Sustainable development is a challenge for individuals in different roles, for organizations, for communities at local, national and global levels. How can we deal with climate change, biological diversity loss or pollution of land and water? How can social inequality be reduced and democracy strengthened?Can mainstream neoclassical economics be further developed to deal with these issues? While not excluding positive contribution from mainstream economics as part of a pluralist perspective, the main strategy in the book is based on a judgment that new conceptual frameworks and a new economics language is needed. It is even argued that the close to monopoly position of neoclassical theory at university departments of economics globally may be part of the sustainability problems faced.When compared with neoclassical theory ‘economics’ and ‘the economy’ are understood in alternative ways. A ‘political economic person’ replaces ‘Economic Man’ assumptions. Similarly, the neoclassical profit-maximizing firm is replaced by a ‘political economic organization’ guided by its ‘mission’. Decision-making is seen as a “matching” process where optimization becomes a special case. Positional analysis (PA) is proposed as a more open alternative to cost-benefit analysis (CBA).Democracy is looked upon as an essential part of economics. Value-neutrality is not possible. Instead ideological orientations have to be articulated and discussed openly. A specific interpretation of ‘sustainable development’ exemplifies an ideological orientation to be compared with ‘market and economic growth’ ideology for example. To get closer to sustainable development, institutional changes of a more or less radical kind have to be considered.About the author: Peter Söderbaum is professor emeritus in ecological economics at Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden and is the author of books such as Ecological Economics (Earthscan, 2000) and Understanding Sustainability Economics (Earthscan, 2008). He is member of the editorial advisory board of Ecological Economics and International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education.

Economics, ideological orientation and democracy for sustainable development 2nd Edition (WEA Books)

Business & Money

Söderbaum, Peter

Economics

World Economics Association

"Market-valuecaptures head-on the mathematical and analytic weaknesses of neoclassical economics . . . . it offers . . . ontological strengths that until now have largely eluded so many of the dissenters from economics' mainstream." ̶̶̶ ̶ Richard Parker, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "Edward Fullbrook . . . shows that so-called "equilibrium" is impossible beyond the realm of individual and isolated markets . . . Some of his insights will no doubt become the key building blocks of the new economics the world needs so desperately today." ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ Richard Koo, Nomura Research Institute, Japan "a deep re-think, this ground-breaking study teaches new lessons about the very foundations of economics." ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ Lars Syll, Malmö University, Sweden ". . . a must read for all those who recognise the need to undermine the damaging hegemony of mainstream neoclassical economics." ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ C. P. Chandrasekhar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India "A simple idea but a great book. .. . . Its analysis . . . leads us to profound truths." ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ André Orléan, Écoledes hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris ". . . provides foundations on which to tackle the devastating social and economic problems of the present age." ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ Geoff Harcourt, Emeritus, Cambridge University and Uni. of New South Wales "Fullbrook shows . . . ; that general equilibrium - the holly grail of conventional economics - is logically impossible; and that inflation is not neutral but redistributional." ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ Jonathan Nitzan, York University, Canada THE PLOT - This book's plot structure is simple but foreign to economics and, therefore, easily missed. So here is the plot's outline. 1. Market-value, a general quantitative order, is what distinguishes economics from other social sciences. 2. A quantitative order has a metrical structure, called its metric. 3. Metrics vary between quantitative orders, e.g. length, temperature and angle. 4. Metrics are discovered by inventing and executing measurement operations on the quantitative orders. 5. The measurement of market-value differs from that of other quantitative orders in that both the invention and execution of its measurement operation, i.e. market exchange, predate and exist independently of scientific inquiry. 6. This independence enabled economics to unconsciously assume market-value's metric rather than empirically identify it. 7. This book breaks with that tradition by applying abstract algebra to market-value measurements so as to identify, rather than assume, market-value's metric. 8. This metric turns out to be radically different from the one unconsciously assumed in constructing economic theory. 9. With the real metric in view, large long-standing paradoxes in economics are immediately resolved. 10. Knowledge of market-value's metric also immediately reveals a universal macro-to-micro causal link that effects market-value measurements in all markets. 11. Analysis of the revealed metric shows how the macro-to-micro and micro-to-macro links are interconnected. 12. The macro-to-micro causal link can be manipulated through individual markets. 13. This link's openness to manipulation means that economics needs to include political economy. 14. Discovery of market-value's metric provides an empirically-based theoretical core that can embrace most heterodox economics and large parts of the neoclassical mainstream. 15. Public knowledge of market-value's metric is contrary to the interests of The One Percent.

