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Associate Professor Ryan Walter

Associate Professor

School of Political Science and International Studies
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
r.walter1@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 58210

Overview

Supervised by the late Barry Hindess, I wrote my PhD on the history of economic thought, later published as A Critical History of the Economy (Routledge, 2011). I am currently studying the emergence of the economist as a distinctive intellectual persona, focusing on the British case, which naturally directs attention to Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, and David Ricardo. The tendency for the history of economic thought to be written in a retrospective idiom has obscured the fact that the first economists were greeted with open hostility by important sections of their society. One of the leading reasons was that 'theorising' had not been established as a prestigious activity, and the presumption of intellectuals to reform their societies on the basis of 'theory' was often perceived as an instance of philosophical enthusiasm, an intellectual pathology underlying the French Revolution. The long-range hypothesis to test in future work is that the original fractiousness of economists made it exceedingly difficult to stabilise the office of the economist in relation to government, and that the nature of this office has been an object of contest inside and outside economics ever since. Provisional results have been published in Modern Intellectual History, Historical Journal, and Intellectual History Review.

Research Interests

  • History of economic thought
  • History of political thought

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Economics, Murdoch University
  • Bachelor of Commerce, Murdoch University
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Australian National University

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

  • Small is Beautiful: Knowledge Sharing Practices in Indonesia's Puskesmas Model of Primary Health Care

    Doctor Philosophy

  • A Curious Case of Institutional Change: The Employment Act 1946

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Disaggregating `the Enlightenment¿: An International Intellectual History of the English Enlightenment

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • The History of Political Theory

    I am currently investigating the history of political theory, building on Ian Hunter's "History of Theory" work. Early results have been published in Modern Intellectual History (2018). The leading finding so far is that the first "political theorists" were greeted with hostility because their presumption to remodel their societies on the basis of abstract reason was construed in relation to "enthusiasm" - a pathology affecting the mind by which it becomes enchanted with its own creations, above all, intellectual systems and dazzling ideas. These results suggest that a crucial line for further research to pursue is the means by which "theorists" achieved the status and prestige that they enjoy today.

  • The History of Liberalism

    My recent work loosely tracks the history of "liberalism", but with extreme scepticism towards the usefulness of that category. In short, the aim is to reject the lazy assertion that ideas make the world and instead track those texts and arts of reasoning that achieved institutional and political traction. This, in turn, requires focusing on texts and their reception histories, alongside investigating the personnel who staffed the liberal-democratic state. While my chief interest is in the role of political economists in shaping parliamentary deliberation and reform in nineteenth-century Britain - see the Bullion Controversy, Poor Laws, and Corn Laws - the bigger vision will need to take in party politicians, lawyers, and bureaucrats. Early results have been published in Intellectual History Review (2018).

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

Journal Article

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Small is Beautiful: Knowledge Sharing Practices in Indonesia's Puskesmas Model of Primary Health Care

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • A Curious Case of Institutional Change: The Employment Act 1946

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Disaggregating `the Enlightenment¿: An International Intellectual History of the English Enlightenment

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Financial Market Tolerance of Government Debt: Understanding Tolerance for Government Debt and the Economic and Political Factors Considered

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Taming Impatient Capital: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Corporate Short-Termism

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • The History of Political Theory

    I am currently investigating the history of political theory, building on Ian Hunter's "History of Theory" work. Early results have been published in Modern Intellectual History (2018). The leading finding so far is that the first "political theorists" were greeted with hostility because their presumption to remodel their societies on the basis of abstract reason was construed in relation to "enthusiasm" - a pathology affecting the mind by which it becomes enchanted with its own creations, above all, intellectual systems and dazzling ideas. These results suggest that a crucial line for further research to pursue is the means by which "theorists" achieved the status and prestige that they enjoy today.

  • The History of Liberalism

    My recent work loosely tracks the history of "liberalism", but with extreme scepticism towards the usefulness of that category. In short, the aim is to reject the lazy assertion that ideas make the world and instead track those texts and arts of reasoning that achieved institutional and political traction. This, in turn, requires focusing on texts and their reception histories, alongside investigating the personnel who staffed the liberal-democratic state. While my chief interest is in the role of political economists in shaping parliamentary deliberation and reform in nineteenth-century Britain - see the Bullion Controversy, Poor Laws, and Corn Laws - the bigger vision will need to take in party politicians, lawyers, and bureaucrats. Early results have been published in Intellectual History Review (2018).

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ORCID: 0000-0002-0258-7904

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