The age of post-rationality : limits of economic reasoning in the 21st century
Val Colic-Peisker, Adrian Flitney
- Melbourne : Palgrave Macmillan, c2018.
- xiv, 253 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. A rational society Chapter 3. The tyranny of competition Chapter 4. Hyper-consumption and inequality Chapter 5. The great gamble of global finance vs. the real economy Chapter 6. Economic rationality vs. the Earth Chapter 7. The promise and threat of the Internet age Chapter 8. Conclusion: Into a bright post-capitalist future?.
This book challenges the hegemonic view that economic calculation represents the ultimate rationality. The West legitimises its global dominance by the claim to be a rational, democratic, science-based and progressive civilisation. Yet, over the past decades, the dogma of economic rationality has become an ideological black hole whose gravitational pull allows no public debate or policy to escape. Political leaders of all creeds are held in its orbit and public language is saturated by it. This dogma has pervaded all spheres of life, ushering the age of post-rationality, especially in English speaking countries. The authors discuss several aspects of post-rational global capitalism still dominated by the Anglosphere: hyper-competition, hyper-consumption, inequality, volatile global financial markets, environmental degradation and the unforeseen effects of the internet-mediated communication revolution. The book concludes by discussing some utopian and dystopian future scenarios and asking whether the West can transcend its crisis of rationality.
9789811062582
Rational expectations (Economic theory)--21st century Economics--21st century