Toward A Feminist Philosophy Of Economics

Toward a Feminist Philosophy of Economics Feminist economists have demonstrated that interrogating hierachies based on gender, ethnicity, class, and nation, results in an economics that is less biased and more faithful to empirical evidence than are mainstream accounts. This rigorous and comprehensive book examines many of the central philosophical questions and themes in feminist economics including: • • • • • history of economics feminist science studies identity and agency caring labor postcolonialism and postmodernism With contributions from such leading figures as Nancy Folbre, Julie Nelson and Sandra Harding, Toward a Feminist Philosophy of Economics looks set to become the book on feminist economics for some time to come. It will be greatly appreciated by all those interested in gender studies, economic methodology, and social theory. Drucilla K. Barker is Professor of Economics and Women’s Studies at Hollins University,Virginia, USA. Edith Kuiper is researcher at the Faculty of Economics and Econometrics, the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Economics as Social Theory Series edited by Tony Lawson University of Cambridge Social Theory is experiencing something of a revival within economics. Critical analyses of the particular nature of the subject matter of social studies and of the types of method, categories and modes of explanation that can legitimately be endorsed for the scientific study of social objects, are re-emerging. Economists are again addressing such issues as the relationship between agency and structure, between economy and the rest of society, and between the enquirer and the object of enquiry. There is a renewed interest in elaborating basic categories such as causation, competition, culture, discrimination, evolution, money, need, order, organization, power probability, process, rationality, technology, time, truth, uncertainty, value, etc. The objective for this series is to facilitate this revival further. In contemporary economics the label “theory” has been appropriated by a group that confines itself to largely asocial, ahistorical, mathematical “modeling.” Economics as Social Theory thus reclaims the “theory” label, offering a platform for alternative rigorous, but broader and more critical conceptions of theorizing. Other titles in this series include: Economics and Language Edited byWillie Henderson Rationality, Institutions and Economic Methodology Edited by Uskali Mäki, Bo Gustafsson and Christian Knudsen New Directions in Economic Methodology Edited by Roger Backhouse Who Pays for the Kids? Nancy Folbre Rules and Choice in Economics ViktorVanberg Beyond Rhetoric and Realism in Economics Thomas A. Boylan and Paschal F. O’Gorman Feminism, Objectivity and Economics Julie A. Nelson Economic Evolution Jack J.Vromen Economics and Reality Tony Lawson The Market John O’Neill Economics and Utopia Geoff Hodgson Critical Realism in Economics Edited by Steve Fleetwood The New Economic Criticism Edited by MarthaWoodmansee and Mark Osteen What do Economist