ABSTRACT
Positional analysis is part of a broader theoretical perspective that may be referred to as ecological economics or sustainability economics. This chapter describes a holistic idea of economics and an ideologically open idea of rationality. In neoclassical economics, the ‘economy’ is understood in terms of markets of three kinds, that is, markets for commodities, markets for financial capital and markets for labor. Each actor, individual or firm is related to markets of different kinds. Natural and human resources are, according to the present view, ‘economic’ resources. Changes in the number of persons unemployed or changes in chemical pollutants in the blood of specific human beings can similarly be regarded as essential changes in economic resource positions. There is a more direct relation between human activities and impacts as in the case of mining of iron ore that may lead to water pollution.
