Routledge Speaking of Economics: How to Get in the Conversation (Economics as Social Theory)

Making sense of economists and their world in a persuasive and entertaining style, Arjo Klamer, the author of a number of influential books including Conversation with Economists and The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric, shows that economics is as much about how people interact as it is about the models, the mathematics, the econometrics, the theories and the ideas that come from the enormous aggregate of economics literature. Knowing and understanding economics requires both bookwork and mingling with other economists. Viewing the subject as a collection of conversations, Klamer examines fundamental disagreements over the nature and purpose of the discipline, addressing how it is that a discipline that so permeates daily life is at once ‘soft’ and scientific, powerful and ignored, noble and disdained and in a reader-friendly style – without eschewing academic methodology demonstrates economics to be a living, breathing discipline rooted in the real world. Whether you are a student, academician, journalist, practising economist or interested outsider, Speaking of Economics will get you interested in a conversation about economics. Review 'This is an engaging book, in which the author's long association with, knowledge of, and affection for his field easily shows through. Summing Up: Highly recommended.' - A. R. Sanderson, University of Chicago, February 2008 issue of CHOICE. About the Author Arjo Klamer is Professor of Cultural Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Dean of the Academia Vitae.