A work of exceptional ambition by the founder of modern economic sociology, this first full account of Mark Granovetter’s ideas stresses that the economy is not a sphere separate from other human activities but is deeply embedded in social relations and subject to the same emotions, ideas, and constraints as religion, science, politics, or law.
This book focuses on the interrelationship between nature and the human economy. Building upon his decades of research into classical and Keynesian economics, Tony Aspromourgos here turns his attention to the interrelationship between nature and the human economy. The result is a tightly argued, concise but comprehensive interpretation of that vital issue, undertaken in the framework of a Classical-Keynesian synthesis. The classical dimension is utilization of a surplus approach to production and distribution, and the Keynesian dimension, incorporation of demand-side determination of economic activity levels and growth. In this conception the human economy is understood as a circular flow but an incompletely circular system: crucially dependent upon nature both as a source of finite non-renewable and exhaustible resources for human production and consumption and as the destination or ‘sink’, also finite, for the waste and pollution from that production and consumption. This is an introductory account of the subject, providing maximum accessibility by presupposing only basic knowledge of economic analysis and only elementary algebra, but including a wide-ranging guide to further and more advanced relevant literature. Part I provides a comprehensive overview of the Classical-Keynesian approach, in the usual manner of economic analysis, without systematic incorporation of nature. Part II then incorporates the various dimensions of the natureeconomy interrelationship. This book will be of great interest to readers of economic theory, economics and the environment, and heterodox economics.
Humanity and Nature in Economic Thought: Searching for the Organic Origins of the Economy argues that organic elements seen as incompatible with rational homo economicus have been left out of, or downplayed in, mainstream histories of economic thought. The chapters show that organic aspects (that is, aspects related to sensitive, cognitive or social human qualities) were present in the economic ideas of a wide range of important thinkers including Hume, Smith, Malthus, Mill, Marshall, Keynes, Hayek and the Polanyi brothers. Moreover, the contributors to this thought-provoking volume reveal in turn that these aspects were crucial to how these key figures thought about the economy. This stimulating collection of essays will be of interest to advanced students and scholars of the history of economic thought, economic philosophy, heterodox economics, moral philosophy and intellectual history.
A succinct examination of the concept of sustainable development: what it means; how it is impacted by globalisation, production and consumption; how it can be measured; and what can be done to promote it.
This collection of essays explores the emergence of economic societies in the British Isles and their development into a European, American and global reform movement in the eighteenth century. Its fourteen contributions demonstrate the intellectual horizons and international networks of this widespread and influential phenomenon.
John Maynard Keynes, then a rising young economist, participated in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 as chief representative of the British Treasury and advisor to Prime Minister David Lloyd George. He resigned after desperately trying and failing to reduce the huge demands for reparations being made on Germany. The Economic Consequences of the Peace is Keynes' brilliant and prophetic analysis of the effects that the peace treaty would have both on Germany and, even more fatefully, the world.
The Nature and Method of Economic Sciences: Evidence, Causality, and Ends argues that economic phenomena can be examined from five analytical levels: a statistical descriptive approach, a causal explanatory approach, a teleological explicative approach, a normative approach and, finally, the level of application. The above viewpoints are undertaken by different but related economic sciences, including statistics and economic history, positive economics, normative economics, and the 'art of political economy'. Typically, positive economics has analysed economic phenomena using the second approach, causally explaining and often trying to predict the future evolution of the economy. It has not been concerned with the ends selected by the individual or society, taking them as given. However, various new economic currents have emerged during the last 40 years, and some of these do assign a fundamental role to ends within economics. This book argues that the field of positive economics should adapt to deal with the issues that arise from this. The text attempts to discern the nature of economic phenomena, introducing the different approaches and corresponding economic sciences. It goes on to analyse the epistemological characteristics of these in the subsequent chapters, as well as their disciplinary interrelations. This book is a valuable resource for students and scholars of the social sciences, philosophy, and the philosophy of economics. It will also be of interest to those researching political economy and the development of economic thought.
These articles, over thirty in total, reflect the best and latest thought in the exciting field of economic sociology. Beginning with the foundation of Smith, Marx, Engels and Polanyi, the volume gathers some of the best writings by economic sociologists that consider national and world economies as both products and influences of society. Contains over twenty articles by classical and contemporary economic social theorists. Covers important topics on economic action, states, and markets. Includes insightful editorial introductions and further reading suggestions.
