041519685X.Routledge.Economics.and.Utopia.Why.the.Learning.Economy.Is.Not.the.End.of.History.Dec.1998.pdf

ECONOMICS AND UTOPIA

For many, the collapse of the Eastern Bloc after 1989 signalled the obsolescence of

all forms of utopian thinking. It was said that history had reached its end-state in

the form of Western, individualistic capitalism. Economics and Utopia challenges this

argument and opens up space for novel, pluralist and flexible discourses concerning

possible futures.

Both the past utopias of traditional socialism and market individualism are

shown to be inadequate, and especially inappropriate for a complex economy

driven by innovation and rapid human learning. The idea of the ‘end of history’ is

challenged partly on the grounds that it ignores the immense and persistent variety

of institutions and cultures within capitalism itself. In the final part of the book,

possible yet hitherto unfamiliar futures beyond capitalism are explored, using a

developed theoretical framework and modern techniques of scenario planning.

More than a consideration of alternative economic systems, Economics and Utopia

shows that visions of a possible future require a new and reconstructed economic

theory that gives full consideration to the processes of learning and innovation,

and to their cultural and institutional integument. Accordingly, in order to

understand the processes of transformation in modern economies and to consider

future possibilities, changes at the core of economic theory are necessary.

Geoffrey M. Hodgson is a Reader in Economics in the Judge Institute of

Management Studies, University of Cambridge. He is the author of, among many

other works, Economics and Evolution (1993), Economics and Institutions (1988) and

The Democratic Economy (1984). A recent survey of opinion carried out by the

Diamond business weekly in Japan ranked him as one of the twenty-three most

important economists of all time.

ECONOMICS AS SOCIAL THEORY

Series edited by Tony Lawson

University of Cambridge

Social theory is experiencing something of a revival within economics. Critical analyses of the particular nature

of the subject matter of social studies and of the types of method, categories and modes of explanation that can

legitimately be endorsed for the scientific study of social objects, are re-emerging. Economists are again addressing

such issues as the relationship between agency and structure, between the economy and the rest of society, and

between enquirer and the object of enquiry. There is renewed interest in elaborating basic categories such as

causation, competition, culture, discrimination, evolution, money, need, order, organisation, power, probability,

process, rationality, technology, time, truth, uncertainty and value, etc.

The objective of this series is to facilitate this revival further. In contemporary economics the label ‘theory’ has

been appropriated by a group that confines itself to largely asocial, ahistorical, mathematical ‘modelling’.

Economics as Social Theory thus reclaims the ‘theory’ label, offering a platform for alternative, rigorous, but

broader and more critical conceptions of theorising.

Other titles in this series include:

ECONOMICS AND LANGUAGE

Edited by Willie Henderson

RATIONALITY, INSTITUTIONS AND ECONOMIC METHODOLOGY

Edited by Uskali Mäki, Bo Gustafsson and Christian Knudson

NEW DIRECTIONS IN ECONOMIC METHODOLOGY

Edited by Roger Backhouse

WHO PAYS FOR THE KIDS?

Nancy Folbre

RULES AND CHOICES IN ECONOMICS

Viktor Vanberg

BEYOND RHETORIC AND REALISM IN ECONOMICS

Thomas A. Boylan and Paschal F. O’Gorman

FEMINISM, OBJECTIVITY AND ECONOMICS

Julie A. Nelson

ECONOMIC EVOLUTION

Jack J. Vromen

THE MARKET

John O’Neil

Forthcoming :

CRITICAL REALISM IN ECONOMICS

Edited by Steve Fleetwood

THE NEW ECONOMIC CRITICISM

Edited by Martha Woodmansee and Mark Osteen

ECONOMICS AND

UTOPIA

Why the learning economy is not the

end of history

Geoffrey M. Hodgson

London and New York

First published 1999

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 1001

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.

The right of Geoffrey M. Hodgson to be identified as the Author of this Work has been

any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter

invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or

retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Hodgson, Geoffrey Martin

Economics and Utopia: why the learning economy is not the end of history / Geoffrey

M. Hodgson.

p. cm. – (Economics as social theory)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Liberalism. 2. Economics. 3. Utopian socialism. 4. Marxian economics.

I. Title. II. Series.

HB95.H63 1999

98–18791

330–dc21

CIP

ISBN 0-415-07506-8 (hbk)

ISBN 0-415-19685-X (pbk)

ISBN 0-203-02571-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-17223-X (Glassbook Format)

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: