Abstract

This book is an authoritative and accessible guide to the pluralist movement threatening to revolutionise mainstream economics. Leading figures in the field explain why pluralism is a required virtue in economics, how it came to be blocked and what it means for the way we think about, research and teach economics. The first part of the book looks at how neoclassical economics gained its stranglehold, particularly in the United States, and how the social and intellectual underpinnings of economics have enabled it to maintain this in the face of inconsistent evidence from the real world. This is then contrasted with different approaches to pluralism. Pluralist Economics then goes on to address the array of arguments for establishing pluralism, showing how economics came to function as a concealed ideology and not as a science, and how value-free economics is an illusion. Finally, it addresses the practical problems presented by this different way of doing economics.
'Edward Fullbrook's exceptional volume aims to challenge and counter the cavalier way mainstream economists dismiss theories and perspectives other than their own as "nonscience". Pluralism is long overdue in economics, and this is the best single introduction to what it means for the way we think about and use economics in the real world.' David F. Ruccio, University of Notre Dame 'Edward Fullbrook has done it again, with an excellent and timely collection on an especially pertinent topic. This is an exceptionally insightful and thought-provoking book featuring work from significant contributors to modern heterodox economics.' Tony Lawson, University of Cambridge 'Edward Fullbrook and his coauthors present the case for an eclectic, diverse, tolerant and relevant alternative. They show with special clarity how pluralism actually works in other disciplines, notably physics, and the value of metaphor and narrative in making arguments in social science persuasive.' James K. Galbraith, University of Texas at Austin
Edward Fullbrook is the founder and editor of The Real World Economics Review (formerly the Post-Autistic Economics Review) and webmaster of www.paecon.net. He is a research fellow in the School of Economics at the University of the West of England. He is the author of Sex and Philosophy: Rethinking de Beauvoir and Sartre (2008).