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Conferences

Conference and seminar organisation

  • 2024, June. (Currently being organised). Seminars with visiting delegation from the Academy of Marxism of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and participants from a number of UK universities. London and Manchester.
  • 2016. Seminar on the post-crisis political and economic situation in Britain. With visiting delegation from the Academy of Marxism of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and participants from a number of UK universities. University of Westminster.
  • 2014. 46th UK History of Economic Thought Conference. University of Westminster. This also functioned as the founding conference of The History of Economic Thought Society.
  • 2008. City University London conference on teaching methods in economics. Assisted, in particular with reviewing articles from the conference published as a special issue of International Review of Economics Education.
  • 2007. Interdisciplinary Seminar on the History and Philosophy of Economic Thought. University College London.

Conference and Seminar Papers (in reverse chronological order of year)

2018

  • A thousand men and a calf: William Petty’s two theories of distribution in their biographical background. Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, 2018.  7-9 June 2018, Complutense University of Madrid.

2017

  • “Homo ricardensis: common ancestor of Marxism and neoclassical economics.” Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the Royal Economics Society, April 2017, Bristol.
  • “That which remaineth”: surplus and necessity from the New Testament to English political economy. Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, May 2017, Antwerp, Belgium. 

2014

  • 2-4 July 2014
University of Greenwich, LondonWilliam Petty’s ‘par and equation between lands and labour’: Irish lands, English political economy and ‘factors of production’. Paper presented to the 16th Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics, 2-4 July 2014, University of Greenwich, London.

2013

  • “That which remaineth”: surplus and necessity from the New Testament to William Petty. Paper presented to the Kingston Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, 16-18 May 2013.
  • Markets and politics: the imperative for the history of ideas. Paper delivered to the conference organised by the University of Westminster on “The Politics of markets – shaping, steering and evaluation”, 13 June 2013.
  • William Petty and Marx’s analysis of the ‘momenta’ of the primitive accumulation of capital. Paper delivered to the 15th Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics. 4-6 July 2013,  London Metropolitan University.
  • Money, land and language: William Petty in the City of London, 1658. Paper presented to the Reading Early Modern Conference, University of Reading, 9-11 July 2013. 

2010

  • “The first economic policy proposal: William Petty and the origination of the practice of the economist. Paper for the 14th Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought  on the theme ‘The practices of economists in the past and today’. Amsterdam, 25-7 March 2010.
  • “Technological progress and economic analysis from Petty to Smith”. Paper for the Westminster Business School, University of Westminster, Research Seminar, 13 April 2010.

2009

  • “Economists and geographers: Paul Krugman’s Nobel award-winning ‘new economic geography’ and its reception by the incumbent discipline.” Paper for the Westminster Business School, University of Westminster, Research Seminar, 17 March 2009.
  • “Technological change and economic analysis in early modern English economic writings.” Paper for the 13th Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, on the theme “Technological change and economic analysis”. Economic Departments of the University of Macedonia and the Aristotle University, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece. 23- 26 April 2009.
  • “Paul Krugman’s ‘Nobel award’: economics imperialism, geography and the political economy of development.” Paper for the 11th Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics, on the theme “Heterodox Economics and Sustainable Development, 20 years on”, Kingston University, London, 9-12 July 2009.

2008

  • “William Petty and the colonialist roots of development economics”. Paper for the 12th Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, University of Economics, Prague, 15-17 May 2008, on the theme: “Development and Transition in the History of Economic Thought”.

2007

  • “The European Enlightenment and the world economy today; or, Adam Smith and the Wealth of ‘Uncivilised Nations’.” Paper for the Westminster Business School, University of Westminster, Research Seminar, 8 November 2007.
  • “Colonial territory and social surplus: William Petty in the City of London, 1658”. Paper for the 2007 Annual UK Conference on the History of Economic Thought. Queens University, Belfast, 10-12 September 2007.
  • “Limited Liability and the Wealth of ‘Uncivilised Nations’: Adam Smith and the Limits to the European Enlightenment”. Paper for the conference on ‘Corporate Accountability, Limited Liability and the Future of Globalization’, CISD, School of Oriental and African Studies, 20-21 July 2007. Subsequently published in Cambridge Journal of Economics. Vol. 34, Issue No. 5. pp. 857-67.
  • “William Petty and the Whig history of economic thought”. Paper for the Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics. Bristol. 13-15 July 2007.
  • “William Petty and the economic surplus: a biographical exploration”. Paper for the conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. Strasbourg, 5-7 July 2007.

2006

  • “William Petty and the economic surplus: a biographical exploration”. Paper for the annual UK History of Economic Thought Conference, University of Brighton Business School, 13-15 September 2006.
  • “William Petty and colonialism: a critique of some pluralist perspectives in the a critique of pluralism in the secondary literature.” Paper for the Annual Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics. London School of Economics, 14-16 July 2006.
  • “Money, land and language: William Petty in the City of London, 1658”. Paper for the colloquium “Money, power and prose: interdisciplinary studies of the financial revolution in the British Isles, 1688-1756”. Armagh, 8-10 June 2006.
  • “Economics and its neighbouring disciplines”. Paper for the Westminster Business School. 16 May 2006. “French Jesuits, English political economy, and a ‘most remarkable accident’”. Paper delivered at the 10th Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, Porto, Portugal, 28-30 April 2006.

