Economics and interdisciplinarity: an open-systems approach

Vol. 37 No. 2 (2017)

Apr-Jun / 2017
Published February 26, 2020
PDF-English
PDF-English

How to Cite

Neves, Vítor. 2017. “Economics and Interdisciplinarity: An Open-Systems Approach”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 37 (2):343-62. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572017v37n02a05.

Economics and interdisciplinarity: an open-systems approach

Vítor Neves
Assistant Professor at the School of Economics and Researcher of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 37 No. 2 (2017), Apr-Jun / 2017, Pages 343-362

Abstract

 This is a text on economics and interdisciplinarity. It takes account of the plurality of meanings that the practice of interdisciplinarity has assumed in economics, discusses why interdisciplinarity is essential to the study of the economy and analyzes two models of what interdisciplinarity should be in economics. Reference is also made to the obstacles inherent in the practice of interdisciplinarity. Its ultimate goal is to show why the economy (as an object of study), being an open system, cannot be left to economists alone requiring, instead, a pluralistic, political economy understanding of the ‘economic’.

JEL Classification: A12; B4.


Keywords: Economics interdisciplinarity open systems connections pluralism