Economy-Environment-Development-Knowledge

To understand, contrast, and compare alternative understandings of economic, environmental and development issues, we need to be aware why theorists conceptualize the process of social experience so differently. By addressing the disagreements between theorists, this book provides a unique basis to contrast and compare the plethora of theories of, and policies for, economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and social progress.

Acknowledgements

xi

Prologue: what can we know about the world?

1

(4)

The scientific parameters of social existence

5

(16)

Perceptions of reality

5

(1)

Economy

6

(3)

Environment

9

(3)

Development

12

(3)

Knowledge

15

(4)

Intellectual panorama, ideological vision, and political view

19

(2)

PART I Economy

21

(68)

The economy

23

(10)

The economy and economists

23

(1)

Economists' differences

24

(3)

Economic perspectives and schools of economic thought

27

(2)

Supply and demand, demand and supply, or demand with supply

29

(2)

The elementary and the complex

31

(2)

The consumer as economic dynamic: the subjective preference theory of value

33

(16)

The subjective preference theory of value

33

(2)

Austrian economic theory

35

(2)

The neoclassical utopia

37

(2)

Perfect competition

39

(4)

Neoclassical economic policy

43

(6)

The producer as economic dynamic: the cost-of-production theory of value

49

(14)

The cost-of-production theory of value

49

(2)

Imperfect competition

51

(2)

Economic management

53

(2)

Capital controversy

55

(3)

The resurgence of the cost-of-production theory of value

58

(5)

The citizen as economic dynamic: the abstract labour theory of value

63

(26)

The abstract labour theory of value

63

(2)

Human economic motivation

65

(1)

The mode of production

66

(1)

The capitalist mode of production

67

(3)

Value and exchange

70

(3)

Value and crisis

73

(4)

Economic experience and economic analysis: the East Asian economic crisis and beyond

77

(12)

PART II Environment

89

(64)

Environment

91

(8)

The environmental issue

91

(1)

The politics of the environment

92

(2)

Questioning the environment

94

(1)

Sustainable development

95

(1)

Science and the myths of nature

96

(3)

The environment as a source of pleasure: egocentrism

99

(22)

The primacy of human wants: egocentrism

99

(2)

The pessimists

101

(3)

The optimists

104

(3)

The ideology of free market environmentalism

107

(3)

The neoclassical exegesis

110

(2)

Cost--benefit analysis

112

(6)

The commoditization of the environment

118

(3)

The environment as a productive resource: ecocentrism

121

(14)

The dependence of humans on the environment: ecocentrism

121

(3)

Policy pragmatists

124

(1)

Uncertainty and the Gaia thesis

125

(1)

Social regulation and ecology

126

(9)

The environment and social evolution: sociocentrism

135

(18)

The co-evolution of society and the environment: sociocentrism

135

(2)

Environmental crises and commodity exchange

137

(4)

The social construction of environmental problems

141

(5)

The role of ideology

146

(7)

PART III Development

153

(64)

Development

155

(12)

Development

155

(1)

Independent individuals

156

(2)

Dependent individuals

158

(3)

Class struggle

161

(4)

Development and human nature

165

(2)

Development as the fulfilment of individuals' potentials: modernization

167

(16)

Modernization

167

(2)

From the traditional to the modern

169

(3)

Structural adjustment

172

(5)

Modernization and good governance

177

(1)

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment

178

(5)

Development as fulfilling the technical potentials of cooperation: structuralism

183

(18)

Structuralism

183

(2)

Distribution and populism

185

(2)

Sustainable development, technology and institutions

187

(3)

Radical structuralism

190

(8)

The `impasse'

198

(3)

Development as the fulfilment of people's social potentials: class struggle

201

(16)

People: passive or active?

201

(1)

The dialectics of human nature

202

(3)

Communism

205

(2)

Socialist development

207

(1)

Socialist development: the case of Cuba

208

(2)

Cubanidad

210

(4)

Socialist development, Cuban style

214

(3)

PART IV Knowledge

217

(54)

Knowledge

219

(10)

Explanation

219

(3)

The evolution of self-consciousness

222

(3)

Experience and belief

225

(1)

Human nature and understanding

226

(3)

What? Identifying events: positivism

229

(8)

Events

229

(2)

Objectivity and truth

231

(2)

Reductionism

233

(4)

How? Explaining systems: paradigms

237

(8)

Systems

237

(1)

Paradigms

238

(1)

Revolutionary science

239

(2)

Postmodernism

241

(4)

Why? Understanding processes: praxis

245

(12)

Processes

245

(2)

Dialectics and understanding

247

(3)

Material reality and individual choice

250

(3)

Knowledge and change

253

(2)

Seeing ourselves through ourselves

255

(2)

Intellectual panorama, ideological vision, and political view

257

(14)

Conceptualizing reality

257

(1)

Cole's Law

258

(7)

Ideology and intellectual panoramas

265

(2)

The intellectual and society

267

(1)

The politics of knowledge

268

(3)

Epilogue: what do we know about the world?

271

(2)

References

273

(24)

Index

297

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Economy-Environment-Development-Knowledge

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Table of Contents

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