Organizations, Individualism and Economic Theory PDF Download

Author: Maria Brouwer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136253122
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Most economic theory is based on the assumption that economies grow in a linear fashion. Recessions, depressions and (financial) crises are explained by policy mistakes. However, economic development has historically been uneven, and this state of affairs continues today. This book argues that twentieth century economic theory has marginalized individualism and organizational variety, and puts forward the case for a pluralist approach. This book represents a unique synthesis of business theory and economic theory, which pinpoints the problems with many current mainstream theories and sets out new agendas for research. Here, Maria Brouwer argues that market competition is not about adapting to changes from outside, but is driven by human motivation and goal directed behavior. This gives managerial skills, which do not traditionally have a significant place in mainstream economic theory, a key role. It also highlights the need for organizations that have a motivational culture and appreciate human capital. This differs from the traditional view of the firm as a production function dictated by technology. Brower argues that organizations should be depicted as voluntary associations of people that pursue goals of their own, while firms compete on markets, where relative performance determines their fate. This argument builds on older theories of innovation and market competition that live on in business school curricula, and paints a picture of an economy directed by individuals and firms. This signals a bold departure from standard economic thinking.

Author: F. A. Hayek
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226321215
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
“These essays . . . bring great learning and . . . intelligence to bear upon economic and social issues of central importance to our era.” —Henry Hazlitt, Newsweek In this collection of writings, Nobel laureate Friedrich A. Hayek discusses topics from moral philosophy and the methods of the social sciences to economic theory as different aspects of the same central issue: free markets versus socialist planned economies. First published in the 1930s and 40s, these essays continue to illuminate the problems faced by developing and formerly socialist countries. F. A. Hayek, recipient of the Medal of Freedom in 1991 and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, taught at the University of Chicago, the University of London, and the University of Freiburg. Among his other works published by the University of Chicago Press is The Road to Serfdom, now available in a special fiftieth anniversary edition. “There is much interesting and valuable material in this meaty . . . book which must ultimately help the world make up its mind on a vital issue: to plan or not to plan?” —S. E. Harris, The New York Times “Those who disagree with him cannot afford to ignore him . . . This is especially true of a book like the present one.” —George Soule, Nation

Author: John B Davis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134633467
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The concept of the individual and his/her motivations is a bedrock of philosophy. All strands of thought at heart come down to a particular theory of the individual. Economics, though, is guilty of taking this hugely important concept without questioning how we theorise it. This superb book remedies this oversight.The new approach put forward by Da

Author: Ann E. Davis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429840497
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Individualism has been one of the driving forces in the rise of modern capitalism, and methodological individualism has been dominant in social science for many years. In this paradigm the economy is seen as a machine to routinize production and improve efficiency, and the discipline of economics has come to focus on control and automation. Recent innovations in natural and social sciences, however, indicate a shift in thinking away from individualism and towards interconnectedness. The End of Individualism and the Economy: Emerging Paradigms of Connection and Community traces the origins of “the individual” in history, philosophy, economics, and social science. Drawing from linguistic philosophy, there is increasing attention to language as a social substrate for all institutions, including money and the market. One irony is that the individual is a key term, related to distinct institutions and associated expertise; that is, the individual is social. The book explores the influence of individualism in the subversion of class consciousness, the view of impersonality as a virtue, and the rise of financialization. The founding assumption of economics, the rational autonomous individual with exogenous tastes, undercuts social solidarity and blocks awareness of interconnections and interdependencies. The text looks forward and embraces the new paradigms and alternative forms of governance, economics, and science which can be developed based on collectives and communities, with new values, frameworks, and world views. This work is suitable for academics, students, scholars, and researchers with an interest in economic and social collectives and methodological individualism, as well as those studying the connections between economics and other disciplines in the social and natural sciences.

Author: Lorenzo Infantino
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317798325
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
This book is a comprehensive survey of methodological individualism in social, political and economic thought from the Enlightenment to the 20th century. Exploring the works of such figures as de Mandeville, Smith, Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, Simmel, Weber, Hayek, Popper and Parsons, this study underlines the contrasts between methodological collectivism and methodological individualism. The detailed analysis offered here also reveals the theoretical presuppositions behind the collectivist and individualist traditions and the practical consequences of their applications. Infantino concludes in favour of individualism.

Author: Guinevere Liberty Nell
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137368845
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Can we improve upon both the free market and nationalization? Market socialist and other heterodox exploration of cultural and social factors can help answer this question using Austrian economic theory. This volume brings together economists and political scientists specializing in evolutionary change and spontaneous order. Spontaneous order and other Austrian theories are complemented by the consideration of cultural, social and communal interaction. Austrian Economic Perspectives on Individualism and Society bridges the gap between free market advocates stressing individual rights and individualistic culture, and left-leaning thinkers who stress social justice and a culture of social solidarity, or collectivism.

Author: Bryan S. Turner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317650735
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
In this sequel to their acclaimed The Dominant Ideology Thesis, the authors develop their analysis of the social and cultural underpinnings of modern capitalism. They confront a central assumption of western culture: namely, that the individual is sovereign, and that capitalism above all other economic forms depends on individualism. These ideas have an unbroken history from Alexis de Tocqueville to Milton Friedman. The paradox of the modern world is that the moral emphasis on the individual is contradicted by the actual organization of economy and society. The authors suggest that individualism and capitalism have no enduring or necessary relationship. Their linkage is entirely accidental and was confined to one particular historical period in the West. Against the background of what they term the Discovery of the Individual, the authors show how individualism gave capitalism a particular shape, and capitalism in turn highlighted the possessive features of the individual. Oriental capitalism and late capitalism in the West bear no particular relationship to individualism; indeed, they flourish best in the absence of individualistic culture. Collectivism increasingly dominates both economic and social life. These issues once informed the sociological enterprise, but have not been systematically addressed in recent times. This book revives the classical tradition of the historical and comparative analysis of culture and economy in capitalist society, in the context of the late twentieth-century world.

Author: Max Weber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Author: Lars Udehn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134601905
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Throughout the history of social thought, there has been a constant battle over the true nature of society, and the best way to understand and explain it. This volume covers the development of methodological individualism, including the individualist theory of society from Greek antiquity to modern social science. It is a comprehensive and systematic treatment of methodological individualism in all its manifestations.

Author: Ragip Ege
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351624482
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
The Philosophy of Economics primarily considers the economic agent as a moral subject. Economics, however, has long overlooked the agent’s moral – that is to say, reasonable – dimension, to focus instead on the strictly rational. This volume seeks to address this neglected topic through exploring the Individual and the Other. The economic agent refers to "himself" (herself) in terms of his desire and passions, yet also refers to others besides himself. For the rational economic agent, what is the nature of this relationship with the Other? Should it not be understood as undergoing a transformation once we come to consider the economic agent as a reasonable being? Through what process does the Other pass from being an instrument at the disposal of a rational agent to being an end in itself for a moral subject? In other words, how does another become "an Other"? These questions are behind the re-examination of certain fundamental notions which takes place in this book, an examination which involves a re-reading of certain great authors. With contributions from authors around the world, this work is divided into three main parts. The first deals with individuals from the history of economic thought such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt; this is then followed by a thematic section in which the concepts of recognition and subjectivity are questioned in a market context. Finally, the third part offers an analysis of the issue of "the Individual and the Other" in different fields of the recent economic analysis including game theory, decision theory or social choice. The Individual and the Other in Economic Thought aims to help the reader better understand how the relationship between the Individual and the Other has been conceived, conceptualized and framed in economic analysis. It will be of great use to graduate students, scholars and any reader interested in this crucial issue.