Economic Agents and Economic Motives From Amartya Sen to Social Enterprises

Dedicatio

Acknowledgments

Preface by John Bryan Davis

Introduction

CHAPTER I  Economic Agents and Economic Motives from Ancient Philosophy to Contemporary Economics

CHAPTER II  Exploring Sen’s notion of commitment: towards the embedded impartial spectator

CHAPTER III Self-sacrifice as a further economic motive for understanding Sen’s view of economic agents

CHAPTER IV The role of agency and capabilities in Sen’s understanding of economic agents

CHAPTER V  Embeddedness without mutuality: Ricoeur’s debt and criticism of Sen’s understanding of economic agents

CHAPTER VI  Reading social enterprises (SEs) through Sen’s view of economic agents: commitment, social embeddedness and self-sacrifice

Concluding remarks

Index

Biography

Valentina Erasmo is an affiliated researcher at the University of Turin and a member of the Executive Committee of the History of Economics Society. She previously held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Chieti-Pescara “G. d’Annunzio”, the "Economy of Francesco Academy", the University of Turin, and the University of Bari. Her research focuses on the capability approach, the history of economic thought, and economic methodology, with particular attention to their qualitative applications to contemporary economic and social issues, including social enterprises, pluralism in economics, and civil economy.

"This book is essential reading for capability scholars. With remarkable depth and clarity, it traces the roots and implications of Amartya Sen's motivational pluralism, drawing us into a rich and wide-ranging conversation that spans from classical thinkers, such as Aristotle and Adam Smith, to contemporary voices such as Harsanyi, Ricoeur and Davis. At its heart, this is a compelling intellectual journey: from the narrow confines of self-interested and self-regarding behaviour that dominate mainstream economics, towards the broader horizons opened up by commitment, self-sacrifice, social embeddedness and mutuality, not coincidentally, the very foundations of the civil economy tradition. Yet this is far more than a work in the history of ideas. It speaks directly to one of the most unsettling issues of our time: the motives that drive our decisions, illuminating the rise of social enterprises and the search for alternative economic paradigms, including the bold vision put forward by the Economy of Francesco. Beautifully argued and intellectually generous, this book is an achievement to be celebrated: it enriches both scholarship and our collective imagination of what economics could and should be."

- Flavio Comim, Dean IQS School of Management and Full Professor at Universitat Ramon Llull-Barcelona, Elected Member of the "Human Development and Capability Association" and Research Associate at the "Von Hügel Institute" at Saint Edmund's College-Cambridge.  

"The widely recognized exhaustion of the neoclassical research program has created greater openness to alternative research agendas and renewed interest in the work of influential economists such as Amartya Sen, whose contributions have been substantially marginalized because they do not fit neatly within the neoclassical framework. Valentina Erasmo’s book offers an ambitious and original contribution to the development of these emerging research programs. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, it demonstrates how civil and social issues can be effectively examined through the theoretical lens of Sen’s economic agents and economic motives. A book which deserves to be widely discussed."

- Roberto Marchionatti, Professor Emeritus at the University of Turin and Member of the Scientific Committee of the "Fondazione Luigi Einaudi", Historian of Economic Thought and Economic Methodologist.

"A veritable tour de force that sets out Amartya Sen's understanding of individual behavior (based on social commitments and self-sacrifice), contrasts it with homo economicus, and derives its policy implications."

- Steven Pressman, Professor Emeritus at Monmouth University and Part-time Professor at the New School for Social Research-New York, Former President of the "Association for Social Economics".