Journal Articles by David Yarrow
Review of International Political Economy, 2020
This article analyzes recent attempts to integrate the value of knowledge into global economic st... more This article analyzes recent attempts to integrate the value of knowledge into global economic statistics. It outlines how emerging human capital accounting (HCA) standards apply concepts developed to value physical capital goods to the skills embodied in national populations, making its value dependent on lifetime labor market incomes. The intellectual legacy of neoclassical capital theory thereby frames the way in which the value of knowledge is understood in contemporary global governance in politically consequential ways. Drawing upon Karl Polanyi and recent literature on the political economy of measurement, it argues these methodologies reproduce the 'economistic fallacy', as they assume the exchange value of educational investment can be meaningfully isolated from its broader economic, cultural and social functions. Such metrics consequently naturalize politically contestable assumptions, reflecting comparative institutional factors rather than the substantive contribution of education to human welfare. A case study of the influence of HCA on the World Bank's Human Capital Project demonstrates how the diffusion of these valuation methods has implications for which national policy agendas are deemed 'sustainable', particularly within debates on the future of welfare policy. This case illustrates the wider importance of global accounting practices in constructing national economic policy space.
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New Political Economy, 2019
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Political Quarterly, 2017
This article explores the recent rise of populist politics from the perspective of Karl Polanyi's... more This article explores the recent rise of populist politics from the perspective of Karl Polanyi's theory of the 'double movement'. It firstly introduces Polanyi's understanding of interwar populism, and relates this to his critique of liberal economic thought. This perspective is used to analyse three prominent explanations for populism which emerged in the wake of the EU referendum: globalisation; cultural reaction; and social media. I show how each of these explanations exogenises contemporary populist movements, narrating them as something external to the liberal economic restructuring pursued globally since the 1980s. Failing to adequately diagnose the causes of contemporary populist movements, which lie in this utopian attempt to treat labour as a commodity, they cannot support an intellectually coherent progressive response to Brexit. I finally outline a political agenda centred on labour de-commodification, which could directly address populist grievances and reclaim the discourse of 'taking back control' for the left.
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Conference Papers by David Yarrow
This article re-thinks the Polanyian diagnosis of contemporary populist movements from a Polanyia... more This article re-thinks the Polanyian diagnosis of contemporary populist movements from a Polanyian perspective. Polanyi theorised the political polarisation of the inter-war years was as the result of a four stage process: 1) commodification of land, labour and money; 2) societal counter-movements against the effects of commodification; 3) economic strains caused by the interaction of these two forces; 4) the emergence of political movements promising to dissolve the institutional separation between the political and the economic. Existing Polanyian perspectives equate contemporary populist movements with stage two in this process: a pendular ‘double movement’ against neoliberal commodification. However, this account simplifies the Polanyian schema. By unpacking Polanyi’s arguments and comparing them with history of the neoliberal period, I suggest contemporary populism is better understood as reflecting the fourth stage. Asset-based welfare and other marketised forms of social protection are not internal to commodification dynamics but rather immanent counter-movements specific to the neoliberal period. This has implications for how we diagnose contemporary populist movements and map potential strategic responses. A return to stable growth and the restoration of Keynesian welfare institutions from the post-war social-democratic toolkit will be unlikely to address populist grievance in the absence of more substantive democratic oversight of the disposal of land, labour and money.
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In this paper, we examine the politics of recent attempts to move beyond Gross Domestic Product (... more In this paper, we examine the politics of recent attempts to move beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the primary measure of economic progress. After outlining the key tenets of this " post-GDP agenda " , we reflect on the relationship between it and other iterations of thought which seek to challenge the centrality of economic growth to dominant conceptions of political economy. We argue that many of these other iterations see the challenge to growth as going hand in hand with a broader critique of the measurement of society and environment in market terms. This raises the question of how far initiatives undertaken under the post-GDP banner adopt or draw upon this broader critique. We go some way toward answering this question by examining two different approaches taken to post-GDP statistical reform: those which seek to change conceptions of economic value through the modification of national economic accounts, and those which seek to supplement GDP with other measurements such as subjectively reported wellbeing, access to education, leisure time etc. We demonstrate that, while these all pose distinctive challenges for the market view of society, the methodologies through which they have been articulated in fact often fall back on and re-inscribe a conception of economic value as dependent on price forming markets, and reify a set of institutional arrangements associated with market society.
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Thesis Chapters by David Yarrow
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Opinion Pieces by David Yarrow
Justice Everywhere, 2019
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The Guardian, 2019
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Katoikos.eu, 2015
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Journal Articles by David Yarrow
Conference Papers by David Yarrow
Thesis Chapters by David Yarrow
Opinion Pieces by David Yarrow