The term ‘the free market’ has become so widely used that it is commonplace. The free market model is of central importance to economics and other disciplines that use, or explore how to use, “decentralization” concepts. Topics associated with this concept range from decentralized efficiencies and the “wisdom of the crowd” to concerns of greed and exploitation. Popular zeal for the concept, however, tends to ignore both the stringency of free market assumptions and the potential human consequences involved in relying on the market. This workshop examines the free market from a number of angles. We will explore the impact of the free market model and its extensions, and free market ideology. We will discuss positive and negative impacts of the use of the model in fields ranging from economics, political science, history, sociology and media. Topics include – but are not restricted to – the vast amount of market failure, the exciting implications of how free market notions can be usefully applied elsewhere, and the exciting implications of how concepts and tools from other disciplines can be usefully applied to help us improve upon the free market model in economics itself.
The Free Market
9-15 June, 2014