Naslov
Foreword

Autori
Reić, Zlatan

Izvornik
Enterprise in transition (1846-2618) 1 (2007); 17-18

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, uvodnik, ostalo

Ključne riječi
social responsibility; business ethics; business sector development; political economy; regional development; public sector

Sažetak
Even though it has been lasting for over a decade and a half, the transition process is continually opening new questions which require new research efforts looking for the answers that might have a chance to be unanimously accepted. How it is possible to achieve a stronger social responsibility and business ethics in conditions of an increasingly spreading consumerism ideology and domination of big business guided by profit as the main principle of efficient entrepreneurship? The obvious discrepancy of these concepts may be seen as a barrier to effective solution mechanisms. Within the positive economics of the neo-classical type, settling these contradictions is impossible in principle. Therefore it seems that we need an interdisciplinary approach, an approach which will use the achievements of other social sciences. Large and expanding differences in development level between countries and within them, environmental threats to our vital resources such as global warming, as well as information, technological and cultural domination of global power centres are dramatically warning that policies proposed either by economics or by market cannot offer adequate solutions. Long ago Joan Robinson warned that ...the professional economist keeps up a smoke screen of "theorems", and "laws" and "pay-offs" that prevent questions such as that why the USA keeps an appreciable proportion of its population in perpetual ignorance and misery from being asked. In her opinion this situation is inevitable: In every country educational institutions in general and universities in particular, are supported directly or indirectly by the established authorities and whether in Chicago or in Moscow, their first duty is to save pupils from contact with dangerous thoughts. Robinson’ s argument is still valid. Economic reasoning alone cannot offer a solution for any economic problem, for all involve political, social and human considerations that can not be reduced to the lore of nicely calculated less and more. What we need is a different habit of mind - to eschew fudging, to respect facts and to admit ignorance of what we do not know. The above attitudes determine to some extent the other important topic session of this Conference devoted to the new views in economics and political economy. The discussion arising from the well-known Cambridge controversy needs to be continued and actualized. As Joan Robinson argued the problem of capital measurement remains open: “ The student of economic theory is taught to write Q=f(L, C) where L is a quantity of labour, C a quantity of capital and Q a rate of output of commodities. He is instructed to assume all workers alike, and to measure L in man-hours of labour ; he is told something about the index-number problem involved in choosing a unit of output ; and then he is hurried up to the next question, in the hope that he will forget to ask in what units C is measured. Before ever he does ask, he has become a professor, and so sloppy habits of thought are handed on from one generation to the next". The Conference discussions will address the question of scientific and professional responsibility for the problems surrounding us which may primarily be defined as economic-political problems.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija

POVEZANOST RADA