Inspiring proposals to rethink economics and business from the perspective of the eco-social crisis

Abstract

The evidences of the different eco-social crises that we live today are based on a set of beliefs about the economic science, such as the illusion of unlimited material growth, the self-regulation of markets, and their central role on sustaining social welfare through maximizing individual utility. These assumptions are commonly treated as if they were natural laws. The business institution is at the core of the implementation and reinforcement of these beliefs. An institution that, in the neoliberal context, has become central not only because of its role in the organization of our economic relations, but also of ourselves as subjects. We argue that such beliefs are not natural laws, but social constructions and, as such, they can be reviewed, questioned and changed. From this argument, our aim is to suggest a diversity of alternative modes of sociability and economic subjectivities. With that purpose, we examine the proposals of the paradigms of social and solidarity economy, ecological economics, feminist economics and the economy of the commons.