Created in 2002, The Fund for the Study of Spontaneous Orders (FSSO) at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation works to further the intellectual vision of its founder the late Richard Cornuelle, author, philanthropist, and philosopher of the civil society. Following Cornuelle’s directions, the Fund recognizes and supports the work of scholars who, in Cornuelle’s words “apply the perspective of Austrian methodological individualism, which has greatly increased our understanding of free markets, to areas outside the realm of traditional economic study.”
The Fund has presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to Vincent Ostrom, Elinor Ostrom, Gordon Tullock, Peter L. Berger, and James M. Buchanan, and will present its sixth such award to Israel Kirzner in February 2013. In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Fund has given fifteen Hayek Prizes to scholars whose work exemplifies the ideals of the Fund. During the decade of its existence, the Fund has also conducted fifteen academic conferences, with invited scholarly papers, on a variety of topics related to spontaneous orders. Many of these papers have been published in academic journals.
Atlas Senior Fellow William C. Dennis has supervised the work of the Fund since its inception. Professor Peter J. Boettke of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and Dr. John W. Sommer join Dr. Dennis, and Professor Leonard P. Liggio, Executive Vice President at Atlas, as advisers on the award of the prizes.
With the death of the Fund’s creator in April 2011, the Fund hopes to bring new resources to the support of its work. Please contact William Dennis at denniswilliamc@aol.com with any suggestions about how to help the Fund continue its mission.
A complete history of FSSO may be found on the Atlas website at: http://atlasnetwork.org/blog/2010/11/fund-for-the-study-of-spontaneous-orders/.