ABSTRACT
The current global crisis and its consequences on well-being for generations to come have yet again resoundingly revealed the weaknesses of an economic system founded on principles of utility-maximisation and the ‘free’ movement of labour, capital and services. These principles, the flag of mainstream economics, could not provide a complete and realistic account of economic behaviour, and thus failed to respond to human needs and problems. The mainstream tradition has lost view of how markets and societies function:
It religiously looks upon markets to uncover the ‘natural laws’ that govern economic decision and social exchange and therefore overlooks the role played by both human agency and non-economic structures.
It applies a set of mathematical conceptions of utility maximisation or statistical techniques of quantification that disregard the multiplicity of subjective and objective principles and systems of evaluation used not only by the object of study – consumers, producers – but also by the subject of study – researchers, scientists, practitioners and policy-makers.
It restricts theory and policy to a means–ends and cost–benefit analysis and prevents economics from engaging in fruitful dialogue with other social science disciplines that could shed light on the non-economic dimensions of economic behaviour.
It seeks for a kind of ‘rationality’ in human decision and expectations and, at the same time, turns a blind eye to the ‘reality’ of power relations and social inequalities that considerably influence how economic agents and structures behave.
