This book is an authoritative and accessible guide to the pluralist movement threatening to revolutionise mainstream economics. Leading figures in the field explain why pluralism is a required virtue in economics, how it came to be blocked and what it means for the way we think about, research and teach economics.The first part of the book looks at how neoclassical economics gained its stranglehold, particularly in the United States, and how the social and intellectual underpinning...

Ecological economics seeks to socially construct a political economics which will deal successfully with environmental problems and make the individual more visible in economic analysis. The author describes the principles, strategies and instruments of social change for key players - governmental agencies, business corporations, environmental and religious organizations and universities - and underlines their responsibilities in the market economy. Peter Soderbaum emphasizes the need to a...

Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution of land and water, land-use changes, lack of equality and other problems at local, national and global levels represent a challenge for economics as a social science. Mainstream neoclassical economics may be able to contribute to a more sustainable society but it has also played a dominant role in a period where problems have been aggravated. A pluralist and democratic view of economics is therefore very much warranted. This book presents a mult...

Eliot Freidson has written the first systematic account of professionalism as a method of organizing work. In ideal-typical professionalism, specialized workers control their own work, while in the free market consumers are in command, and in bureaucracy managers dominate. Freidson shows how each method has its own logic requiring different kinds of knowledge, organization, career, education and ideology. He also discusses how historic and national variations in state policy, professional ...

Resilience has become a central concept in government policy understandings over the last decade. In our complex, global and interconnected world, resilience appears to be the policy ‘buzzword’ of choice, alleged to be the solution to a wide and ever-growing range of policy issues. This book analyses the key aspects of resilience-thinking and highlights how resilience impacts upon traditional conceptions of governance.This concise and accessible book investigates how resilience-thi...

The primary aim of the text is to introduce the reader to the relationship between economics and ethics and to the application of economic ethics in the evaluation of the market. The reader will gain insight into:The ethical and methodological strategy of economics and criticism of the core assumptions that underpin the economic defence of free market operation.The characteristics of different ethical theories (utilitarianism, duty and rights ethics, justice and vir...

"Brilliant... explains how the rhetoric of competition has invaded almost every domain of our existence."- Evgeny Morozov, author of To Save Everything, Click Here"A sparkling, original, and provocative analysis of neoliberalism... a distinctive account of the diverse, sometimes contradictory, conventions and justifications that lend authority to the extension of the spirit of competitiveness to all spheres of social life."- Profe...

This 2006 book shows through accessible argument and numerous examples how understanding moral philosophy can improve economic analysis, how moral philosophy can benefit from economists' analytical tools, and how economic analysis and moral philosophy together can inform public policy. Part I explores rationality and its connections to morality. It argues that in defending their model of rationality, mainstream economists implicitly espouse contestable moral principles. Part II concerns we...

Quality ebook reprint of a classic work in the social sciences, written by one of the leading scholars on the intersection of two important disciplines: economics and sociology. This is an unabridged republication of the Second Edition of this much-cited study. Presented with care, the ebook edition features such proper digital formatting as: active TOC, linked endnotes, fully-linked subject and names indices, and all the original graphs and tables. Neil Smelser's recognized study is now p...

Economics is today among the most influential of all professions. Economists alter the course of economic affairs and deeply affect the lives of current and future generations. Yet, virtually alone among the major professions, economics lacks a body of professional ethics to guide its practitioners. Over the past century the profession consistently has refused to adopt or even explore professional economic ethics. As a consequence, economists are largely unprepared for the ethical challeng...

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography presents students and researchers with a comprehensive overview of the field, put together by a prestigious editorial team, with contributions from an international cast of prominent scholars.Offers a fully revised, expanded, and up-to-date overview, following the successful and highly regarded Companion to Economic Geography published by Blackwell a decade earlier, providing a comprehensive assessment of t...

Set against the current proliferation of global "difference" and economic realignment, Critical Dispositions explores the notions of "evidence" and "expertise" in times of material scarcity. Both have come to the forefront of national and international debate in education as "evidence" and "evidence-based" research and pedagogical practices continue as major trends in educational policy. Author Greg Dimitriadis maintains this debate is best understood as part of a broader rise in ...