These essays deal with various aspects of a new, rising field, socio economics. The field is seeking to combine the variables studied by neoclassical economists with those typically studied by other social sciences. The combination is expected to provide a better understanding of economic behavior and the economy as well as society; make more reliable predictions; and be more in line with normative values we seek to uphold. The new field, though, may be less elegant mathematically and possibly less parsimonious than neoclassical economics. Some of my ideas on this subject are included in a previously published book, The Moral Dimension: TowardA New Economics (New York: The Free Press, 1988). They also led to a formation of an international society of several thousand scholars who are interested in the field, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. The essays at hand are in effect grouped. The first two, previously published respectively in the Journal of Economic Psychology and Business Ethics Quarterly, reflect my most recent thinking. They both have a utopian streak that may stand out especially in these days when unfeathered capitalism is the rage. The first points to people, who far from making consuming ever more their life's project, seek a less affiuent way oflife. It examines the psychological foundations and the social consequences of such an approach.

The author's communitarianism is undoutedly one of the most influential and pathbreaking approaches in present social theory Relations of economics and other social sciences, especially sociology Involvement of moral and social values

Autorentext
Dr. Amitai Etzioni ist Wirtschaftssoziologe und Professor der George Washington University in Washington, D.C., USA. Der Gründer des Communitarian Network (1992) war Berater des Weißen Hauses unter den US-Präsidenten Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush und Bill Clinton. Etzioni ist Autor von mehr als 20 Büchern, seine Aufätze und Abhandlungen erscheinen in führenden Nachrichtenblättern wie The New York Times, The Washington Post und The Wall Street Journal.

Klappentext

These essays deal with various aspects of a new, rising field, socio-economics. The field is seeking to combine the variables studied by neoclassical economists with those typically studied by other social sciences. The combination is expected to provide a better understanding of economic behavior and the economy as well as society; make more reliable predictions; and be more in line with normative values we seek to uphold.The volume reflects the most recent thinking of the author on the implications of corporate governance shifting from shareholders to stakeholders. It examines the key to evolving a socio-economics and it deals with the socio-economics of decision making. The volume closes with a comparative analysis between socio-economics and communitarian thinking.

Inhalt
1: Voluntary Simplicity: Characterization, Select Psychological Implications, and Societal Consequences.- 2: A Communitarian Note on Stakeholder Theory.- 3: Opening the Preferences: A Socio-Economic Research Agenda.- 4: The Case for a Multiple-Utility Conception.- 5: Normative-Affective Factors: Toward a New Decision-Making Model.- 6: Mixed-Scanning Revisted.- 7: Making Policy for Complex Systems: A Medical Model for Economics.- 8: The Mapping of Man.- 9: Whose Morality? Which Community? What Interests? Socio-Economic and Communitarian Perspectives.