Read online book Crisis System : A Critical Realist and Environmental Critique of Contemporary Economics (2016, Paperback) EPUB, MOBI, DJV

9780415818742
English

0415818745
Informed by critical realist ontology, this proposed book will throw light on the nature and causes of three different, but strongly interconnected crises currently ravaging contemporary societies worldwide: an economic crisis, an ecological crisis, and a normative (or moral and political) crisis of an unjust and profoundly inequitable distribution of wealth, resources and life-opportunities. The global system of production and consumption is in profound crisis economically, ecologically as well as socially, morally and politically. Moreover it is on a highly unsustainable trajectory measured against all dimensions of sustainable development. The book will follow the roots of the different manifestations of the global crisis back to an inherent dynamics in the capitalist economic system itself as well as to its main discursive expression: neoclassical economics. Being nearly immune to critical inputs from other disciplines, mainstream economic theory has been characterized as 'autistic' by some critics. With its unshakable faith in a set of axioms which can be shown to have been disproved by other sciences as well as by currently heterodox currents within it, the discipline of economics arguably belongs to the realm of myth and superstition rather than to a faculty of social science., This book throws light onto the nature and causes of three different but strongly interconnected crises in contemporary societies worldwide: an economic crisis, an ecological crisis and a normative (moral and political) crisis. These crises are reflected in the profoundly inequitable distribution of wealth, resources and life opportunities around the world. If we follow the causal roots of these crises, we are led back to an inherent dynamic in the capitalist economic system itself, discursively expressed as neoclassical, mainstream economics. For instance, by conflating human needs with market demand, mainstream economics disregards the needs of those who do not have sufficient purchasing power, as well as any needs that cannot be quantified or monetised in some way. Mainstream economics also ignores the notion of natural limits. Furthermore, it seems that everything that is quantifiable is potentially for sale and this results in the substitution of nature, indigenous cultural traditions and various life forms with commodities and human capital . The latter is defined as the skills instrumental for continual economic growth. Besides critiquing the academic discipline of economics, this book also points to a number of dysfunctional and crisis-prone structures and practices of substantive economic life. It will be of interest to students and scholars working in philosophy, economics and environmental studies."

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