Экономика и гуманитарное знание:
Тенсивность в институциональной матрице
Economics and Humanities Knowledge:
Tension in the Institutional Matrix
SVETLANA KIRDINA (RUS)
GREGORY SANDSTROM (CAN)
Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Economics (ИЭ РАН)
Moscow, Russia
European Humanities University
Mass Media and Communication
Vilnius, Lithuania
Presentation Outline
 Introduction
 New Social-Economic Theory & Pre-Ideas of
Institutional Matrices Theory (IMT)
 Synopsis and Uses of IMT
 Tension in the Matrix: X- & Y- Theory (Bridge)
 Human Extension & Intension in Institutions
 An Alternative to ‘Evolutionary’ Ideology
 Conclusions – Re-humanising Economics with IMT
and Tension Methodology
“[E]conomics should become a humanistic science
of the economy.” – D. McCloskey
X- V- Y- / In- ExApril 2013, St. Petersburg, Russia
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Why Do We Need New SocialEconomic Theories?
1. Most theoretical schemes are
inadequate
for
understanding
transformations in Russia today.
insufficient and
and
predicting
2. Theories of the so-called “western mentality,” i.e. the
sociological mainstream: founding fathers (and a few
mothers) of sociology, “Big Four” countries have
contributed basic ideas in global and local theories.
3. Russia genuinely uses these ‘famous’ western theories
in analyzing various new phenomena. But they are not
always effective for Russia’s unique, long-term
development.
4. Russia today needs new social-economic theories to fill
the gaps left by ‘western’ and ‘European’ ones, that have
not satisfied the Russian ‘cultural’ or ‘natural’ mindset.
April 2013, St. Petersburg, Russia
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Rethinking Society: Not One but Two
Types of Economic ‘Systems’
 1853 – Karl Marx (Germany) – two paths of development:
“European” and “Asiatic mode of production without private
ownership of land”
 1939 – Walter Eucken (Germany) – “exchange economies” and
“centrally planned economies”
 1953 – Karl Polanyi (Hungary-Austria-Canada) – market
(exchange) and redistribution economy
 1990s – Natalia Drozdova, Nadezhda
Lebedeva and Olga
Bessonova (Russia): institutional concepts about non-market
historical path of Russia’s economy – ‘razdatok’
 2002 – Steven Rosefielde (U.S.A.) – market self-regulating
category A economies & culture-regulated category B economies
URPE, SAN DIEGO, USA, JANUARY 2013
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Main Theses of IMT
 Economic, political and ideological institutions
comprise the “institutional matrix” (IM) of human
societies.
 Each sphere is regulated or guided by a corresponding
set of basic institutions.
 Two types of institutional matrices can be identified:
an X-matrix and a Y-matrix.
 Ideology is the hardest to quantitatively measure
because it involves ethics, values and interests.
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X- & Y-matrices
Redistributive economy
X
Y
Market economy
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Combinations of X- and Y-matrices
Y
Y
X
X
Russia, CIS, China, India,
most Asian, Middle Eastern,
Latin American, and
some other countries
April 2013, St. Petersburg, Russia
Europe and Western
Offshoots: the USA,
Canada, Australia,
and New Zealand
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Seeking Proper Proportion in
Nation-States
 Historical research shows that one
matrix prevails in a steady character.
 Even if, by virtue of external
pressures or under influence of
distorted internal stress, attempts
are made to replace one dominant
matrix (X- or Y-) with the other
subordinate matrix (Y- or X-), a
situation of outright reversal is, as a
rule, short-lived (e.g. USSR & USA).
 Conclusion: Proportionality, the
Golden Ratio, balance among the
Institutions, complement instead of
conflict among super-systems
April 2013, St. Petersburg, Russia
Paul Klee – Eros (1923)
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Proportion of GDP produced by countries with a
prevailing X- and Y-matrix, 1820-2008
(Maddison Data Base, sample of 34 nations ~75% of World GDP)
X-matrix countries: China, India, Japan, Brazil and former USSR countries.
Y-matrix countries: Western Europe (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom) and
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and United States.
70%
Percentage In global GDP
60%
50%
40%
X-GDP
Y-GDP
30%
20%
10%
0%
1820
1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2008
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Tension in the Institutional Matrix
Y
X
Y
X
Stephen Hawking – A Brief History of
Time (1999)
Svetlana Kirdina – Institutional
Matrix Theory (2000)
A New Humanities/HSS Paradigm – Tension
Main Ideas:
 Balance, Proportion, Harmony
A. Comte – Dynamics, Statics and obsolete 3-stage Theory
(e.g. 11-09-2001)


In-tension & Ex-tension as markers of Human Tension

Innovation Diffusion Theory = Extension Theory
Y = A * F(K,L)
Y = output, A = productivity, K = capital, L = labour
G.A. Feldmann (USSR) – Extensive and Intensive Growth

M. McLuhan, A.N. Whitehead, R.W. Emerson, H. Grassmann
Human Extension
“All human artefacts are
extensions of man[kind].”
– M. McLuhan (1967)
“The entire evolutionary
process shifted, at the
moment of Sputnik, from
biology to technology.”
(1969)
‘Evolution’: Good Biology/
Bad (Economic) Sociology
“Darwin’s theory was good biology which
was perverted by others to support bad
sociology.” – T. Dobzhansky (1956)
“When philosophy occupies itself with the
animal man it ceases to be a philosophy of
man and becomes a philosophy of animals, a
chapter of zoology dealing with man.” – P.
Chaadaev (1829)
“Zoocentric Misanthropy” – S. Fuller (2006)

What alternative to ‘evolution,’ since it has
too much ideological/philosophical baggage?

