Mythologizing in Economics: Of Utopias and Dystopias

Jerome Nikolai Warren ()
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Jerome Nikolai Warren: University of Cologne, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany

Chapter 9 in Imagine, Studying the Relationship between Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and Imaginary in the Era of Capitalocene, 2024, vol. 6, pp 149-161 from CIRIEC - Université de Liège

Abstract: This contribution seeks to situation mainstream economic theory with respect to Rudolf Bultmann’s concept of “de-mythologizing”. Applying this concept, together with Cornelius Castoriadis’ discussion around “instituting” vs. “instituted” societies, the chapter argues that neoclassical economics is in fact a dystopia. In order to move beyond its influence, scholars and practitioners must together develop economic and management theories lodged in the lived experiences of the diversity of organizational types in existence, including cooperatives. This applies both in the study of contemporary firms, as well as in historiography, where an “archaeology of knowledge” is needed to uncover hidden or lost traditions of community-oriented wealth-building. It suggests three lines of future research to realize this aim.

Keywords: economics; economic history; management theory; theory of the firm; social enterprise; cooperatives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 B13 B52 J54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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