Social Suffering: A New Reference Framework for Economic Analysis

Abstract

Social suffering has become a recurrent theme in various disciplines (sociology, social psychology, anthropology), but remains absent from economic analysis. The aim of our article is hence to reinstate the role of social suffering in economics. We first define the scope of the concept, which should be interpreted as a form of suffering generated by economic systems, particularly the current capitalist system. We then dismiss the objections to this conception of social suffering. In particular, we dismiss the attempt to reduce social suffering to a set of categorical phenomena that can be interpreted independently of the functioning of an economic system. Finally, we point out that lowering social suffering should take precedence over the pursuit of happiness. JEL Classification: B40, P46, A13