French Association of Political Economy (FAPE) Launch meeting report

 French Association of Political Economy (FAPE)

 Launch meeting report

Many people, more than 120, were present in Paris last December 17th for the launch meeting of the French Association of Political Economy –FAPE– (Association Française d’Economie Politique, AFEP). This meeting attracted a lot of colleagues from almost all tendencies in the profession, not only many heterodox schools like post-keynesians, regulationists, conventionalists, institutionalists, Marxists and Austrians were represented but some mainstream colleagues from different tendencies were also there. Indeed, despite the economic crisis nothing has changed in the professional life : the courses are still centred on the somewhat autistic mainstream curriculum and the promotion rules are becoming more and more rigid. Promotion and recruitment are based on a narrow evaluation of publications : academic journals are ranked on a non linear scale with, roughly, the American neoclassical so-called “top five” journals on the top and, at the bottom, the heterodox and/or non-English-speaking publications. The material and symbolic rewards are thus concentrated on an ever more limited group. Whatever the social process by which a self-proclaimed “elite” has been able to become judge and jury and to cumulate so much money and control in a professional community where relative equality and collegiality were prevailing until recently, it is a fact that more and more colleagues are becoming conscious of and disagree with this monopoly of a coterie on a whole profession. Headed by André Orléan, the FAPE intends to be a collective entity devoted to the promotion of pluralism. Indeed, intellectually open-minded and contradictory debates in the profession are necessary for collective thinking. “Over the last few years, economic reflection has progressively shut itself down around dogmatic propositions and methods. We believe that the absolute hegemony of the neoclassical approach over the research and teaching institutions in our country is an obstacle that has to be fought because it leads to a dangerous impoverishment of the economic discourse, as illustrated by the current economic crisis” said André Orléan. “The blindness of [neoclassical] economists, he adds, has been brought to light by the crisis. Their inability not only to anticipate the crisis but also simply to consider it as plausible is for us the direct consequence of this hegemony. Such a failure shows how much our community is going badly. (…) It is obvious that we will not avoid a reflection on the role of our discipline. (…) Pluralism is a way for the community of the economists to think about its social role. It is a mechanism that renders visible the vested interests which try to manipulate it. The FAPE will promote pluralism towards three directions : pluralism of intellectual approaches, pluralism of viewpoints and pluralism of disciplines. (…) The aim of the FAPE is to bear upon the institutional evolutions of both economic research and teaching towards pluralism. To do so, it has to be a credible actor by representing and federating the main trends of thought in the community of economists.” A first symposium will be held in Lille in December 2010, meanwhile six working groups are starting to prepare alternative propositions on different themes such as : teaching, careers, evaluation, journal ranking, etc. FAPE members are also looking forward to developing links with other political economy associations around the world.

By Bruno Tinel, secretary of the FAPE 2010-01-21