>Posted on 31 Aug 1994 at 17:32:31 by Uriacc Mailer (002033)
>
>Re: URPE = UPE?
>
>Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 14:31:31 -0700
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From: "Chris Barrett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>I do think some of the recent postings on the URPE name change issue
>are missing the serious point and attending instead to more trivial
>matters, such as what difference the name makes on resumes. The real issue
>concerns the audience accessible to those of us who believe there is
>a better [feasible] way. Do we advocate via a boldly named forum
>like that we have now, with the consequence that many reasonable
>folks who might be open to our approaches and proposals self-select
>out, leaving us to talk basically among ourselves? Or do we water
>down the public image, infiltrating the mainstream, if you will,
>[rather like Cockburn on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal]
>but risk losing our identity and any coherence in our message in the
>process?
.. stuff deleted ..
>Chris Barrett
I think Chris' point is right on the money. I sometimes cringe when I assign
RRPE articles to my class because I strongly suspect some students dismiss or
pigeonhole the article ahead of time because it comes from a "radical"
journal. In part this stems from a strong subjectivist, pomo position
advocated by one of my colleagues, so that many of our students come
to think everything is relative and simply a matter of opinion. Since RRPE
articles label the opinion for them, the students don't have to evaluate
the article for themselves. Other journals, e.g. the Cambridge Journal of
Economics or even the Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics don't have this
problem (most of our students don't know the difference between a Post-
Keynesian and a Post-Office, so even though they recognize the latter journal
as having a particular slant, they have no idea what that slant is).
So a more innocuous title might make the journal more useful, although
I honestly don't know what else I would call it.
Marsh Feldman
Community Planning Phone: 401/792-2248
204 Rodman Hall FAX: 401/792-4395
University of Rhode Island Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kingston, RI 02881-0815
"Marginality confers legitimacy on one's contrariness."