Market-value: Its measurement and metric

Fullbrook, Edward

Economy, Society, Nature: An introduction to the new systems-based, life-friendly economics (World Economics Association Books)

Davies, Geoff

THE ESSAYS COLLECTED HERE ADDRESS THE MOST PROFOUND SET OF ISSUES HUMANITY HAS EVER FACED. “This is the finest collection of essays I have seen on the imperative of living lightly on the planet and the need for a new economics to guide us.” James Gustave Speth, former dean of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies “In this extraordinary book, climate change and related issues are addressed from a critical perspective by a set of distinguished ecological economists and natural scientists. A most valuable contribution to a deep understanding of the environmental challenges with important insights on ways to deal with them.” Osvaldo Néstor Feinstein, Universidad Complutense de Madrid “From mass extinction to climate chaos, the world needs new ideas about how to build economies founded on principles of social justice and ecological sustainability. This book brings together some of the best thinkers to show what those alternatives might look like. It is essential reading for everyone." Peter Newell, University of Sussex, author of Climate Capitalism The economic common sense of the last half century blinded us to our collective environmental consequences as a species. But now natural scientists have, for some of us, opened our eyes to our dire situation. “Extinction Rebellion” and other new civil society and expert activist movements have begun to appear. Encouragingly, the young seem particularly attuned to the scale of the crisis they have been bequeathed. A call to sanity has been initiated. Are we sufficiently rational as a species to respond? Science tells us that the ecological emergency requires a fundamental reorientation of how the global economy works. This requires a mass mobilization to an extent never previously seen outside of a war setting. However, as these essays explain, the very form and function of our political economies resist both recognizing the gravity of the situation and translating any recognition into concrete and immediate action. The essays collected here are predominantly informed by an ecological economics perspective. As such, they are implicitly or explicitly critical of the theory and role of mainstream economics both in creating the emergency and now in hiding its existence. Especially at issue are mainstream concepts that are antithetical to recognizing environmental limits and to remaining within them. Natural scientists tell us that if we make systemic changes now, it is likely that we can avoid the ultimate catastrophe. But this requires, beginning today, massive action in the public sphere, including fundamental changes in the way economics is taught each year to millions of the young in Economics 101.

Economics and the Ecosystem

“The contributions collected in this inspiring edition . . . show how the focus on relational setups, emergent properties and adaptiveness, suggested by a complexity approach, perfectly aligns with a variety of traditional approaches in heterodox economics." - Jakob Kapeller, University Duisburg-Essen\n“A must read for anybody interested in the many faces of complexity at the crossroads between economics and philosophy.” - Dorian Jullien, Université Côte d’Azure\n“Few concepts have attracted more publicity and less conceptual scrutiny as the term ‘complexity’ in economics. Therefore, this volume is a most welcome contribution.” - Claudius Gräbner, University of Duisburg-Essen\nThis book offers a pluralist exposition on multiple meanings and levels of complexity, shedding light on the normative and practical implications that various approaches to complexity involve. We hope that this title will inspire a sustained interest in exchanging ideas and looking for new interconnections between different debates. This is important for academic and practical reasons. As many contemporary problems such as climate change or inequality involve unprecedented levels of complexity, they pose a challenge for both economic theories and methodologies.

Economic Philosophy: Complexities in Economics

Davis, John B.

Hands, Wade