (work) ? And again we’ll consider a range of examples in which some kinds of labour are dismissed as valueless whilst other kinds of work are celebrated with enormous salaries and bonuses. When Jo works at minimum wage for an hour and Mo works at a thousand pounds an hour what explains the difference in the value of their work ? (Don’t believe for a moment that the answer is to be found in the ‘laws’ of supply and demand). |
Course Venue and TimingsThe Synergy Centre
78 West Street Brighton The Brighton Synergy Centre on West Street is kindly hosting classes for Free University Brighton. As you're going uphill with your back to the sea, close from the seafront, the Centre is on the right-hand side of the road. |
Group One - Tuesday evenings 7.00 -9.00pm – 24th November and 1st, 8th & 15th December.
Group Two - Thursday evenings 7.00-9.00pm – 26th November and 3rd, 10th & 17th December.
Course Document and Units
To find a summary, contents, reading and other materials, items for discussion and investigation, as well as assignments for each unit, please click on the corresponding images below ...