ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the social provisioning process, a heterodox view of the economy and the subject matter of heterodox economic inquiry, which, we argue, provides theoretical and methodological grounds for developing heterodox economics as a historically emergent alternative to mainstream-neoclassical economics. Towards this end, we first examine how the meaning of the economy changed from classical political economy to neoclassical economics. The comparison between them manifests the latter’s asocial and ahistorical view of the economy and economics. We also demonstrate that contemporary heterodox economics is the continuation and positive development of classical political economy that bears on the socially embedded view of the economy with a theoretical emphasis on production and distribution. In this respect, we argue that the social provisioning process is a felicitous concept of the economy in light of classical political economy as well as various persuasions in contemporary heterodox economics. The second section elaborates the social provisioning process and its implication for developing heterodox economics in a pluralistic manner. The last section concludes the chapter.
