Cultural Considerations Within Austrian Economics

Increasingly, economists realize that a deeper understanding of culture can improve their insights into the most important questions in economics. The Austrian school of political economy, which has always taken economics to be a science of meaning, and therefore, a science of culture, offers a unique approach to the study of culture in economic life. We consider three important differences between these Austrian and non-Austrian approaches: the Austrian focus on culture as meaning rather than culture as norms, beliefs, or attitudes; the Austrian emphasis on culture as an interpretative lens rather than as a tool or form of capital; and the Austrian insistence that cultural analysis be a qualitative exercise rather than a quantitative one. We also examine Geertz's description of culture, Gadamer's approach to hermeneutics, and Weber's interpretative sociology, demonstrating their connections to the Austrian approach and offering examples of what Austrian cultural economics can look like.

Volume 19 includes research by scholars working within Austrian political economy. The contributors shed incisive light on a range of topics in Austrian economics including: the role of culture in post-disaster recovery, class structure, decentralized political orders, drones, institutional change, macroeconomics, and superstition and norms.

Can we improve upon both the free market and nationalization? Market socialist and other heterodox exploration of cultural and social factors can help answer this question using Austrian economic theory. This volume brings together economists and political scientists specializing in evolutionary change and spontaneous order. Spontaneous order and other Austrian theories are complemented by the consideration of cultural, social and communal interaction. Austrian Economic Perspectives on Individualism and Society bridges the gap between free market advocates stressing individual rights and individualistic culture, and left-leaning thinkers who stress social justice and a culture of social solidarity, or collectivism.

How does culture impact economic life? Is culture like a ball and chain that actors must lug around as they pursue their material interests? Or, is culture like a tool-kit from which entrepreneurs can draw resources to aid them in their efforts? Or, is being immersed in a culture like wearing a pair of blinders? Or, is culture like wearing a pair of glasses with tinted lenses? Understanding the Culture of Markets explores how culture shapes economic activity and describes how social scientists (especially economists) should incorporate considerations of culture into their analysis. Although most social scientists recognize that culture shapes economic behavior and outcomes, the majority of economists are not very interested in culture. Understanding the Culture of Markets begins with a discussion of the reasons why economists are reluctant to incorporate culture into economic analysis. It then goes on to describe how culture shapes economic life, and critiques those few efforts by economists to discuss the relationship between culture and markets. Finally, building on the work of Max Weber, it outlines and defends an approach to understanding the culture of markets. In order to understand real world markets, economists must pay attention to how culture shapes economic activity. If culture does indeed color economic life, economists cannot really avoid culture. Instead, the choice that they face is not whether or not to incorporate culture into their analysis but whether to employ culture implicitly or explicitly. Ignoring culture may be possible but avoiding culture is impossible. Understanding the Culture of Markets will appeal to economists interested in how culture impacts economic life, in addition to economic anthropologists and economic sociologists. It should be useful in graduate and undergraduate courses in all of those fields.

This edited volume, a collection of both theoretical essays and empirical studies, presents an Austrian economics perspective on the role of culture in economic action. The authors illustrate that culture cannot be separated from economic action, but t

Features papers presented at the inaugural Wirth Institute Conference on the Austrian School of Economics. This work explores issues in economic policy, applied economics, and pure theory from a variety of perspectives.

This book deals with central elements of the cultural, political and social background of Austrian economic theory in general and Menger's version of it in particular. It draws on Menger's theoretical writings as well as on his explicitly methodological works as source material.

In recent years there has been a spectacular revival of interest in the economics of the Austrian school. New Perspectives on Austrian Economics includes *A keynote chapter by Israel Kirzner on the question of subjectivism within Austrian Economics *Chapters on Menger, Hayek and Schumpeter *the Socialist Calculation debate *Austrian perspectives on key theoretical issues including Uncertainty and Business Cycle Theory *the policy implications of Austrian economics