The uses and misuses of economics: reflections of a recovering economist

Tuesday 3 November
5.00pm - 6.00pm

Bradley Forum
Level 5
Hawke Building
City West campus

For the last century economics has reigned supreme in government and public life.

But blind spots, ethical vacuums and excessive hubris have led economics and economists to make awful mistakes. This lecture will consider the price of the preoccupations and misapplications of economics in the 21st Century and its contribution to some of our more important problems.

In the context of the global financial crisis in particular, economic theory has a lot of explaining to do. This lecture will consider the implications of some of this for how we live, work and care for each other, and how we create sustainable lives.

This lecture is full. A vodcast of the lecture will be available.

Hawke Research Institute Professional Lecture Series.
Division of Education, Arts & Social Sciences, Hawke Research Institute

Professor Barbara Pocock

Professor Pocock is Director of the Centre for Work and Life, part of the Hawke Research Institute at UniSA.

She initially trained as an economist and has been researching work, employment and industrial relations for over 25 years. She has worked in a range of industries - in banks, on farms, in unions, for governments - and has advised politicians. Her research includes gender politics at work, the regulation of industrial relations systems and effects on inequality.

At present Professor Pocock is studying the changing nature of work and its intersections with changing household and social life, with Australia as her primary focus.