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Environment as a Resource, not a Constraint

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  • Blaž Remic

Abstract

In this article I argue that the study of contextual issues in economics has been limited in its scope because economists have mostly conceived of the environment as a constraint on individual action. I identify and discuss three conventions that pull economists into such conceptualization of the environment. For each of the three I provide ways forward for contextual economics to avoid the pull. I then employ insights from the recent cognitive science on socially extended mind to demonstrate how the project of contextual economics as envisioned in this article can benefit from reconceptualizing the environment not as a constraint on individual action but as a resource for constituting socially extended cognitive processes. Rather than being simply about gathering more and better data, contextual economics can offer a powerful approach for studying social world based on entangled interactions between individual actors and their environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Blaž Remic, 2021. "Environment as a Resource, not a Constraint," Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 141(1-2), pages 85-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:dah:aeqjce:v141_y2021_i1_q1_p85-107
    DOI: 10.3790/schm.141.1-2.85
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Raj Chetty, 2015. "Behavioral Economics and Public Policy: A Pragmatic Perspective," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 1-33, May.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Contextual Economics; Behavioral Economics; Methodology; Cognitive Institutions; Socially Extended Mind; Scientific Integration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian
    • B59 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Other
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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