Special issue on The Katrina Disaster and New Orleans

Citation

(2007), "Special issue on The Katrina Disaster and New Orleans", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 34 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijse.2007.00634haa.001

Special issue on The Katrina Disaster and New Orleans

Special issue on The Katrina Disaster and New Orleans

Guest Editor: Professor Walter Block (Loyola University New Orleans, USA)

The Guest Editor would like to invite submissions to this special issue of the International Journal of Social Economics (IJSE) on The Katrina Disaster and New Orleans

The International Journal of Social Economics is inviting submissions for a special edition on The Katrina Disaster and New Orleans. Although, obviously, a disaster for the people of the Big Easy, and, indeed, for the entire country, thisepisode furnishes social scientists with much grist fortheir mills.

In the social sciences, it is rare that we ever witness anything like a controlled experiment. North Korea and South Korea, and East and West Germany, have come closest, perhaps, in this regard. But with Hurricane Katrina we have a strong competitor, at least in a time series sense, if not from a cross section approach, as in these two other cases. That is, there is not one but two New Orleanses: the one before this natural and/or man made disaster, and the one afterward. They are both located in the same geographical terrain, but that pretty much exhausts the resemblance between them. The former was a thriving, functioning city. Yes, it had its problems, but they were not so different than those of a half dozen other cities in the USA. Afterward, the Big Uneasy resembled not so much a metropolis in this country, but rather one in any of the very poorest sections of Africa or Asia.

As a professional economist, I readily admit, my own bias in analyzing this situation is from the perspective of the dismal science. But IJSE is an interdisciplinary publication, and there is perhaps no event that is more conducive to this sort of approach than the havoc wreaked on the Crescent City by Katrina. There is thus certainly room in this special issue for analyses from a whole host other disciplines, too, including but not limited to: sociology, public health, social work, city planning, geography, urbanism, history, political science, architecture, engineering (never forget those collapsing levies), ethics, philosophy, accounting, management, marketing, finance, international relations, criminology, law and ethnic studies.

It is a basic element of economics that markets are an institution that allow for widespread cooperation. Bastiat long ago addressed the question of how it is that ``Paris gets fed'' even without any central direction. Well, for a long time after Katrina, New Orleans was not really getting fed too well, to say nothing of clothed, sheltered, entertained, etc. The lack of cooperation was there for all to see. Plumbers, for example, did not want to return to the city, for example, unless they could be sure there would be health care for them, restaurants, groceries, pharmacies, as well as complementary factors of production both human (electricians, carpenters), and non human (pipes, etc) But the same challenge faced members of each of these other professions: why would a doctor return if he, too, could not avail himself of these other goods and services? And if he did not, why would these others? Nor we need focus, only, on the upper echelons of the human resource pyramid. One of the greatest needs was for people to man the fast food establishments; this is so at least if we can extrapolate from the extraordinary wages and guarantees being offered in this sector of the economy.

The Journal

The International Journal of Social Economics aims to provide its readers with a unique forum for the exchange and sharing of information in this complex area of economics. The journal will present the social-economic problems, as expressed by economists, philosophers, political scientists, historians and business academics, with their consequent ethical considerations.

IJSE's specific coverage analyses the complex socio-economic factors at work in areas such as:

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  Demographic trends;

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  Environmental economics;

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  Ethical and religious influences;

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  Manpower policy;

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  Socio-economic systems;

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  Social indicators; and

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  The work of key thinkers in socio-economics.

Submissions

Submissions should be emailed to the Guest Editor no later than 30 December 2007 at: wblock@loyno.edu

With the manuscript attached to the email as a MS Word file. Papers should be between 3,000 and 6,000 words in length and contain a structured abstract of up to 250 words and up to six keywords that encapsulate the principal subjects covered by the paper.

All papers will first be considered by the Editor for general relevance and significance. If accepted for review, papers will then be subject to double blind peer review.

Full author guidelines are available from www.emeraldinsight.com/ijse.htm

Any queries can be address to the Guest Editor or the Publisher at: slinacre@emeraldinsight.com