Marchionatti / Cedrini Economics as Social Science

Economics Imperialism and the Challenge of Interdisciplinary
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-1-317-43834-2
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 228 Seiten

Reihe: Routledge Studies in the History of Economics

The current economic crisis is also a crisis for economic theory. The term ‘economics imperialism’ refers to the expansion of economics to territories that lie outside the traditional domain of the discipline. Its critics argue that in starting with the assumption of maximizing behaviour, economics excludes the nuances of rival disciplines and has problems in interpreting real-world phenomena.

This book focuses on a territory that persists to be largely intractable using the postulates of economics, that of primitive societies. In retracing the origins of economics imperialism back to the birth of the discipline, the book argues that it offers a reductionist interpretation that is poor in interpretative power. By engaging with the neglected traditions of sociological and anthropological studies, the analysis offers suggestions for a more democratic cooperation between the social sciences.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Marchionatti, Roberto

Cedrini, Mario

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftstheorie, Wirtschaftsphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Economics Imperialism in the Times of the Crisis of Economics Part I. Economics And The Challenge Of Primitive Societies. Classical And Neoclassical Approaches 1. The far roots of economics imperialism. Classical economists and primitive societies 2. Economics imperialism revealed. Neoclassical economists and the primitive man Part II: Economics and the Challenge of Primitive Societies: Non-Neoclassical Approaches 3. The fiction of bartering primitive man and its opponents 4. The substantialist perspective on the role of the economy in societies Part III: The Contemporary Debate: The Homo Oeconomicus Paradigm, Economics Imperialism And The Challenge Of Interdisciplinarity 5. The economics of altruism, giving and reciprocity 6. A unified framework for behavioural sciences? Some general reflections on Herbert Gintis’s Foundations of human reciprocity and the future of interdisciplinarity 7. A new Maussian perspective: the complexity and theoretical relevance of the concept of gift Conclusions: The Decreasing Returns of Economics Imperialism and the Possibility of a Non-Imperialist Economics

Über Autor(innen)

Roberto Marchionatti is Full Professor of Economics, University of Torino, Italy

Mario Cedrini is Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Torino, Italy