About blog

This is a blog covering current events in US political economy from the point of view of an economic/political sociologist. I am struck by how few econ/poli sociologists actively engage with current events on the internet. By contrast, for example, economics has a thriving web community.

I am not an academic, and I have a day job. Probably better than describing myself as a sociologist would be to describe myself as practicing a "Bourdieuian analytics." I have an ongoing project developing a theory of social analysis largely taken from the late French intellectual Pierre Bourdieu. In short, Bourdieuian analytics emphasizes symbolic forms of power; multiple forms of capital endemic to the modern world (intellectual, social, cultural capital); and a sociology-of-knowledge/social-psychological perspective in which actors internalize the thinking, habits, and norms of the contexts ("fields") immediately surrounding them.

I also add to Bourdieuian analytics by borrowing a focus on "systems" from Habermas and a belief in the reflective & creative possibilities of human minds from American pragmatists Mead, Dewey, and Mills.

But my focus here is on current events.

Here are the subjects I anticipate covering:

— US fiscal budget and the question of whether US will once again use its incredible monetary & fiscal privileges to invest in the domestic economy

— Will US economic elites, who are increasingly global elites reliant on consumers all over the world, see it in their interest to re-invest in the US consumer?

— Economic growth in the post-recession era. Not just economic growth as measured by GDP, but the qualities of that growth: Who benefits? Where? How? Why?

— Will the US use its post-recession economic growth to develop an actually thriving labor market?

— I want to use that phrase again; I'll return to it time and again: An actually thriving labor market

— Intellectual Property: Will humans become proficient at quantitatively valuing intangible assets like data, knowledge, communications?

— US money and inflation/deflation, role of the dollar in world financial arrangements

— US foreign policy:

     a) Iraq: Do we come to grips with the strategic/moral/economic failure? Do we admit we "lost" a war? Do the pundits who supported that war face accountability? Do we become more fully isolationist? Do we develop a theory of how to use our military might for common good?

    b) Iran: Does the tenuous nuclear deal being worked on come to fruition? Do we avoid war while maintaining essential alliances?

    c) China: How will China's inevitable economic slowdown change their internal dynamics & effect its relationship with the rest of the world, i.e. the US.

— The energy boom US currently experiencing: What are the effects on US role in the world? Does it lessen the risks of more war? Does it help spur domestic economic improvements?

— US politics: Will the GOP make the reforms it needs to field a more viable candidate in 2016? (It is the GOP's presidency to lose, according to my formulation.) Will Hillary run? (I predict she won't.) If she doesn't, who will? 

— Media & knowledge & tech: How will communications media continue to evolve and/or continue to change the society around it? Will Silicon Valley's default "libertarian" political philosophy ever develop into a more sophisticated, empirically viable political sociology? Will the Klein/Silver push toward "data-driven journalism" result in broader implications? Will Twitter & Facebook fulfill their valuations?

— Professional sports: How will pro football reflectively adapt to the health crises essential to the game's very character? How will pro basketball evolve following the retirement of its long-time commissioner? And in all sports, how will the 'advanced stats' revolution continue to uproot long-standing pieces of knowledge?

And others. Thanks for reading.