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Kenneth Boulding's Theories of Evolutionary Economics and Organizational Change: A Reconstruction

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  • Vladislav Valentinov

Abstract

I identify a discrepancy between Kenneth Boulding's wide-ranging contributions to evolutionary economics and his professed ecological approach to it. I argue that Boulding has undersold his true contributions to evolutionary economics by trying to embed them into the ecological approach. I endeavor to overcome this discrepancy by differentiating between two types of evolutionary change analyzed in Boulding's writings: ecological change and civilizational change. In contrast to ecological change, civilizational change entails the possibility for the evolving system to overstrain the carrying capacity of the environment, thus suggesting the precarious relationship between civilizational complexity and sustainability. This argument sheds new light on Boulding's theory of “social organizers,” such as exchange, threat, and the integrative system. Boulding's understanding of civilizational change envisages the key role of threat and exchange in enabling civilizational complexity, while the integrative system is called upon to make this complexity sustainable.

Suggested Citation

  • Vladislav Valentinov, 2015. "Kenneth Boulding's Theories of Evolutionary Economics and Organizational Change: A Reconstruction," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 71-88, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:mes:jeciss:v:49:y:2015:i:1:p:71-88
    DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2015.1013880
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    Cited by:

    1. Vladislav Valentinov, 2019. "The Ethics of Functional Differentiation: Reclaiming Morality in Niklas Luhmann’s Social Systems Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 105-114, March.
    2. Charis Vlados & Dimos Chatzinikolaou, 2020. "Methodological Redirections for an Evolutionary Approach of the External Business Environment," Journal of Management and Sustainability, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(2), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Valentinov, Vladislav & Hielscher, Stefan & Pies, Ingo, 2015. "Nonprofit organizations, institutional economics, and systems thinking," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 491-501.
    4. A. Madureira & F. Hartog & N. Baken, 2016. "A holonic framework to understand and apply information processes in evolutionary economics: survey and proposal," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 157-190, September.
    5. Armaghan Chizaryfard & Paolo Trucco & Cali Nuur, 2021. "The transformation to a circular economy: framing an evolutionary view," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 475-504, April.

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