Download Jan 10 – What is an economy?

Sociology 323
Economy & Society
Class 2 – What is an Economy?
Why is it Important to
Understand how Economic
Systems Work?
Every society has had, and will continue to have an economic system of sort (Polanyi, 2001)
The structure of an economic system significantly affects the well being of a society, the
individuals in a society and the biosphere (Bookchin, 2007).
What is an Economy?
The global economic system consists of a diverse array of political and
economic actors of various scales, that, together, manage the production,
consumption and distribution of commodities. Presently, the capitalist
world system is the largest economy and the household is the smallest.
- Originally referred to household management.
- The economy refers to the management of resources in a society.
- The economy refers to capital production and circulation
- The economy refers to the labour force of a society.
- Economic activity refers to a series of processes.
What is an Economy?
Aristotle (1944) differentiated between two forms of
economic systems:
Oikonomia, the art of household management
Natural form of economics
Chrematistics, the art of acquisition
Unnatural and problematic because it leads to limitless
accumulation
Economy refers to a
Process of Capital
Circulation
What does an economic
system consist of ?
Every economic system consists of an array of:
–
reciprocity, redistribution, householding, and market practices
(Polanyi, 2001);
–
they include market, non-market and alternative market,
transactions, labour and enterprises (Gibson-Graham, 2006);
–
and they exist through three systems: private, public and selfhelp/mutual social purpose (Pearce, 2009).
Ways to Study
Economic Systems
The study of economic systems is a multidisciplinary topic.
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Economics
- Business
- Sociology
- History
- Geography
- Communications
- Gender Studies
- Anthropology
- Environmental Studies
- Philosophy
Ways to Study
Economic Systems
Political Economy
- History
- Political systems
- Philosophy
- International relations
Economics
- Psychology
- Statistics
- Positivism
Microeconomics: The study of the economic behaviour of individual “agents” such as particular companies,
workers, or households.
Macroeconomics: The study of aggregate economic indicators such as GDP growth, employment,
unemployment, and inflation.
Critical Approach
- Class systems
- Poverty
- Feminism
- Marxism
- Utopianism
- Wealth Distribution
Ways to Study
Economic Systems
Ontology – The study of how things come into being.
Dialectic theory – Focuses on processes, conflict and transformation. A
thesis is pitted against its antithesis and resolves to form something new.
Epistemology – Theory of knowledge. How we know what we know about
the social world.
Reflexive Epistemology – Knowledge is mutually produced through
interactions between researchers and the people (or things) they learn
from.
Positivism – Observing and measuring phenomena (scientific method).
Historical Sociology – The study of historical events and their consequences.
Nomothetic - The study of scientific laws.
AMONG MANY OTHERS!!!
Understanding
Economic Processes!
The point is...
There are many ways of understanding
economic processes! You will have a
different understanding of how economic
systems work depending on which lens
you are looking through.
Debate Topic!
How do you currently view the economy?