"Socio-Economics: Broadening the Economic Debate"
Robert Ashford
Professor of Law
Syracuse University College of Law
Syracuse, New York 13244
Tel. (w) (315) 443-1111
Tel. (c) (315) 491-4888
socioeconomics@aol.com
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Society of Socio-Economists
Annual Meeting Program
Monday, January 11, 2016
9:00 a..m. - 6:00 p.m.
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What is the
Society of Socio-Economists?
The Society of Socio-Economists (SOS) is a society of teachers of law, economics and other disciplines; other professionals; and interested people who approach economic issues in harmony with the "Statement of Socio-Economic Principles." (To see the "Statement of Socio-Economic Principles, please click here.)
SOS holds an annual meeting in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in coordination with the AALS Section on Socio-Economics.
For the AALS Section on Socio-Economics Newsletter, showing the Section's 2016 Annual Meeting Program, click here.
There is no fee to become a member of SOS. However, there is a registration fee (usually $75, which can be reduced or waived) to attend its Annual Meeting. There is also a luncheon fee dependent on the price of the hotel or restaurant at which the luncheon is held. It is not necessary to buy lunch to attend the luncheon address.
Planning for the Monday, January 11, 2016, SOS Annual meeting is in progress. Persons interested in participating and/or attending should contact Robert Ashford (Please see above.)
Statement of
Socio-Economic Principles
Socio-economics begins with the assumption that economic behavior and phenomena are not wholly governed or described by any one analytical discipline, but are embedded in society, polity, culture, and nature. Drawing upon economics, sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology, biology and other social and natural sciences, philosophy, history, law, management, and other disciplines, socio-economics regards competitive behavior as a subset of human behavior within a societal and natural context that both enables and constrains competition and cooperation. Rather than assume that the individual pursuit of self-interest automatically or generally tends toward an optimal allocation of resources, socio-economics assumes that societal sources of order are necessary for people and markets to function efficiently. Rather than assume that people act only rationally, or that they pursue only self-interest, socio-economics seeks to advance a more encompassing interdisciplinary understanding of economic behavior open to the assumption that individual choices are shaped not only by notions of rationality but also by emotions, social bonds, beliefs, expectations, and a sense of morality.
Socio-economics is both a positive and a normative science. It is dedicated to the empirical, reality testing approach to knowledge. It respects both inductive and deductive reasoning. But it also openly recognizes the policy relevance of teaching and research and seeks to be self-aware of its normative implications rather than maintaining the mantle of an exclusively positive science. Although it sees questions of value inextricably connected with individual and group economic choices, socio-economics does not entail a commitment to any one paradigm or ideological position, but is open to a range of thinking that treats economic behavior as involving the whole person and all facets of society within a continually evolving natural context.
Unique among interdisciplinary approaches, however, socio-economics recognizes the pervasive and powerful influence of the neoclassical paradigm on contemporary thought. Recognizing that people first adopt paradigms of thought and then perform their inductive, deductive, and empirical analyses, socio-economists seek to examine the assumptions of the neoclassical paradigm, develop a rigorous understanding of its limitations, improve upon its application, and develop alternative, perhaps complementary, approaches that are predictive, exemplary, and morally sound. (For a fuller description of socio-economics, see http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=882751)
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P r o g r a m
9:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Plenary Session
Topics to be discussed include...
1. Socio-Economic Theory
2. Sustainable Economic Recovery, Full Employment, and Growth
3. Wealth and Income Distribution
4. Poverty, Race, Gender, and Class
5. Corporate Fiduciary Duties, Governance, and Social Responsibility
6. Social Entrepreneurship
7. Economic, Financial and Environmental Regulation
8. Economics of War and Peace
9. Tax Policy
10. Ethical Dimensions of Economic Analysis
12:15 - 1:15 p.m. Luncheon Panel (TBA)
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
(Based on Plenary Topics)
3:15 - 4:45 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
(Based on Plenary Topics)
5:00 - 6:00 p.m. Conluding Plenary
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P a r t i c i p a n t s I n c l u d e
(invited and pending ac ceptance)
Deleso Alford (Law, Florida A&M U.)
Co-Author of Medical Ethics and Healthy Equity:
The Henrietta Lacks Story
Robert Ashford (Law, Syracuse U.)
Co-Author of Binary Economics: The New Paradigm
David Bieri
Economics, Virginia Tech University
William Black
Criminology - Law and Economics University of Missouri-KC
Author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One
Regina Burch
Associate Director, Association of American Law Schools
June Carbone
Law, Universsity of Minnesota
Author of Marriage Markets:
How Inequality Is Remaking the Ameroican Family
Harold Channer
Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Bridget Crawford
Law, Pace University
Paul Davidson
Founding Editor, Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics
Lloyd Jeff Dumas
Economics, University of Texas - Dallas
Terry Dumas
Economists for Peace and Security
Richard Gerschon
Law, University of Mississippi
Thomas Geu
Dean, Law, U. South Dakota University
Oliver Goodenough
Law, University of Vermont
Sidney Greenfield
Anthropology-Emeritus, University of Wisconsin
Co-Author: Entrenpreneurs in Cultural Context
Jeffrey Harrison
Law and Economics, University of Florida
Richard Hattwick
Founding Co-Editor, Journal of Socio Economics
Stefan Padfield
Law, University of Akron
Author of "The Silent Role of Corporate Theory
in the Supremer Court's Campaign Finance Cases"
15 U. PA J. Const. L 831 (2013)
Richard Peltz-Steele
Law, University of Massachusetts
Nicolaus Tideman
Economics, Virginia Tech U.
Author of Collective Decisions and Voting:
The Potential for Public Choice
Johnanne Winchester
United Nations Liaison
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