Economy and Culture

The Importance of Sense-Making

Bibliographic Data

ID23610289
AuthorsArjo Klamer (0000-0002-5793-0490, Erasmus University Rotterdam, corresponding author)
Year2019
Pages270-290
Publication date2019-06-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueOxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198793991.013.17
OpenAlexW2970490802
ISBN9780198793991
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited24

Culture matters in the economy. An increasing number of economists acknowledge the role of culture in economic processes, yet they disagree on what that role is. This chapter reviews the most important contributions to the discussion about the interaction between cultural and economic phenomena on the basis of a five-spheres model. The conclusion stands: culture matters. Yet the complexity of the interaction renders causal claims almost impossible. Furthermore, culture is not an instrument to change at will in order to achieve certain results. The outcome of the discussion is rather a reorientation of what economics is about, and a realization that sense-making is part of the economic process. Economists may conclude that they pay better attention to the qualitative aspects of the economy, and adjust their mode of analysis to allow for such attention.

Economic system · Economics · Economy · Microeconomics · Order (exchange) · Outcome (game theory) · Positive economics · Process (computing) · Realization (probability) · Computer Science · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Mathematics