Description
Book SynopsisThis book is based on the premise that mainstream economics has become excessively specialized and formalized, entering a state of
de facto withdrawal from the study of the economy in favour of exercises in applied mathematics. The editors believe that there is much scope for synergies by engaging in an encounter with economics and the other social sciences. The chapters in this book offer important new contributions to such a development.
A select group of highly regarded contributors illustrate the potentially enlightening relationship between economics and a wide range of social science disciplines. In addition, some important concepts for economic analysis - for example the notion of routines, of social capital and of flexibility - are explored from the vantage point of several social sciences.
Postgraduate students in most social science disciplines and in economic sociology will find much to interest them in this book, as will students of psychology and economics.
Table of ContentsContents: 1. Economics and the Social Sciences: Synergies and Trade-offs Stavros Ioannides and Klaus Nielsen PART I: ECONOMICS AND OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES: RELATIONSHIPS AND BOUNDARIES 2. What Can be Learnt from ‘Serious’ Biology and Psychology? Jack Vromen 3. Economics and Sociology in the Transition from Industrial to Post-Industrial Capitalism George Liagouras 4. The ‘Institutional Turn’ in the Social Sciences: A Review of Approaches and a Future Research Agenda Klaus Nielsen 5. The Problem of Historical Specificity Geoffrey M. Hodgson PART II: NEW LIGHT ON RATIONALITY, SOCIAL RELATIONS AND THE ENVIRONMENT 6. The Irrationality of Utility Maximization or the Death of a Salesman Irene van Staveren 7. Social Capital or Sociality? Methodological Contrasts between Economics and Other Social Sciences Desmond McNeill 8. Where Disciplinary Boundaries Blur: The Environmental Dimension of Institutional Economics Eyüp Özveren PART III: FLEXIBILITY, ROUTINES AND PRODUCTION IN ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 9. Economic Flexibility: A Structural Analysis William A. Jackson 10. Routines: A Brief History of the Concept Markus C. Becker 11. Complementarity, Cognition and Capabilities: Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Production Guido Buenstorf Index
