Postmodern Moments in Modern Economics

Book excerpt: Of all the areas of contemporary thought, economics seems the most resistant to the destabilizing effects of postmodernism. Yet, David Ruccio and Jack Amariglio argue that one can detect, within the diverse schools of thought that comprise the discipline of economics, "moments" that defy the modernist ideas to which many economists and methodologists remain wedded. This is the first book to document the existence and to explore the implications of the postmodern moments in modern economics. Ruccio and Amariglio begin with a powerful argument for the general relevance of postmodernism to contemporary economic thought. They then conduct a series of case studies in six key areas of economics. From the idea of the "multiple self" and notions of uncertainty and information, through market anomalies and competing concepts of value, to analytical distinctions based on gender and academic standing, economics is revealed as defying the modernist frame of a singular science. The authors conclude by showing how economic theory would change if the postmodern elements were allowed to flourish. A work of daring analysis sure to be vigorously debated, Postmodern Moments in Modern Economics is both accessible and relevant to all readers concerned about the modernist straightjacket that has been imposed on the way economics is thought about and practiced in the world today.