What are the limits of ‘evolutionary theory’
(e.g. what are ‘things that don’t evolve’)?
 Institutional Matrices don’t ‘evolve’ by
chance (random) they ‘extend’ by choice
(purpose)
Post-Evolutionary Economics =
Re-Humanising Values & Interests
“[B]iological evolution has instilled in us no ethics and no ability
to discriminate between good and evil.” – Dobzhansky (1963)
“Sociologists should stop deferring to the authority of biologists.”
– Fuller (2006)

Human Social Sciences (HSS) – Humanities:
Struggle (conflict, war) vs. Tension (stress, ‘mutual aid’)


Natural Selection (environmental pressure) vs.
Human Selection (human factor, agency)
Chance, Random Change (Fatalism) vs. Purpose, Plan and
Design (Teleology)
“The field of the sciences of human action is the orbit of
purpose and of conscious aiming at ends; it is
teleological.” – L. von Mises (1957)
IMT & Tension Methodology as Alternatives
to Evolutionary Economics & Values
“Economic action is teleological, in the sense that men
[sic] always and everywhere seek to do something.”
– K. Boulding (1981)

Institutions result from human extension – teleological
change-over-time

What do values and ethics extend from? What are the
‘intensions’ and ‘extensions’ of institutional design?

(Re-)Humanising Economics to include ethics, values
and interests

Anthropic-Economics (Humanitarian / Humanities /
Humanistic), not only Neuro-Economics or BehaviouralEconomics or Materialistic-Economics
What is at Risk in Dehumanised
Economics? Altruism & Egoism
“The basic principle of altruism is that man
has no right to exist for his own
sake…that self-sacrifice is his highest
moral duty, virtue and value…the moral
base of collectivism.” – Ayn Rand (1963)
“Capitalism and altruism cannot coexist
in the same man or in the same
society…capitalism certainly does not and
cannot work on the principle of selfless
service and sacrifice.” – Rand (1960)
“[R]eason and altruism are incompatible.
And this is the basic contradiction of
Western civilization: reason vs.
altruism.” – Rand (1963)
Values & Interests, Extension & Intension,
Economics and Society
 Extensive & Intensive Development – re-imagining a postSoviet, non-Imperial, Russian socio-economic approach.
 Tension in the Information Society: Not only physical, but also
mental &/or spiritual, including ethics, values, interests.
• Balancing intensity & extensity, following an integral ‘law of
proportionality,’ seeking a Golden Ratio in society & economics
• Translation from Russian to English and other languages
 HSS Language: Agency, Choice, Purpose, Plan, Goal; Teleology
Dialogue Points / Conclusions
1. Don’t treat economics like a natural-physical science; i.e.
don’t try to take the humanity out of economics with formulas,
statistics, explanations and answers that ignore the cosmos of
human thought, feeling, emotion, intuition, etc.
2. Realise that everyone deals with ‘tension,’ of one kind or
another and that our task as humanities/social sciences
scholars is to help people understand and to live/act forward
3. Institutions are valuable in the study of society and
economies, but they are not only objective ‘out-there’
phenomena; they also involve subjective ‘in-here’ participation
4. Joining the ideas of IMT and Tension creates a new global-local
economic sociology, focussed on choices, values and interests
5. Question: How to consider methodological individualism with
the rise of institutions – what other suggestions about how to
express this?
Экономика и гуманитарное знание:
Тенсивность в институциональной матрице
Economics and Humanitarian Knowledge:
Tension in the Institutional Matrix
SVETLANA KIRDINA (RUS)
kirdina@bk.ru
www.kirdina.ru
GREGORY SANDSTROM (CAN)
gregory.sandstrom@ehu.lt
www.ehu-lt.academia.edu/gregorysandstrom
IMT in Russia and beyond





Books and Articles on Kirdina’s IMT
Institutional Matrices and Development of Russia. 1st
ed. 2000, 2nd ed. 2001, 3rd ed. 2013.
X- and Y-Economies: Institutional Analysis, 2004.
IMT is included in “Sociological Encyclopedia”, 2003
and “Sociological Dictionary”, 2010, 2012.
IMT is presented in the curricula of Sociology,
Economics & Political Science – more than 30 courses
offered at main Russian universities (Russian Internet
data).
References to IMT and summary of the main IMT
provisions (and critiques) can also be found in scholarly
works in China, Japan and some European countries.
April 2013, St. Petersburg, Russia
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Human Tension Methodology






Articles and Video on Sandstrom’s HTM
“The Extension of Evolution.” 2005.
“The Extension of ‘Extension’ OR the ‘Evolution’ of
Science and Technology as a Global Phenomenon.”
2010.
“Evolutionary and Institutional Economics: A View from
the Post-Neo-Classical Perspective.” 2011.
«Рост, развитие и изменения: выход за пределы
эволюционной парадигмы». 2012.
“Human Extension as an Innovative Methodology for
Positive Socialisation.” Forthcoming 2013.
“The Courage of Extending Humanity.” TEDxLCC. 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t85d6Bh9Nys
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