1st International Congress Jean-Baptiste Say
SAYS Conference 2014
RNI Summer School 2014
August 27th - 30th, 2014
Boulogne-sur-Mer/Auchy-lès-Hesdin
Nord/Pas-de-Calais
France
“Economic thought of the industrial revolutions: innovation,
entrepreneurship and business cycles”
The financial and monetary crises that have repeatedly taken place since the early 1990s, and
in particular the crisis in the euro zone, have brought to front the issues of industrialisation, of
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the place of goods and services industry within economies as well as of innovation and
economic and social progress. This first International Congress Jean-Baptiste Say will partly
take place in the village of Auchy-les-Hedin, near the town of Arras, in the old abbey where
Jean-Baptiste Say built one of the first large cotton mills. The cotton mill employed up to 450
workers and lasted more than 200 years before its closure in 1989. The place and the founder
of the company are emblematic. Indeed, Jean-Baptiste Say is one of the founders of the
classical economics as well as an industrialist, a politically committed citizen, and an
innovator of his enterprise by introducing a hydraulic motor. The company was set up in the
middle of a rural area without any manufacturing or craft activity at that period.
This conference aims to update the approaches of the history of economic thought in the fields
of industrial revolutions and the sociotechnical paradigms, as well as to observe how national
traditions, specific contexts, and epochs have marked the development of theory in these
fields… To begin with the discussion of the theories of the 18th and 19th centuries and their
extensions to the contemporary theories of sustainable development. We will pay particular
attention to study and to revisit the issue of entrepreneurship, and not only the figure of the
entrepreneur, to identify if possible a typology in terms of both time and space. We will also
consider the existing nexus between innovation and industrialisation in the economic
thinking. Special attention may also be paid to the question of economic rhythms and of their
articulation with internal and external elements in the long term. The notion of industrial
decline will be examined over the long term so as to clarify, to validate or invalidate, the
content of the conceptualisation in this field. How did the economists build, through their
writings, for the contemporaries, the meaning of what we call succinctly “Industrial
Revolution”, or major economic change, that can be broken down into the 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Industrial Revolution.
What role and place for technical progress yesterday and today? How did the economists
experience the socio-economic change? Did they (or not) detect it? Did they give a coherent
sense of the changes that could be chronologically and geographically far apart? What was
their vision of the transformations that industrialisation provoked? Was the Industrial
Revolution really “revolutionary” in their vision? What role should be given to services and
innovation in the major industrial changes? Can we give a broad and open definition of
innovation? This questioning can also raise new questions: what is the place of services and
their innovation in long waves? May the current trend towards deindustrialisation of
developed economies be interpreted as a process of destruction of the old industrial structures
and creation of services firms? Then, is the Schumpeterian entrepreneurship also active in
services?
The first International Congress Jean-Baptiste Say will consist of two parts: a conference
where the theories of Jean-Baptiste Say will be at the heart of scientific presentations and
discussions will host researchers interested in the theories of innovation and long waves; a
summer school will approach specifically doctoral students and young researchers whose
works combine theory and economic facts about entrepreneurship, innovation, growth and
development of new economic and social practices (information and knowledge
economy/society, social economy, etc.). Historical and international comparisons are
welcome. Since the Congress is interdisciplinary, the participants can be researchers in
economics, management, history and sociology.
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List of the key topics of the First Jean-Baptiste Say International Congress:
1) Theories and multiple realities of entrepreneurship: Jean-Baptiste Say, forerunner of
the triumph of entrepreneur
2) Theories of production and of the nature- production relations, from Jean-Baptiste Say
to sustainable development
3) The economic thinking of technical progress: from Classics to the systemic nature of
innovation
4) Innovation and economic cycles: industrial revolution by jumps or by a continuous
process
5) Histories of entrepreneurs and inventions or the application of science to economy:
innovation
6) Socio-technical paradigms throughout the industrial revolutions: from the big industry
to the "new economy": economy of services, of information and knowledge economy,
of environment...
7) Industrial Revolution, changes at work and new forms of social organisation of
production: from the labour society to the entrepreneurial society, what kind of
solidarity, what sort of creativity?
8) Industrial Revolutions and location of innovative activities: effects of proximity,
agglomeration, scale, variety, diffusion, appropriation and accumulation
9) Drivers of (re)industrialisation and socio-economic transition: new activities, social
change, active policies (coercive or support)?
Participants
The first International Congress Jean-Baptiste Say is open to researchers and gives a
substantial place to the works of doctoral students.
The Congress will feature plenary sessions with invited speakers, special sessions around key
themes, poster sessions specifically dedicated to early-stage doctoral students. A round table
will conclude the three days. These four days will be accompanied with cultural events to
extend the discussions in a relaxed atmosphere. The Saturday August 30th will be exclusively
dedicated to cultural activities.
Key dates
- Submission of Abstract or Poster Proposals before: April 15, 2014 to rri@univ-littoral.fr
- Decision of Acceptance by: May 15, 2014
- Registration before: June 30, 2014. Attention, registration is free for members of the RNI
with subscription before 30 April 2014.
- Full Paper or Poster Submission before: August 15, 2014
For more information: http://2ri.eu
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Scientific Committee
Manuela Albertone, Laurice Alexandre-Leclair, Sophie Boutillier, Antje Burmeister, Elias
Carayannis, Vanessa Casadella, Didier Chabaud, Jerry Courvisanos, Thierry Demals, MarcHubert Depret, Arnaud Diemer, Faridah Djellal, Alain Fayolle, Faïz Gallouj, James Galbraith,
Delphine Gallaud, Abdelillah Hamdouch, Alexandra Hyard, Blandine Laperche, Pierre Le
Masne, Serge Le Roux, Nadine Levratto, Michel Marchesnay, Céline Merlin, Karim
Messeghem, Laure Morel, Patrice Noailles, Fabienne Picard, Christian Poncet, Jean-Pierre
Potier, Joël Ravix, Corinne Tanguy, Leïla Temri, André Tiran, Ramon Tortajada, Faruk
Ulgen, Dimitri Uzunidis, Marian Wielezynski
Organizing Committee
Project Managers : Maria Lorek, Zeting Liu: ccordination
Laurice Alexandre-Leclair, Sophie Boutillier, Antje Burmeister, Thierry Demals, Faridah
Djellal, Faïz Gallouj, Alexandra Hyard, Blandine Laperche, Serge Le Roux, Céline Merlin,
Dimitri Uzunidis
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Scientific partnerships
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