In the parlance of modern Japanese philosophy, the term Basho denotes a field of experience underlying all conceptions of reality, while remaining itself conceptually ungraspable. The Basho of Economics, then, refers to the economy’s hidden experiential ground, which has never been explicitly scrutinized, as such, by mainstream economics. We uncover this ground by discerning the tacit presuppositions of classical and neo-classical theories from the perspective of modern Japanese philosophy. In particular, we draw attention to the traditional atomist assumptions implicit in their equilibrium-centered models. By breaking through these assumptions, we reconstruct the economy as a functional and relational world of habitual and creative activity outside of the scope of mechanical laws.

This volume is a state-of-the-art compilation of diverse and innovative perspectives, principles, and a number of practiced approaches of fields, courses, and methods of pluralist economics teaching. It fosters constructive controversy aiming to incite authors and commentators to engage in fruitful debate. The complex economic problems of the 21st century require a pluralist, real-world oriented, and innovative discipline of economics, capable of addressing and teaching those complex issues to students from diverse perspectives. This volume addresses a number of key questions: Which models could be taught outside the equilibrium and optimality paradigm? Which methods could help to improve our understanding of the complex globalized economy? How can qualitative and quantitative methods be combined in a fruitful way to analyze complex economic problems? How can the academic isolation of mainstream economics that has developed over many decades be overcome, despite its attempted transdisciplinary imperialism? What role should knowledge from other disciplines play in teaching economics, and what is the relevance of transdisciplinarity? Through examining these issues, the editors and authors have created a pluralist but cohesive book on teaching economics in the contemporary classroom, drawing from ideas and examples from around the world. Principles and Pluralist Approaches in Teaching Economics is a unique collection of diverse perspectives on the methodology and applications of pluralist economics teaching. It will be a great resource for those teaching economics at various levels as well as researchers and intermediate and advanced students searching for pluralism in economics.

Producing, buying, selling, inventing, destroying, caring, imagining, failing – with their everyday practices, people bring about what we call ‘the economy’. In order to both understand and transform these practices in the context of mounting socio-ecological challenges, respective knowledge on economic practices becomes crucial. Yet, when it comes to the respective scientific discipline – economics – such knowledge is limited due to a long-standing tradition of favouring abstraction and modelling over assessing real-world economic action. By contrast, this book draws the contours of an economics grounded in real-world phenomena and experiences by outlining the foundations of a Grounded Economics. Building on the philosophical traditions of pragmatism, phenomenology and critical realism, and basic concepts from institutional thought and social scientific practice theories, the book provides a consistent framework to grasp the economy as an ‘unfolding process’. By putting forward a strong account of economic agency, the framework allows to identify and differentiate between multiple pathways for social transformations. The book addresses readers from all branches of the social sciences seeking a new vision for economic research, particularly within political economy, heterodox economics, science studies and economic sociology.

It is widely known that – at least in current societies - culture depends on money. Less attention has been given to the contrary fact: money also depends on culture. In its very foundation - negotiations, values, exchanges, debts and obligations, contracts and laws – money's functioning is tied to cultural practices, institutions, identities, and meanings. This interdisciplinary anthology scrutinizes the two-way connection between culture and money, and its implications for economic theory. In this book a wide range of established experts and newcomers from a range of disciplines investigate current economic issues from the perspective of their social and cultural embeddedness, their cultural and literary negotiations and their history. In doing so, they highlight what mainstream economics has missed, or wilfully ignored: they analyze the cultural genealogy of economic notions and concepts that have been thought of as abstract, ‘scientific’ economic terms – such as the concept of “value”; they point toward social aspects of economic action hitherto unnoticed by economics, (including power, the relevance of institutions and the role of misfortune and failure). The book also explores the looming question about what happens when the cultural foundation of money is replaced by machinic algorithms. The volume provides a valuable contribution to cultural studies’ current ‘re-discovery’ of economic topics while taking a purposefully critical stance on this notion, as it puts particular emphasis on not just the theoretical significance but also the acute relevance of its findings. The book therefore addresses academic audiences across a wide field of disciplines, such as the social sciences, literary and cultural studies, economics and history.

Intercultural dialogue is often invoked in vague reference to a method that can build cross-cultural understanding and facilitate global policy-making. This book clarifies the theoretical foundations of intercultural dialogue and demonstrates the practical significance of intercultural value inquiry, combining the perspectives of philosophy, conflict research, religious studies, and education.

This text is the first concise anthology of Lik Kuen Tong’s Field-Being philosophy. In addressing the ontology of both Eastern and Western thought, Field-Being philosophy offers a new metaphysics. Inclusively, it makes room at the table of philosophy for indigenous philosophy, and, foundationally, it rethinks the universe and the global world ontologically as “activity” and “relationality.” A comprehensive philosophy, it considers what is as movement, as well as the what of movement, and inventively adds the concept of “betweenness.” This philosophy of movement or “activity,” being future-oriented, is timely in the practical world, lending itself to the addressing of current issues such as climate change, global relations, and difference.

"This current volume is a result of the Seventh and Eighth International Forum on Sustainable Technological Development in a Globalizing World. The Seventh Forum was held June 9-12, 2010 in Berlin. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology hosted the event, which was organized around culture and sustainability. What we each value as a society, as a country, in our culture, is what we want to protect. What is sustainable is only what we value. This applies all the more to sustainable development which is planned for long time scales and therefore to go beyond individual sustainable technology solutions as well as economic and political cycles. What we hold in high regard is the result of cultural influences. Consequently, we need cultural change in the sense of sustainable development in order to secure sustainability pathways in the long term. The key question arising is whether and how this change can be brought about. The following Introduction leads us into the specific discussion. At the end of the Seventh Forum, participants concluded that more specific case studies would be useful and recommended that the Eighth Forum provide a focus for case studies. Since the remainder of the Eighth Forum, held March 8-10, 2011, in Melbourne, Florida, focused on Alternative Energy with oral papers not really appropriate as written papers, it was decided to include the case studies in combination with those papers from Berlin to provide a holistic discussion of culture and sustainability. That is the concept for this volume."--P.13-14.