Since economies are dynamic processes driven by creativity, social norms, and emotions as well as rational calculation, why do economists largely study them using static equilibrium models and narrow rationalistic assumptions? Economic activity is as much a function of imagination and social sentiments as of the rational optimisation of given preferences and goods.

In this book, Richard Bronk argues that economists can best model and explain these creative and social aspects of markets by using new structuring assumptions and metaphors derived from the poetry and philosophy of the Romantics. By bridging the divide between literature and science, and between Romanticism and narrow forms of Rationalism, economists can access grounding assumptions, models, and research methods suitable for comprehending the creativity and social dimensions of economic activity. This is a guide to how economists and other social scientists can broaden their analytical repertoire to encompass the vital role of sentiments, language, and imagination.

Written with the minimum of jargon and with the assumption of little prior knowledge

Written in modular style: chapters act as stand-alone introductions to different areas in the history of ideas and economic methodology
Provides guidance for how new, more Romantic, assumptions and models can be integrated into research practice, as well as examples from practising economists and political scientists of how this can work

DATE PUBLISHED: February 2009
ISBN: 9780521513845
LENGTH: 402 pages