A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World

Abstract

The reasons for the lack of communication between economists and econophysicists are clarified by giving an outline of the methodological differences between economics and econophysics, which has emerged as a new field of research over the last decade. Theorists working in econophysics see economic and financial phenomena through the ‘lens’ of statistical physics. So far, there has been no real dialogue between economists and econophysicists because both communities adhere to their own methodological precepts.     

From Cosmopolitan to Vernacular in the Language Sciences: A Global History Perspective

Sheldon Pollock's justly famous work on cosmopolitan orders and processes of vernacularization in the worlds of Latinity and Sanskrit invites questions of a comparative and global-historical character. I will raise such questions in the context of the Persianate cosmopolitan order, especially as exemplified by the early modern Ottoman Empire, focusing on the wave of vernacularizations this empire witnessed in the seventeenth–eighteenth centuries. In this process of vernacularization, new vernacular forms of philological learning appear to have played a crucial role. Building on Bourdieu's work, I will try to analyze the Ottoman cosmopolitan as a pre-modern form of linguistic domination, and vernacularization as a form of resistance. Moving beyond Bourdieu, I will be arguing for a genealogical approach that is alive to premodern non-European philological traditions, and to the historically variable relation between (philological) knowledge and power.     

从社会史到文化史:十八世纪法国书籍与社会研究

年鉴学派应用计量方法研究社会经济史所取得的成功直接推动了18世纪法国书籍与社会史研究。新一代的年鉴学派史家,以系列史方法为指导,研究书籍的社会经济史,解读书籍的社会文化功用,试图勾勒出18世纪法国的书籍社会学。但此后,在后现代主义理论、文化人类学和其他社会科学的影响下,史学家的目光从以统计学为基础的书籍社会学转向强调解读的阅读社会学。因此,对18世纪法国书籍与社会研究,总体上经历了从注重书籍计量到强调文本解读、从书籍社会学到阅读社会学、从文化社会史到社会文化史的转变。