Association for Heterodox Economics

2^nd Post-Graduate Training Workshop

“Getting From Hypotheses to Conclusions:

Advanced Methods for Pluralist and Interdisciplinary Economics Research”

2002

All are Welcome to Attend. However you must Register. To register, fill in and post us the form located at www.ccsr.ac.uk/staff/wkolsen/aheregister.htm

Registration does not make you eligible for a subsidy. Indeed you must pay a 25 pound fee (cheques payable to the University of Manchester) if you register. You may pay this fee at the time of registration. This is why we ask you to post your registration form to us.

Details of the Programme

Agreed speakers: Victoria Chick, Steve Fleetwood, Fred Lee, Wendy Olsen, V. Monastiriotis, and Paul Downward.

Speaker	Topic	Time	Day	Venue
Downward P.	Applied Heterodox Research	9 am-10:30 am	Monday 9 Dec.	Flat lecture hall, the Chancellor’s Conference Centre, Univ. of Manchester
Fleetwood S.	Labour relations	From 11 am to 1 pm (+ 1 hour discussion period 4-5 pm)	Monday 9 Dec.	Flat lecture hall, the Chancellor’s Conference Centre, Univ. of Manchester
Lee F.	Grounded Theory and Economic Research	Approx from 2 pm to 4 pm (+ 1 hour discussion period and exercise 9-10 am Tuesday	Monday 9 Dec.	Flat lecture hall, the Chancellor’s Conference Centre, Univ. of Manchester
Chick	Open Systems and their Implications	10 am to 12 pm (+ 1 hour discussion period 12-1 pm)	Tuesday 10 Dec.	Flat lecture hall, the Chancellor’s Conference Centre, Univ. of Manchester
Monastiriotis	Regression Models and the Multi-Causal Approach	From 2 – 4; Workshop 4-5 looking at students’ data and topics (Olsen also supporting)	Tuesday 10 Dec.	Flat lecture hall, the Chancellor’s Conference Centre, Univ. of Manchester Bring your laptop and data for the Workshop Please
all staff to facilitate, working in small groups	Practical session	12-1 pm	Tuesday 10 Dec.	Breakout into discussion areas to consider the open systems and social-relations approaches to your own topics – aided by Fleetwood, Lee, Chick.
Olsen	Qualitative Handling Data Demonstration	4-5 pm	Tuesday 10 Dec.	public area -- demonstrating what digital tape recorders and qualitative software can do for researchers.
Olsen	Path analysis and multilevel analysis: Advantages of using multi-method research strategies	9-10.30 am	Wednesday 11 Dec.	Flat lecture hall, the Chancellor’s Conference Centre, Univ. of Manchester
Olsen with Monastiriotis	Statistical applications integrating qualitative or multilevel with ordinary regression*	11-1 pm	Wednesday 11 Dec	Main hall

* Demonstrating three pieces of software in action: NVIVO, which organises thoughts and qualitative data; INSPIRATIONS, which creates flowcharts and other diagrams, including path diagrams; and finally MLWIN, which does multilevel regression after you have created a good clean data set. Bring your clean data set as a single matrix in spreadsheet format. We assume you are familiar with SPSS etc. already.

Steve Fleetwood has confirmed that he will speak on ‘How (not) to do causal explanation in labour markets’, with reference to recently published work of his in Review of Social Economy and other work.

Victoria Chick has confirmed that she will speak about open systems and formalism, and she refers you to a recent paper by her and Sheila Dow in the Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics.

Paul Downward is the editor of a collection of papers on heterodox research methods, and these papers may be available at the workshop. The work is forthcoming (Downward, ed., London: Routledge).

There will be a mixture of talks, demonstrations, discussions and one group practical task.

There will be pre-reading and a set of printed readings.

Both qualitative and quantitative research methods will be covered.

Details of Eligibility for Subsidy

For those eligible, subsidy includes B&B&Evening Meals&Travel

Each person still has to pay 25 pounds though.

Workshop facilitators include Wendy Olsen and are likely to also include other active members of AHE in the UK/Ireland.

A Workshop handbook consisting of papers by all the presenters and more will be given – last year it ran to two volumes.

Details of the Objectives of the Workshop

• specialist applications of advanced statistical skills, notably linking-up a statistics package with interview transcript data;
• specialist applications of advanced qualitative skills, notably grounded theory and discourse analysis;
• developing the capacity for originality as well as social worth and policy relevance in economic research, which will in turn have knock-on effects on pedagogy and on the ability to apply the learning that takes place during the PhD.
• encouraging researchers to work within a context of methodological and theoretical triangulation

Details of What a Heterodox Economist ‘Is’ or, Better, What Heterodox Economics is Like

The definition of heterodoxy is contested because the borderline of orthodoxy is contested. Many researchers do pieces of work both within and without the neoclassical paradigm, so clearly heterodoxy is not simply non-neoclassical. Among institutionalists, for instance, many researchers combine insights from both old and new institutionalism (e.g. Hodgson refers to Veblen; but Hodgson also appreciates the work of North etc.). Many institutionalists would consider their work to be heterodox at times. The Workshop will no doubt generate further clarifications of these various borderlines, but it is abundantly clear that labelling a person is less appropriate than labelling a piece of research or a set of assumptions. That way, we can talk about/across assumptions. For this reason much heterodox research could be thought of as pluralist. Books on pluralism in economics include the edited volumes by Samuels, W., and by Screpanti as well as a new edited volume by Downward (forthcoming).

Institutionalists, social theorists, realists, feminists, marxists, post-keynesians, empirical researchers, and all others who consider themselves under the umbrella of heterodoxy are welcome to the workshop. For a list of 650 people who have signed up to a statement favouring heterodoxy over orthodoxy, please see the website of the Post-Autistic Economics Review. You can look at the statement, or the related statements from the Kansas conference and in the PAE Review, using the web links.

Specifically:
http://www.btinternet.com/~pae_news/Camproposal.htm

Contact Maria-Luisa Mendez:

maria-luisa.mendez@stud.man.ac.uk for details.

If you decide to register please see aheregister.htm

You must send your registration form by post to the following address:

AHE c/o Maria-Luisa Mendez

The Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research

Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

The University of Manchester

Dover Street Building

Manchester M13 9PL

(staff are also welcome but without so much subsidy

- the approximate cost will be 135 pounds B&B plus 25 pounds fee = total 160 pounds and your travel costs)