Heterodox Economics: A Common Challenge to Mainstream Economics?

Abstract

First paragraph: Heterodox economics has been going through a period of change. The most noticeable change has been the drawing together of heterodox economists using different approaches into the larger category of ‘heterodox economics’. This has had a series of positive outcomes: notably a growing confidence in heterodox economics, and an increasing interchange of ideas among those taking different heterodox approaches. The increasing duality that this has created, between orthodox and heterodox economics, has had both positive and negative outcomes: a growing cohesion among those seeking to put forward a convincing alternative to orthodox economics, on the one hand, but the temptation to slip into a dualistic mode of thought which is more characteristic of the orthodoxy, on the other hand. While orthodox economics has been criticized for its exclusivity, as being the ‘right’ approach so that all others are ‘wrong’, there is a danger that heterodox economics might fall into the same habit.