Dirk Philipsen, Associate Research Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy

Dirk Philipsen

Dirk Philipsen is an economic historian and political economist at the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Department of History.  He also serves as Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and director of both the Regenerative Futures Lab and the Build a Better World Focus program at Duke University. His work and teaching is focused on underlying structural requirements for wellbeing of people and planet.  His research includes economic metrics, the history of capitalism, the role of private property, and the promises of a revitalized commons. 

Raised in Germany and educated in both Germany and the United States, he received a BA in economics (College for Economics, Berlin, 1982), an MA in American Studies (John F. Kennedy Institute, Free University Berlin, 1987), and a Ph.D in American Social and Economic History (Duke University, 1992). He has taught at Duke University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Virginia State University. For ten years, he served as Director of the Institute for the Study of Race Relations at Virginia State University, which he founded in 1997. 


Dirk Philipsen has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Franklin Humanities Center at Duke, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. He has published on the history of modern capitalism, economic growth, the commons, movements for social and economic justice, as well as race and race relations. His first book, We Were the People, chronicles the collapse of communism in East Germany and was published by Duke University Press. Recently, he served as editor and contributor to a volume on Green Business, published by SAGE. His latest work is published by Princeton University Press under the title The Little Big Number – How GDP Came to Rule the World, And What to Do About It (Spring 2015.)

Office Location:  Sanford School of Public Policy, 201 Science Dr (Room 114), Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:  +1 804 363 0368
Email Address: send me a message
Web Page:  http://DirkPhilipsen.com

Teaching (Spring 2024):

Teaching (Fall 2024):

Office Hours:

Sanford School of Public Policy
Sanford Bldg, Room 114

Mo: 10:00 - 11:30
Wed: 4:00 - 5:00

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Education:

Ph.D.Duke University1992
M.A.Duke University1987
M.A.Free University of Berlin (Germany)1986
Keywords:

Environmental justice • Gross Domestic Product • Sustainable development

Recent Publications

  1. Philipsen, D, What Counts—Why Growth Economics is Failing Us, Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 23 no. 3 (August, 2023), pp. 536-554 [doi]  [abs]
  2. Crichlow, MA; Philipsen, D, Introduction: Moral and Market disordering in the time of Covid-19, Cultural Dynamics, vol. 33 no. 3 (August, 2021), pp. 145-161 [doi]  [abs]
  3. Philipsen, D, The tragedy of the private: Theft, property, and the loss of a commons, Cultural Dynamics, vol. 33 no. 3 (August, 2021), pp. 163-173, SAGE Publications [doi]  [abs]
  4. Philipsen, D, “Beyond GDP – The Economics of Wellbeing”, in Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Governance, edited by Kalfagianni, A; Hayden, A (October, 2019), Routledge, ISBN 9781351691291  [abs]
  5. Philipsen, D, Enduring shortcomings, Cultural Dynamics, vol. 28 no. 2 (July, 2016), pp. 241-246, SAGE Publications [doi]