Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 20:20:04 +0800
From: NOHARAPA-AT-cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Dictionary of PE:More Information


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Dictionary of Political Economy Project (DPE)
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The purpose of this brief letter is to provide some
information about dpe for those scholars who are
interested in joining, or who have recently joined.
DPE commenced in early 1994. Its main function
is to produce a one volume work of about 850
double-faced pages with a-z entries on themes
relevant to non-neoclassical economics. It includes
feminist, institutionalist, marxist,  neo-Ricardian,
post keynesian, and social political economy. There
will be very long, long, medium-length, short, and
very short articles ranging from 2000 words to 100
words (plus cross-references). The longer entries
will be structured in terms of  an introduction;
definition(s); detail; critique; areas of further research;
conclusion; references; and possibly a bibliography for
=91views not studied here=92.

With 850 pages (double-faced, medium-sized print),
the average sized entry will be 1 page or 1,000 words.
That gives us 800 a-z entries (assuming 30-50 pages
are taken up with contents pages, introductory
material, preface, introduction, index?, etc.).

Each entry will assume no prior knowledge of the
topics; but it will be assumed that the reader has
studied one or two years of economics or political
economy. Most of the entries will be fairly self-
contained, so that while no knowledge will be assumed,
the argument may be developed to a relatively high
point of  conceptual clarity. While the dpe will be fairly
encyclopedic, it will not be exhaustive, and a fair degree
of stress will be placed on including bibliographies for
further reading.

The DPE has six committees of scholars for
Schools of  Political Economy: feminist, institutional,
Marxist, neo-Ricardian, post Keynesian and social. It also
has 15 committees for Subjects: communication;
method/philosophy; history of PE; economic fluctuations;
labor and production; money and finance; the
corporation; evolution and transformation;
development; environment; race/class/gender;
world capitalist economy; family and SDL; the state
and macroeconomics; economic anthropology and
history; and regional.

There are three ways in which scholars can
contribute to the dpe:
(1) join one of the School or Subject committees
(developing a-z lists; developing policy; joining
the dpe network; suggesting writers/referees)
(should take a maximum of 2 hours per month).
(2) opting to write/referee one or more of the
a-z entries for the dpe;
(3) opting to be more loosely connected to the dpe
exercise in case they can be of some help when
requested: eg, for writing/refereeing a specific a-z
listing, answering a policy question, etc.

Currently we are getting to the end of phase 1:
developing the a-z lists for the committees.
Phase 2 is when we cull, integrate, scrap, add,
and work on sizes re the a-z list: so that we
can have a working list of a-z entries. Phase
3 is to complete the task of assigning writers/
referees to each a-z entry and finalise the
question of publishing contract. Currently we have
had positive approaches from two publishers;
but the real business of drawing up contracts
will await Phase 3. Royalties will be divided
equally between (a) buying copies of  the dpe
for libraries in underdeveloped nations; and
(b) financing secretarial and research assistance
etc staff for the dpe work (including a second
edition; plus a CD-Rom and/or Hypertext version).

A-z lists have been developed for some of the
following committees ( where =93a-z=94 is shown next
to committee this means that an a-z list is available
for potential writers/referees to scrutinise). At the
moment we need additional specialist committee members
with expertise in the following committees
(*** = such committee members are urgently needed):

Role of State and Macroeconomics ***
Family and Sexual Division of Labour *** [a-z]
Economic Anthropology & History *** [a-z]
Neo-Ricardian PE (***) [a-z]
Feminist Political Economy [a-z]
Post Keynesian PE [a-z]
Institutional Political Economy [a-z]
Marxist Political Economy [a-z]
Social Political Economy [a-z]
Methodology/Philosophy [a-z]
Economic Fluctuations [a-z]
Money and Finance [a-z]
Corporation [a-z]
Evolution and Change [a-z]
Race/Class/Gender
World Capitalist Economy [a-z]
[a-z lists have also been developed
for the following subjects: environment;
development]

We plan to publish the dpe in a cheap
paperback edition during 1997. It is envisaged
that as the project matures a core group of
people will have shown themselves to be
committed to the tasks of organising the dpe,
and these 6 or so people will have their names
on the front of the book. Those scholars who have
contributed significantly to policy and organisation
(suggesting a-z lists, writers, referees, helping with
publishers etc) will be shown after the title page of
the work to be members of the editorial committees
for the Schools or Subjects. Next, writers of specific
a-z items will be listed, followed by referees. After
each a-z listing the writer(s) will be shown, with their
university/organisation, city, and country listed as well.

I hope this information has been of some use to you
in understanding the basics of the dpe project.

Best wishes,

Phil O=92Hara,
Coordinator,
Dictionary of Political Economy Project
Department of Economics,
Curtin University of Technology
GPO Box U1987,
Perth 6001
Australia

Email:  noharapa-AT-cc.curtin.edu.au
fax: +61-9-351-3026
Tel             351-7761 or 451-2618



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