Wilfred Dolfsma - Interdisciplinary Economics: Kenneth E. Boulding’s Engagement in the Sciences

Interdisciplinary Economics

A major figure in economics, Kenneth E. Boulding shaped and in some instances pioneered debates in institutional economics, post-Keynesian economics, evolutionary economics, ecological economics, peace research, and conflict research, amongst others. These disciplines are well-developed by now, and so it may not be apparent what contributions Boulding has made. As the heterodoxy is developing increasingly feasible alternatives for the mainstream, and the mainstream is itself opening up and transforming, attention for Bouldings work will increase.

A growing number of economists, working inside and outside of academia (including those in business schools and independent research centres) seek to relate insights from the social sciences with those from physical and biological sciences. Boulding initiated and spurred such interdisciplinary approaches. At the same time, his early emphasis on the economy as a system, and on symbolic communication that sustains it, is reflected in cutting-edge work at the moment. Boulding combines these strands in his work. His ability not just to reach out to fields of studies adjacent to economicscolonizing them, la Gary Becker, or cherry picking from and then misrepresenting them, la George Akerlofbut rather to engage with these actively is the main theme of this volume.

A former president of the American Economic Association, Bouldings contributions are recognized in many other fields besides economics. He did, of course, make seminal contributions to Keynesian and institutional economics. Yet, a polymath, he helped found a number of research areas outside standard economics, most importantly of which are systems theory, conflict mediation, and ecological economics.

Wilfred Dolfsma is Chair of Innovation at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Stefan Kesting is Teaching Fellow at the University of Leeds, England.

Routledge Studies in the History of Economics

1 Economics as Literature

Willie Henderson

2 Socialism and Marginalism in Economics 18701930

Edited by Ian Steedman

3 Hayeks Political Economy

The socio-economics of order

Steve Fleetwood

4 On the Origins of Classical Economics

Distribution and value from William Petty to Adam Smith

Tony Aspromourgos

5 The Economics of Joan Robinson

Edited by Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, Luigi Pasinetti and Alesandro Roncaglia

6 The Evolutionist Economics of Lon Walras

Albert Jolink

7 Keynes and the Classics

A study in language, epistemology and mistaken identities

Michel Verdon

8 The History of Game Theory, Vol 1

From the beginnings to 1945

Robert W. Dimand and Mary Ann Dimand

9 The Economics of W. S. Jevons

Sandra Peart

10 Gandhis Economic Thought

Ajit K. Dasgupta

11 Equilibrium and Economic Theory

Edited by Giovanni Caravale

12 Austrian Economics in Debate

Edited by Willem Keizer, Bert Tieben and Rudy van Zijp

13 Ancient Economic Thought

Edited by B. B. Price

14 The Political Economy of Social Credit and Guild Socialism

Frances Hutchinson and Brian Burkitt

15 Economic Careers

Economics and economists in Britain 19301970

Keith Tribe

16 Understanding Classical Economics

Studies in the long-period theory

Heinz Kurz and Neri Salvadori

17 History of Environmental Economic Thought

E. Kula

18 Economic Thought in Communist and Post-Communist Europe

Edited by Hans-Jrgen Wagener

19 Studies in the History of French Political Economy

From Bodin to Walras

Edited by Gilbert Faccarello

20 The Economics of John Rae

Edited by O. F. Hamouda, C. Lee and D. Mair

21 Keynes and the Neoclassical Synthesis

Einsteinian versus Newtonian macroeconomics

Teodoro Dario Togati

22 Historical Perspectives on Macroeconomics

Sixty years after the General Theory

Edited by Philippe Fontaine and Albert Jolink

23 The Founding of Institutional Economics

The leisure class and sovereignty

Edited by Warren J. Samuels

24 Evolution of Austrian Economics

From Menger to Lachmann

Sandye Gloria

25 Marxs Concept of Money

The God of Commodities

Anitra Nelson

26 The Economics of James Steuart

Edited by Ramn Tortajada

27 The Development of Economics in Europe since 1945

Edited by A. W. Bob Coats

28 The Canon in the History of Economics

Critical essays

Edited by Michalis Psalidopoulos

29 Money and Growth

Selected papers of Allyn Abbott Young

Edited by Perry G. Mehrling and Roger J. Sandilands

30 The Social Economics of Jean-Baptiste Say

Markets and virtue

Evelyn L. Forget

31 The Foundations of Laissez-Faire

The economics of Pierre de Boisguilbert

Gilbert Faccarello

32 John Ruskins Political Economy

Willie Henderson

33 Contributions to the History of Economic Thought

Essays in honour of R. D. C. Black

Edited by Antoin E. Murphy and Renee Prendergast

34 Towards an Unknown Marx

A commentary on the manuscripts of 186163

Enrique Dussel

35 Economics and Interdisciplinary Exchange

Edited by Guido Erreygers

36 Economics as the Art of Thought

Essays in memory of G. L. S. Shackle

Edited by Stephen F. Frowen and Peter Earl

37 The Decline of Ricardian Economics

Politics and economics in post-Ricardian theory

Susan Pashkoff

38 Piero Sraffa

His life, thought and cultural heritage

Alessandro Roncaglia

39 Equilibrium and Disequilibrium in Economic Theory

The Marshall-Walras divide

Michel de Vroey

40 The German Historical School

The historical and ethical approach to economics

Edited by Yuichi Shionoya

41 Reflections on the Classical Canon in Economics

Essays in honour of Samuel Hollander

Edited by Sandra Peart and Evelyn Forget

42 Piero Sraffas Political Economy

A centenary estimate

Edited by Terenzio Cozzi and Roberto Marchionatti

43 The Contribution of Joseph Schumpeter to Economics

Economic development and institutional change

Richard Arena and Cecile Dangel

44 On the Development of Long-run Neo-Classical Theory

Tom Kompas

45 F. A. Hayek as a Political Economist

Economic analysis and values

Edited by Jack Birner, Pierre Garrouste and Thierry Aimar

46 Pareto, Economics and Society

The mechanical analogy

Michael McLure

47 The Cambridge Controversies in Capital Theory

A study in the logic of theory development

Jack Birner

48 Economics Broadly Considered

Essays in honour of Warren J. Samuels

Edited by Steven G. Medema, Jeff Biddle and John B. Davis

49 Physicians and Political Economy

Six studies of the work of doctor-economists

Edited by Peter Groenewegen