Beyond Western Economics: Remembering Other Economic Cultures

by Schroyer; Trent

• ISBN13: 9780415776974
• ISBN10: 041577697X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-06-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

How did we reach the point of accepting western economics as central to our understanding of human nature, history, culture and social policy formation? Answering this question systematically exposes the fallacy of economism and releases many social economic alternatives now eclipsed by market fundamentalism.

Author Biography

Trent Schroyer is currently Professor of Sociology-Philosophy in the School of Social Science and Human Services at Ramapo College in New Jersey, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction: western certitudes about freedom and economics	p. 1
The fallacy of economism	p. 1
Fallacies of western economistic world view	p. 4
Paths beyond western individualism	p. 7
Multiple economic cultures-survey of contents	p. 11
Origins of this inquiry	p. 13
Critical histories of western economics	p. 15
Origins of idealization of the self-regulating market	p. 17
The emergence of the economic culture of commercial market society	p. 17
The watershed of the Scottish Enlightenment	p. 18
Idealizations of self-preservation versus dedication	p. 19
Idealization of civilizing mission of wealth creating market society	p. 20
Evolutionary empiricism: economic culture as spontaneous coordination	p. 22
Internal colonization of spontaneous orders and the problem of social freedom	p. 25
Substantive economics and the abstractions of economism	p. 27
Disembedding of the market and the utopian liberal creed	p. 27
Polanyi's socio-cultural account of the source of human misery	p. 28
Economism versus substantive social economics	p. 32
Substantive economics and western market industrial formations	p. 35
Economic cultures beyond developmentalism	p. 37
On scarcity: the charter myth of modernity	p. 38
Idealizations of utopian capitalism	p. 40
Idealizations of utopian capitalism and the contemporary world	p. 40
Idealizations of maximizing rationality and entrepreneurial freedom	p. 40
Idealization of financial deregulation	p. 42
Idealization of scientific certitudes and risk assessments as the basis of economic decisions	p. 44
Idealization of economic development as means of poverty eradication	p. 47
Idealization of globalizing capitalism as civilizing and 'peace-keeping'	p. 51
Critical traditionalist cultural visions	p. 55
Illich's genealogy of modern certitudes	p. 57
Who was Ivan Illich?	p. 57
Ivan Illich's regenerative methodologies	p. 58
Ecclesiology as critical regeneration theory	p. 59
Origins of modernity in perversions of Roman Church 'reforms'	p. 60
From Mother Church to Mother State	p. 61
Cultural colonization of vernacular speech	p. 62
Perversions of the contingency axiom that 'reformed' the Church	p. 63
New fears and new psycho-spiritual pathologies	p. 64
Disembodiments of modern sensibility	p. 66
Creating vernacular free spaces	p. 68
Convivial living as post-industrial society practice	p. 69
Loss of vernacular gender as condition for economism	p. 71
Truth-seeking presupposes friendship: Illich and Gandhi	p. 72
Gandhi's truth testing and India today	p. 74
From Ilich to Gandhi	p. 74
Ongoing internal colonization of Indian governance	p. 75
Diverse perspectives on Indian culture	p. 77
Gandhi's truth experiments and the harmony of human pursuits	p. 79
Swaraj, or self-rule: the key to the regeneration of India?	p. 82
Spiritualizing wealth and economics: on Gandhian economics	p. 84
Testing Gandhianism: romantic idealism or seminal vision?	p. 85
Realities of the Indian informal sector	p. 87
An alternative strategy to transform rural communities	p. 89
Alternative economies	p. 91
Foundations of economic cultures	p. 93
Secularization and remembrance of 'the other west'	p. 93
Economistic reductions of reciprocity and gifting	p. 95
The logic of gifts beyond economism	p. 96
From moral economy to a more reflexive individualization	p. 98
Social sharing and commons based peer production	p. 99
Co-operative economies: yesterday and today	p. 101
Sustaining traditional art-craft-body knowledge systems	p. 104
Substantive economic cultures	p. 106
Better indicators to the inseparability of ecology and equity	p. 106
Customs in common and the wisdom of commons	p. 109
Localizing cultural affirmations in a globalizing world	p. 111
The superiority of peasant, or local agriculture: an ongoing truth	p. 114
Capacity building in active communities	p. 116
Social learning for people's economies	p. 118
Participatory learning for people's economies: the Grameen Bank and legal entitlements	p. 118
City regions and going local	p. 121
Strengthening local economies via alternative financial institutions	p. 124
Grass-roots-up participatory financial forms	p. 125
Globalizing anti-globalization economies: solidarity economics, economic democracy and fair trade	p. 126
Geonomics with earth rights and tax shift	p. 128
Appendix: The medieval origins of instrumental reason	p. 130
Notes	p. 133
Bibliography	p. 146
Internet resources	p. 155
Index	p. 156
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