A Process-Relational View of Economics

Live Session Info

Dates: March 9 – March 30, 2023
Times: Thursdays at 4:00 – 5:30 PM Pacific
Zoom Info: Click on the session links below. (You must be enrolled in the course to access.)

Course Summary

This course provides an overview of modern economic theory and a process-relational critique of that theory. Topics include the assumed need for economic expansion (“growthism”), globalization, localism, development without growth, and individuals-in-community.

Course Description

In the modern world, economic systems are vitally important. They shape how we order our lives, our governments, our societies, and even our military decisions. Our economic commitments not only impact the ways in which we treat one another, but they also have an enormous influence on our interactions with the more-than-human world. Because it plays such a significant role in determining our relationship with other people and the planet, how we think about economics is extremely crucial.

Embedded in mainstream economic theory are certain metaphysical assumptions about the nature of reality as well as assumptions about how we should think about things. Many of these assumptions are, from a process-relational perspective, false or at best only partially correct. The goal of this course is to help us better understand both mainstream economic theory, how it arose and what it assumes, and the process-relational challenges to this theory. We will also consider the policy implications for nations, states, or communities to operate on the basis of a process-relational based economic theory.