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Coming Back from the Brink: Towards a Critical, Post-autistic Approach to Economics for Sustainability

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Disciplining the Undisciplined?

Part of the book series: CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance ((CSEG))

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Abstract

The much-maligned field of economics has long had an uneasy relationship with ethical and value-based concepts such as sustainability . This chapter shows how a shift towards teaching a heterodox, socially and ecologically literate economics that is also sensitive towards questions of power , equity and justice can help overcome the autism the dominant neoclassical school of economics is standing accused of. Such an approach may not only serve to make the field more attractive again to students but also to help restore its relevance within the sustainability context.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Neoliberalism is understood here as a political ideology which regards markets as a model for structuring all social relations (Giroux 2014). Neoclassical economics informs neoliberal policy—inter alia—by way of promoting the reliance on the price mechanism and free enterprise as well as deregulation and privatisation as means of driving economic growth (Mirowski and Plehwe 2009; El-Ojeili and Hayden 2006).

  2. 2.

    Neoclassicism is broadly understood here as a utilitarian approach, which assumes a rational hedonistic psychology and perfectly competitive markets in which many profit -maximising firms interact with value-maximising consumers (Alcorn and Solarz 2006).

  3. 3.

    I note the growing heterogeneity within mainstream economics (Dequech 2007) but point to the overall dominance of neoclassical thought.

  4. 4.

    Weak sustainability focuses on the maintenance of various forms of capital stock for the continuance of current and future service flows to enable and preserve a certain standard of living or level of utility (Neumayer 1999). This approach rests on the premise that a high degree of substitutability exists between different forms of capital. For example, human-made capital is seen as an acceptable and sufficient substitute for natural capital (Beckerman 1995; Holland 1997). Strong sustainability, in contrast, stresses the importance of maintaining, especially critical forms of, natural capital and only accepts a limited degree of substitutability (Ayres et al. 2001; Haque 2006).

  5. 5.

    Laissez faire is often mistakenly attributed to Adam Smith and seen as an extension of his invisible hand concept. Yet, close reading of Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments reveals his stance on government interference to be in favour of state regulation to protect the public interest .

  6. 6.

    Similar to business school accreditation systems, UN initiatives such as PRME and the Global Compact are also commonly considered ‘weak’ initiatives from a sustainability standpoint as compliance standards are low and legitimacy concerns tend to drive accreditation (Berliner and Prakash 2012; Eiríksdóttir and Engelmark 2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Martin Brueckner

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  1. Martin Brueckner
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Correspondence to Martin Brueckner .

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  1. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia

    Martin Brueckner

  2. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia

    Rochelle Spencer

  3. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia

    Megan Paull

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Brueckner, M. (2018). Coming Back from the Brink: Towards a Critical, Post-autistic Approach to Economics for Sustainability. In: Brueckner, M., Spencer, R., Paull, M. (eds) Disciplining the Undisciplined?. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71449-3_9

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