Economic Methodology, History and Pluralism: Expanding Economic Thought to Meet Contemporary Challenges

Economic Methodology, History and Pluralism: Expanding Economic Thought to Meet Contemporary Challenges pays tribute to Emeritus Professor Sheila Dow (University of Stirling, Scotland). This volume focusses on the contributions of Dow to economic methodology, pluralism and the history of economic thought. These explorations serve to underpin her ideas and theories on macroeconomics, banking and money.

Bringing together an impressive panel of contributors, the chapters in this work examine Dow’s writings on structured pluralism and schools of thought, meanings of open and closed systems, reflections on the relationship between economics and other sciences (both social and natural), the methodology of behavioural economics, as well as the political economy of the Scottish school of thought. The book challenges the foundations of the mainstream economics paradigm in a novel and holistic manner, seeking to advance thinking across Dow’s favoured discipline.

The essays in this collection provide thought-provoking reading for advanced students and scholars of economic methodology, the history of economic thought, heterodox economics and political economy. The book will also be valued by the economics profession at large, as it contains important elements and ideas concerning ethics, methodology and tolerance within economics as a discipline and as a profession.

Ioana Negru is a Reader in Economics at ’Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu. She is the co-editor of TheEthical Formation of Economists (2019, with Wilfred Dolfsma) and of The Gift in the Economy and Society: Perspectives from Institutional Economics and Other Social Sciences (2020, with Stefan Kesting and Paolo Silvestri). She has been a member of the Skidelsky Committee for improving the economics curriculum worldwide.

Penelope Hawkins is Senior Economist in the Debt and Development Finance Branch, within the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Her research focusses on public and private country debt, development finance, illicit financial flows and financial inclusion. Previously, as the founder and Managing Director of Feasibility (Pty) Ltd, she undertook leading research projects in the financial sector in South Africa and advised policy makers and regulators in southern and eastern Africa.