The age of post-rationality : limits of economic reasoning in the 21st century
Val Colic-Peisker (Author), Adrian Flitney (Author)
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
1 online resource (xiv, 253 pages)
9789811062599, 9811062595
1007700698
Printed edition:
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?
0-dx.doi.org.lib.exeter.ac.uk Available online via Springer Ebooks.