Notre Dame Plans to Dissolve the 'Heterodox' Side of Its Split Economics Department

[marmar]

from the Chronicle of Higher Education:



September 16, 2009

Notre Dame Plans to Dissolve the 'Heterodox' Side of Its Split Economics Department
By David Glenn


Early in this decade, the University of Notre Dame's economics department was bruised by a long series of quarrels over methods and ideology. So in 2003 the university's leaders came up with a Solomonic solution: They split the department in two.

Some of the faculty members stayed in what became known as economics and policy studies, a heterodox department that made room for post-Keynesians, Marxians, and historians of economic thought. (Broadly speaking, that had been the character of Notre Dame's economics program since the 1970s.) Others moved into economics and econometrics, a more-mainstream department with an emphasis on quantitative tools.

But this was not a divorce made in heaven. University officials now say that the experiment has not worked, and that they expect to dissolve the department of economics and policy studies within the next two years.

A few of the department's 11 faculty members might be invited to join the mainstream department—indeed, one scholar already made the leap this summer—but most of them expect to be scattered into various other departments, institutes, and research centers at Notre Dame.

For those faculty members, most of whom opposed the 2003 split in the first place, the news is a bitter pill. They say that the administration has failed to consult with them or with their students. And they say that it will be peculiar, at best, for them to move into other academic units when the university originally hired them because of their doctorates in economics. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://chronicle.com/article/Notre-Dame-to-Dissolve/48460/

[peacebird]

1. can someone explain this (& why it matters) in basic english?

thanks....

[exboyfil]

2. I think you have two broad streams in economics

Social Studies theory (Heterodox, outside the mainstream) - This would be the traditional home for Economics as a Social Science (throwing all the competing theories into this department etc). Actually the department name is screwy since it includes Economic historians who would not be far out of the mainstream of thought.

Economics of making money (Quant tools) - This is the Business branch of Economics. It is like Engineering compared to the above which is more like Natural Science or the old description Natural Philosphy (not a perfect analogy).

When you look at many catalogs for colleges you will see that Economics has a Social Studies number, but when you look at its department placement - it is usually in the Business department. The two groups should have stayed in the same department - they should have never been split (I am an engineer so I probably miss much of the undercurrent). Outside the box thought can lead to important quantitative advances as well. Quant methods should be applied to competing economic theories (just not our mainstream system) to look at potentially better economic models.

[peacebird]

3. thank you!

[BlooInBloo]

4. Sounds like basically those who would prefer to be in a litcridiot department...

are getting kicked to the curb, while those who want to do actual econ are being permitted to do so.

[malaise]

5. That was one crazy decision

Unfuggingbelievable.