The Inglorious Years: The Collapse of the Industrial Order and the Rise of Digital Society
By: Daniel Cohen – École Normale Supérieure
In this revelatory book, economist Daniel Cohen describes how today’s postindustrial society is transforming us all into sequences of data that can be manipulated by algorithms from anywhere on the planet. As yesterday’s assembly line was replaced by working online, the leftist protests of the 1960s have given way to angry protests by the populist right. Cohen demonstrates how the digital economy creates the same mix of promises and disappointments as the old industrial order, and how it revives questions about society that are as relevant to us today as they were to the ancients. Brilliant and provocative, The Inglorious Years discusses what the new digital society holds in store for us, and reveals how can we once again regain control of our lives.
Drawing on disciplines ranging from economics to psychoanalysis, Daniel Cohen proposes an impressive analysis of the key forces at work in the past fifty years, showing how changes in industrial society have led to a digital age full of difficulties and dislocations. Readers will find much to ponder in this most enlightening book.
Xavier Gabaix, Harvard University
The Economisation of Climate Change – How the G20, the OECD and the IMF Address Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Climate Finance
By: Jakob Skovgaard – Lund University
The effort to address climate change cuts across a wide range of non-environmental actors and policy areas, including international economic institutions such as the Group of Twenty (G20), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These institutions do not tend to address climate change so much as an environmental issue, but as an economic one, a dynamic referred to as ‘economisation’. Such economisation can have profound consequences for how environmental problems are addressed. This book explores how the G20, IMF, and OECD have addressed climate finance and fossil fuel subsidies, what factors have shaped their specific approaches, and the consequences of this economisation of climate change. Focusing on the international level, it is a valuable resource for graduate students, researchers, and policymakers in the fields of politics, political economy and environmental policy.
Skovgaard’s excellent book explores how the IMF, OECD and G20 address the global threat of climate change and frame it as an economic issue. It provides a timely analysis of the increasing economisation of climate policy – its strengths and limitations. Most importantly, it shines a light on the questions of power and justice that are often hidden in economic discourses.
Robert Falkner, London School of Economics and Political Science
Rescue – From global crisis to a better world
By: Ian Goldin – Oxford University
We are at a crossroads. The wrecking-ball of Covid-19 has destroyed global norms. Many think that after the devastation there will be a bounce back. To Ian Goldin this is a retrograde notion. He believes that this crisis can create opportunities for change, just as the Second World War forged the ideas behind the Beveridge Report. Published in 1942, it was revolutionary and laid the foundations for the welfare state alongside a host of other social and economic reforms, changing the world for the better. Ian Goldin tackles the challenges and opportunities posed by the pandemic, ranging from globalisation to the future of jobs, income inequality and geopolitics, the climate crisis and the modern city. It is a fresh, bold call for an optimistic future and one we all have the power to create.
In this broad-ranging book, Ian Goldin aptly views the West’s failure to address at all adequately the Covid-19 virus as emblematic of widespread national failures. To get out of this dystopia, he argues, nations will have to create nothing less than “a different operating system” and they must cooperate far more than in the past. This radical book is a must-read.
Edmund Phelps, Columbia University
Bettering Humanomics – A new, and old, approach to economic science
By: Deirdre Nansen McCloskey – University of Illinois at Chicago
Going against the grain of contemporary neo-institutional and behavioral economics which privilege observation over understanding, [Deirdre McCloskey] asserts her vision of “humanomics,” which draws on the work of Bart Wilson, Vernon Smith, and most prominently, Adam Smith. She argues for an economics that uses a comprehensive understanding of human action beyond behaviorism. McCloskey clearly articulates her points of contention with believers in “imperfections,” from Samuelson to Stiglitz, claiming that they have neglected scientific analysis in their haste to diagnose the ills of the system. In an engaging and erudite manner, she reaffirms the global successes of market-tested betterment and calls for empirical investigation that advances from material incentives to an awareness of the human within historical and ethical frameworks. Bettering Humanomics offers a critique of contemporary economics and a proposal for an economics as a better human science.
How is economic science going to progress? By embracing ethics, the humanities, and language as part of the tool kit alongside mathematics—and recognizing that economists should never try to be social engineers because they are part of the societies they study. McCloskey makes a compelling case for economics for humans—and offers some hope that the discipline is tilting in that direction.
Diane Coyle, University of Cambridge
