Social Fairness and Economics: Economic Essays in the Spirit of Duncan Foley

This volume addresses the social desirability of the means by which relations of production and distribution are organized in the contemporary world. They explore current economic methodology and theory and empirical aspects of the economic system, with the aim of taking the first step in the development of a critical economic theory. Critical social theory strives at interdisciplinary work integrating normative social criticism with empirical social research. A critical economic theory, however, has yet to emerge. Duncan Foley's work, which observes that capitalism imposes "antagonistic, impersonal, and self-regarding social relations", represents a point of entry to this theory. This landmark volume spans a wide range of economic approaches to social justice. Opening with a methodological section, book assesses the current "state-of-the-art" methodology and its drawbacks, the limitations of current mainstream theory, recent theoretical and empirical developments in Keynesian and Marxist theories of distribution, and contributions from the expanding field of complexity studies in which multiple classes of agents are considered. The contributors to the proposed collection include some of the most distinguished scholars in these disparate fields. In bringing them together, the volume opens up lines of communication between fields of research within economics and across social sciences that are often isolated from one another, expanding and enriching their conversations. In doing so, the volume aims to open the discussion on a critical economic theory which values fairness and social justice.