2005

  • “Colonialism, displacement and cannibalism in early modern economic thought”. Paper delivered at a colloquium at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, London, and Institute for English Studies, London, 14-17 September 2005. Subsequently published in Balfour, Robert, ed. 2010. Culture, capital and representation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan..
  • “Is the history of economic thought a discipline? Current literature on William Petty as a case study”. Paper for the Conference on the History of Economic Thought, University of Exeter, 5-7 September 2005. “Pluralism and the economic geography of development”. Papers delivered at the Annual Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics, City University, London, July 7-11 2005.
  • “William Petty and the colonialist roots of development economics”. Paper for the Annual Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics, City University, London, July 7-11 2005.
  • “The spatial-economic logic of William Petty’s population transfer scheme”. Paper for the 9th Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, on the theme “Economics and other disciplines”, University of Stirling, 9-12 June 2005. Subsequently published in Arena, Dow and Klaes (2009) as “Economics, geography and colonialism in the writings of William Petty” (see CV-9.1). “
  • William Petty and the roots of economics”. PhD Thesis. Currently being revised for publication (see CV-9.2).

2004

  • “Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Sachs, and development economics”. Paper for the Political Economy of Development Seminar, SOAS, London, February 2004.

2003

  • “The ‘new economic geography’”. Lecture for the MSc course Economic and the social sciences, SOAS, March 2003; repeated March 2004.

2002

  • “William Petty and the roots of economics”. Paper presented to the Interdisciplinary Seminar, School of Social and Human Sciences, City University, London. 2002.
  • “The spatial economy: from William Petty to Paul Krugman”. Paper for the Political Economy of Development Seminar, SOAS, London. March 19 2002.

2001

  • “Economic transactions and geometrical form in the work of William Petty: a study in the roots of spatial economics”. Paper presented to the Research Seminar of the Department of Economics, SOAS. November 2001.

2000 and earlier

  • “Arguments for privatisation in Britain and their relevance for developing countries”. Lecture to British Council course for Chinese economists. University of Oxford. September 1994. Repeated, September 1995.
  • "Theories of oil supply”. Paper presented to the Research Seminar of the Department of Economics, SOAS. March, 1994.
  • "Commodity prices, inflation and North-South economic interaction”. MSc dissertation, Birkbeck College, London. 1992.
  • "Economic management in Korea”. Paper delivered to the annual conference of the British Association of Korean Studies. Oxford. March 1991.
  • "Economic development in Egypt, 1798-1841”. Dissertation for MSc in Development Studies, London School of Economics. 1970.

Writings on Middle Eastern and bibliographical subjects

  • Fourth supplementary catalogue of Arabic printed books in the British Library, 1970-1980. 4 volumes. London: British Library. 1981.
  • Arabic language collections in the British Library: a user’s guide. London: British Library. 1984.
  • “Arabic manuscript sources on Sub-Saharan Africa in the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books”. In: African studies: papers presented at a colloquium at the British Library, 7-9 January 1985. I Sternberg and P M Larby, eds. London: British Library. 1986.
  • “A library tour of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen”. In: India Office Library and Records [and] Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books, British Library Reference Division, Newsletter. Summer 1985.
  • Guide to the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books of the British Library. London: British Library. 1974. [A complete guide covering all languages.]

Selected letters to the press

Letters on economic and other issues published in the press, over 20 of them in the Financial Times; examples:

  • “Concentrating on macroeconomic policy won’t solve history’s problems”. Financial Times. 25 January 2010.
  • “Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ was an ideal, not a reality”. Financial Times. 10 November 2009.
  • “Early Christians lived by communist principles”. Financial Times. 23 November 2009.
  • “Academics languish behind the curve set by journalists”. Financial Times, 5 June 2009.
  • [On Gordon Brown and the surplus economies.] The Guardian. Friday October 31.
  • [On the IMF and the Arab countries.] The Independent. Friday 31 October 31.
  • “This time, the US can’t rescue the world economy”. The Independent. Friday, 24 October 2008.
  • “Where large-scale slavery began”. Financial Times. Saturday October 11 2008.
  • “Monetarist fallacies of an earlier era revived”. Financial Times. Wednesday July 2 2008.
  • “All talk of consensus is becoming impractical”. Financial Times. Wednesday May 7 2008.
  • “Has EU legislation secretly changed?” Financial Times. Friday February 1 2008.
  • “The bank never loses”. The Guardian. Monday September 24 2007.
  • “The invisible hand guiding the chancellor”. The Guardian. Wednesday March 21, 2007