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Researcher: Jo Munson
Title: Can there ever be a “Cohesive Global Web”?
Disciplines: Economics, Ethnography (Cultural Anthropology)

Lawrence Klein, Econometrician who won a Nobel prize for his Economic forecasting models. Lawrence passed away on 20 October, aged 93.

Methodology

Methods in Economics
When questioning the world, Economists consider questions of two types:

• Normative – subjective, opinion based statements that dictate “what ought to be”.
• Positive – objective, fact based statements that describe “what is” and that can be proved or disproved.

In order to establish the validity of Positive statements Economists propose a question or theory (state their hypothesis), construct a simplified model of the Economic phenomenon they are observing, collect data and make statistical inferences to establish the veracity of their initial theory, or make improvements to it. Normative statements can then be derived from Positive research to make statements about how things should be. The most comon application of Normative statements is in Economic design.

Next time (and beyond)…

I’ve had a quick reshuffle of the order, but broadly, I will be covering the following in the proceeding weeks:

• Can there ever be a “Cohesive Global Web”?
• Ethnography 1 – Introduction & Definition
• Ethnography 2 – Disciplinary Approach
• Economics 1 – Introduction & Definition
• Economics 2 – Disciplinary Approach
• Ethnography 3 – Theories & Methodologies
• Economics 3 – Modelling & Methodologies
• Ethnographic Approach to the “Cohesive Global Web”
• Economic Approach to the “Cohesive Global Web”
• Ethno-Economic Approach to the “Cohesive Global Web”

Sources

Peoples, J. and Bailey, G. 1997. Humanity. Belmont, CA: West/Wadsworth.

Barnard, A. 2000. Social anthropology. Taunton: Studymates.

Image retrieved from: http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2013-10/77881428.jpg