Power/Knowledge and Economic Theories
See also, main page on Power/Knowledge
Published article is attached as PDF file below: 06 Asad Zaman.pdf. Referee Report is also attached (RefRepPKWAP)
My article deals with the past. Alkire and Foster "Winning Ideas" have written a more contemporarily relevant history of how the campaign to popularize current neoliberal ideas was carried out. It is a fascinating study.
see also Meryem's Lecture on Power/Knowledge at IIIE which can be worked up into another article
see also: Ed Dodsons Lecture Notes on A History of Economic Theory and Policy
appeared as: "Power/Knowledge and Economic Theories" Lahore Journal of Policy Studies, vol 4, No 1, p. 71-78
Related: The Power of Ideas
Anti-Poor Policies & Anti-Poor Philosophies
Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge. Currently dominant conceptions of knowledge define knowledge as “True, Justified, Belief.” Without going into the complex details, we focus on the basic idea that knowledge is “true”. Suppose we wish to evaluate a sentence such as: “Sousa is poor.” Then we would look at relevant characteristics of Sousa, and the definition of poverty, and try to match the two. If there is a good match, then the sentence would be considered “true” and would be added to our knowledge. If characteristics of Sousa do not match current definitions of poverty, then the sentence would be considered false, and we would not add it to our knowledge base. The following questions may be interesting, but they are not relevant to the evaluation of whether or not this sentence represents knowledge:
Who said that ‘Sousa is poor’? Who was he talking to?
In what context did this conversation take place? Why was it said?
What will be the consequences to Sousa and society if the sentence is accepted as true?
Post-modern philosophers dispute this idea of knowledge. Many earlier philosophers have noted the relationship between theories propounded and the interests of the proposer. For instance, Karl Marx argued that different classes adopt different economic theories which align with their economic interests. Among modern philosophers, Michel Foucault (1980) took this idea to a radical extreme. He argues that modern human sciences (biological, psychological, social) purport to offer universal scientific truths about human nature that are, in fact, often mere expressions of ethical and political commitments of a particular society. On deeper analysis, what passes for knowledge, and is stated as a universal scientific truth, is actually a defense of existing power configurations. On initial encounter, this is a startling claim. Our goal in this article is to make it more plausible by studying some examples of economic theories and their relations to power interests. But first we give an example to more clearly illustrate the nature of our argument.
According to the Knowledge=Truth theory, the statement that “VAT Taxes will benefit Pakistan” should be evaluated by economic arguments regarding amount of revenue generated and costs and benefits to the economy of Pakistan. However, the Knowledge=Power theory states that if the interests of multinationals and powerful elites are served by acceptance of this sentence, then it will be accepted as knowledge. On the other hand, if it does not serve power interests, it will be rejected as invalid. If the post-modernists are right, than questions 1-3 posed above, as well as a host of other questions, become very crucial to epistemology. In this essay, we will study the relation between certain economic theories and the interests of power groups within society.
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