Page 59 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

36 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

We follow a historical but yet a “new paradigm” today to economic theory.
In other words, our approach to the science of economics is an entirely
different paradigm. Our approach argues that the current conventional neo-
classical paradigm including economic revisionism with its focus on perfect
information in a balanced equilibrium system is the basis of economic theory
today and is fundamentally wrong. Even some of the more popular books on
the earth being flat, global or different (“Freakonomics”), are all based on the
conventional neoclassical economic paradigm that is nonscientific.
Adam Smith, under the objectivist paradigm along with his followers to
this day notes that the basis for business is barter and exchange. In fact, they
are adamantly opposed to a Lifeworld view of economics. The objectivist’s
paradigm in a preemass production globalized world provides little guidance
in terms of uneven economic growth and clearly substantive problems with
understanding the needs of developing nations. Instead, it argues that “market
forces” and business in general can innovate and hence meet new challenges.
Yet that neoclassical economic perspective is part of the problem as it only
considers supply and demand in quantifiable statistics.
For example, how does “climate change” enter into the conventional
economic paradigm? It does not because climate change at the United Nations
or the US, and the EU international levels require extensive government
involvement, public policy, standards, regulations, and controls that can be set
and monitored. Indeed, that is the message gaining prominence globally, as all
but three nations (one of which was the United States) signed the Kyoto
Accords. What is interesting about this issue is that the conventional neo-
classical perspective would rather deny the science of global warming and
ignore the economic needs for combating climate change. This has been the
position of most economists such that their answer is that the “market forces”
will correct the problem. The code concept for neoclassic economics is to label
the global energy crises as a “perfect storm” (sic), which makes it ironic in the
context of global warming and now the climate and weather changes experi-
enced globally. Only since science has almost unanimously confirmed global
warming, have economist sought other ideas.

THE PARADIGM SHIFT: ECONOMICS AS A SCIENCE
Business activities are a part of our everyday world, and the phenomenon of
business presents itself in many ways, forms, and shapes. Business is a large
part of our everyday life, and business is life itself, often helping to define who
we are and what we do. We interact with people not only in daily conversa-
tions but also in just living, that is, going to work, driving on a highway,
studying in school, attending a lecture or movie, and going on a holiday. Life
for us as individuals and everyone around us is interaction with others in one
form or another.