1. Introduction -- 2. The Major Contributions -- 3. The First Phase: Thoughts on Socialist Development in a Backward Overpopulated Economy -- 4. The Second Phase: a 'Starry-Eyed Joan Robinson' -- 5. The Third Phase: Self-Criticism -- 6. Conclusion.

'Social opulence and private restraint' is a study of the place of the consumer and consumption in the political economy of British socialism, from its early-nineteenth-century origins, through 'New Times' Marxism, to consumer-focused New Labourism and political economies critical of consumerism...

Joan Robinson was a member of the famous Keynes Circus of young economists at Cambridge in the 1930's. She was a theorist par excellence, making outstanding contributions to the understanding of competition, aggregate demand and capital. At the same time, she developed an interest in...