1st Edition
Transformation, Agency and the Economy The Case for a Grounded Economics
Producing, buying, selling, inventing, destroying, caring, imagining, failing – with their everyday practices, people bring about what we call ‘the economy’. In order to both understand and transform these practices in the context of mounting socio-ecological challenges, respective knowledge on economic practices becomes crucial. Yet, when it comes to the respective scientific discipline – economics – such knowledge is limited due to a long-standing tradition of favouring abstraction and modelling over assessing real-world economic action. By contrast, this book draws the contours of an economics grounded in real-world phenomena and experiences by outlining the foundations of a Grounded Economics. Building on the philosophical traditions of pragmatism, phenomenology and critical realism, and basic concepts from institutional thought and social scientific practice theories, the book provides a consistent framework to grasp the economy as an ‘unfolding process’. By putting forward a strong account of economic agency, the framework allows to identify and differentiate between multiple pathways for social transformations. The book addresses readers from all branches of the social sciences seeking a new vision for economic research, particularly within political economy, heterodox economics, science studies and economic sociology.
- Introduction
- Lifeworld, sense-making and the primordial gap
- Agents, institutions and the horizontal gap
- Praxis, reflection and the vertical gap
- What is the economy? An interim conclusion
- Grounded economics
- Conclusion
Biography
Lukas Bäuerle is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg. He obtained his doctoral degree at the University of Flensburg with a thesis on a praxeological foundation of economics. His main research interests are institutional economics, social theories of practice as well as economic education and the role of economic knowledge in societal transitions.
‘The idea of a Grounded Economics is an important corrective to economics’ long history of excessive abstraction. This book makes a significant contribution to this in its thoughtful analysis of economic agency, and particularly in its argument that agents can transform the worlds they occupy. Strongly recommended – an innovative, original examination of the foundations of economic science.’
John B. Davis, University of Amsterdam and Marquette University
"This intellectually stimulating book outlines the research program of a praxeological Grounded Economics as an alternative for the mainstream economic science. It suggests to understand economics as an unfolding social process of sensemaking and introduces methods to deal with this process scientifically. This is an important and timely endeavour. The book is recommended to anyone who aims to change the research and teaching in economics."
Ekaterina Svetlova, University of Twente
"What if we looked at the economy not through the impoverished framework of calculative rationality, but if we took seriously the economy as a process of collective sense-making and unfolding? What would the discipline of economics look like then? This book offers an opportunity to explore what a refreshed perspective on the connection between economics and the lifeworld could look like. I strongly endorse this book to all those involved in heterodox economics, political economy, science studies, and economic sociology."
Robert Lepenies, Karlshochschule
