Why a Social Economics?

Abstract

This essay is largely reflective. It is an attempt to answer the ques? tion, why an organization called the Association for Social Economics exists. When it was originally founded as the Catholic Economic So? ciety, the rationale for its existence was obvious. But why a Social Economics? What differentiates us from the AEA? In a recent issue of the Review of Social Economy, we were offered several differing insights into this question. This paper, then, is but another attempt in that direction, to find the identifying badge of social economics. I believe that identifying badge should be an active concern for current socio-economic problems that arise from the inadequacies of the status quo, and the use of analysis, not to rationalize the status quo, but to find practical alternatives to it. Thus, the first social economist was Adam Smith. His monumental work is clearly characterized by what I believe should be our identify? ing badge: he identified an immediate socio-economic problem that stemmed from a defect in the status quo, and offered an alternative to correct that defect. Laissez faire was his alternative for the future. As a method of social inquiry, this was an excellent beginning. Un? fortunately, it was only a beginning, for early in our evolution toward becoming a socially-meaningful discipline, we came to a major fork in the road. While I believe we took the wrong one, the alternatives were clearly and succinctly presented to us by those two early giants,