New leadership

Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir and Ásgeir Brynjar Torfason

Chapter 8 in The Elgar Companion to Creating a Regenerative Economy for Wellbeing, 2026, pp 174-191 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter challenges dominant models of leadership in economics, politics, and organisations, arguing that they are rooted in values such as hierarchy, competition, and control. It calls for a transformation towards inclusive, care-centered, and cooperative leadership, and explores how language, metaphor, and institutional design reflect and reinforce systemic inequities. Leadership is not just a trait but a system of values and reimagining leadership is central to rethinking the economy itself. The chapter critiques how leadership is conceptualised and enacted within economic and political institutions. The structure of economic language has been very much ignored in academic economics until recently. By tracing the way of thinking about economics and governance, it is possible to go beyond standard critiques of inequality to offer a richer cultural challenge. Giving attention to the scaffolding of economic language and leadership culture opens up conversations between economists and scholars of gender, care, and institutions.

Keywords: Feminist Economics; Women's Labour; Leadership; Soft Leaders; Reframing; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781800884960
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