Colorado State University Professor Honored for Lifetime Contributions to Social Economics

A Colorado State University professor has been named recipient of the prestigious 2002 Thomas Devine Award for outstanding contributions to social economics and the social economy. The Association for Social Economics will award economics Professor Ron Stanfield with the organization’s top honor at their annual conference in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 4, 2003.

According to the ASE, Stanfield is being presented the Devine award, given only to extraordinary scholars and teachers of social economics, for his three decades of valuable contributions to the economics profession. The organization noted that Stanfield’s focus has proceeded well beyond conventional economics to include the importance of power and social institutions as well as other cultural and political processes.

"Throughout his career, Dr. Stanfield has insisted on the need to broaden the focus of mainstream economics by carefully examining the interactions of the economy with cultural and political processes," said Ronnie Phillips, chair of the Department of Economics. "Long ago, Dr. Stanfield correctly anticipated the peril of macroeconomic instability, environmental errors and social and political upheaval, and he has continually offered effective methods by which to constructively address the evolution of our economy."

A major feature of Stanfield’s research is its emphasis on the political economy and an examination of economic behavior in the context of power and culture. This unique approach focuses study on the interaction of culture, social relationships, politics and the evolving economic system.

"In today’s world of global economic change, Dr. Stanfield’s work is of growing importance," said Phillips. "I could not think of a better person or more deserving economist to receive this prestigious award."

Stanfield joined the Colorado State faculty in 1974 and has traveled throughout the world lecturing at some of the world’s most renowned universities. His major fields of study include comparative economic processes, the history of economic thought, Marxist and institutional economics and political economy of the state.

Due to Stanfield’s success and international reputation, the Colorado State graduate program has prospered under his leadership. Several of the nation’s top economics graduate students have attended Colorado State specifically to study with Stanfield. His former students represent a large number of tenured faculty at universities throughout the United States, which reflects the high quality of Stanfield’s teaching.

Stanfield currently sits on the International Advisory Board for the Association for Social and Political Economics and has served on the executive council of the Western Social Science Association, as president and on the board of directors for the Association for Evolutionary Economics and as president and on the executive council for the Association for Social Economics.

Stanfield has been presented several professional honors and awards, including being named a John H. Stern Distinguished Professor, awarded the Pennock Distinguished Service Award, voted a Fellow of the International Institute of Social Economics and given the Helen C. Potter Award for Best Article in Review of Social Economy.

Stanfield has written five books, 23 additional book chapters and nearly 50 refereed journal articles. He also served as associate editor for the Review of Social Economy for more than a decade. Two of Stanfield’s recent books, "John Kenneth Galbraith" and "Economics, Power, and Culture: Essays in the Development of Radical Institutionalism," are available from St. Martin’s Press.

The Association for Social Economics was established in 1941 to advance scholarly research and writing about the great questions of economics, human dignity, ethics and philosophy. Its members seek to explore the ethical foundations and implications of economic analysis, along with the individuals and social dimensions of economic problems, to help shape economic policy that is consistent with the integral values of a humane community.