Workshop on: "Re-evaluating Value...", Marseille June 17-18th 2013

Workshop on:
Re-evaluating Value – non-market value models for changing times

Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Research, Aix-Marseille University,
Marseille, France, http://www.imera.fr, June 17-18th 2013

The Topic

Value is a major aspect of any economic theory: what it is, how it is produced, measured, stored and transferred between agents. Indeed, historically, these aspects characterise different schools of political economy.  Some approaches focus on an objective basis for value such as labour or physical resources. Others place emphasis on subjective judgments by individual agents and free exchange between them.

Recent, often ICT mediated, developments such as “commons based peer production”, “crowd funding”, “freecycling” and new virtual currencies do not fit easily into existing economic models of value.   On the other hand “complexity science” tools and approaches allow for a widening of traditional models of value.

Traditional models have focused on agents using either object or subjective notions of value and equilibrium points. Agent-based modelling allows for experimentation with new and hybrid notions of value in non-equilibrium conditions.  In these, value might be an emergent phenomena where agents construct notions of value through the interplay of subjective and objective factors supporting novel forms of exchange and cooperation.

In this workshop we aim to bring together researchers from different disciplines such as economics, philosophy, anthropology, law and computer science, who are working towards new conceptions of value, models that embody them and real world systems that depend on them.

Day 1 - Grand Challenges

The first day of this workshop is devoted to opening up the key issues to do with theories and approaches to understanding value at the present time.  It is open to all who are interested. The day will start at 9.30 and end at 4.30pm with an hour for lunch and two 30 min coffee breaks.  Talks will be 30 mins long plus 15 mins for discussion.

Day 2 – Developing Agent-Based Models to Meet the Challenges

The second day of the workshop is devoted to informal discussions about developing simulation models that start to address some of the different conceptions of value.  It is not expected that everyone will stay for day 2, or all of day 2, but is open to all who want to seriously discuss the development of relevant simulation models. The day will start at 10am and continue for the rest of the day, or until everyone is tired.

Speakers and Discussants

The following people are either invited speakers or will be leading a discussion session (in alphabetical order), followed by their talk title if available.

• Bruno Vetel, “Who benefits from the value? Virtual currencies design for a massively multiplayer online role playing game.”
• Jean Magnan de Bornier. “Value in economics: datum, construct or instrument?”
• Jean-Benoit Zimmerman, “Jamendo: the heartbeat of free music!”
• Jeremy Pitt, “The Reinvention of Social Capital for Self-Organising Electronic Institutions”
•  Jeff Johnson, “Value from first principles”
• Bruce Edmonds, “Towards modelling mundane value”
• Paul Omerod, TBA
• Andrzej Nowak, TBA
•  Juliette Rouchier, TBA
• Mario Paolucci, TBA
• Olivier Chanel, TBA
• David Hales, TBA

Hotels and food

Others at the workshop are staying at the hotel Lutetia (http://www.lutetia-marseille.com). You will need to book yourself into this, or at another hotel (e.g. via http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g187253-Marseille_Bouches_du_Rhone_Provence-Hotels.html).  On monday night, a dinner is planned at Les Panisses, please let Juliette (juliette.rouchier@univ-amu.fr) know if you you plan to join us for this before 9^th June (we think we can cover this and lunch for participants, assuming we do not get too many).

Directions

The Hotel

Hotel Lutetia, 38 Allée Gambetta, is easy to attain from the train station: go down the stairs, cross the street and walk down the street facing you (Boulevard d'Athènes). “Allée Gambetta” where the hotel is, is the second or third street on the left.

·        To go from the airport to the train station, the best solution is to take the shuttle from/to airport/gare Saint Charles (cheaper and nicer than taxis who are unpleasant thieves in their majority in Marseille) - buy a return ticket while going out of the terminal and get on the bus – in 25 minutes you can get to the train station at any time of the day.

The Meeting Venue

·        To go from the hotel to the meeting place you can walk (15-20 minutes) or take the tram for a part of the journey. The address to get in is 2 place Le Verrier and maps can be found on: http://www.imera.fr/index.php/fr/informations-pratiques/plan-dacces.html

·        Walking: Walk up the Allée Gambetta to the top, turn left/right and carry more or less on in the same direction on Boulevard Longchamps. Go up to the end of the boulevard and when facing the palais (huge museum) turn left and carry on going up on a street with serious traffic, walking on the right side. carry on until the Place Le Verrier. On your right you will find a large black grid which will be open. Get in and find the building of the institute.

·        Tram: take the tram at Canebière Garibaldi and get down at Longchamps, then you will see the Palais Longchamps and turn around the palais on the left, as for the walking instructions.

·         

      From the station, it is also possible to take the subway, and cross the Jardin du Palais Longchamps (a very nice park) and a maps can be found at: http://www.imera.fr/index.php/fr/informations-pratiques/plan-dacces.html

In you get lost: beware : locals do not know the place so well – you have to refer to “Maison des Astronomes”, which is its old name, but is known to something like 10% of the population.

Contact

For information about the local arrangements contact Juliette Rouchier <juliette.rouchier@univ-amu.fr>, for queries about the programme Bruce Edmonds <bruce@edmonds.name>, and for possible connection with/funding from NESS David Hales <dave@davidehales.com>.