Representing the economy: Economic lifeworlds in social and political theory

Economic representations refer to the ways in which the economy and our economic lives are portrayed and understood in social and political theory. This means different economic representations shape different theoretical outcomes. Much social and political theory however is shaped by its monistic representations of economy. How does critical social theory represent the economy? And, how do these economic representations shape ideas about social and economic change and justice?;Jurgen Habermas's critical social and political theory depicts the economy as a self-regulating market-capitalist system seen as distinct if not separate from all moral, social, and cultural areas of our lives. I argue that Habermas's theory of communicative action typifies this dualistic formula of economic monism, as I call it. Habermasian economic representations inadequately represent diverse economic practices and confine how we think about and enable social and economic justice. I therefore gradually reconfigure and replace the dualistic formula of economic monism with more complex economic representations.;Axel Honneth's critical social theory marks an important first step in dismantling the Habermasian dualistic formula of economic monism. His pluralistic vision of economy shapes his pluralistic vision of social justice. I also visit critiques of economic monism from critical economists such as Duncan Foley, J.K. Gibson-Graham, Robert Heilbroner, William Milberg, David Ruccio, feminist economists, and others. I present some of their strategies in rejecting the same classical and neoclassical economic depictions that I think Habermasian economic monism reproduces. In the final three chapters, I offer Gibson-Graham's (1996, 2006) alternative representations of economic difference in which I also claim diverse economic lifeworlds thrive. I envision the economic lifeworld as antithetical to the Habermasian dualistic formula of economic monism.;With composite data, cases, and the economic life of a fictional character, I show that the diverse economy is significantly constituted by noncapitalist and alternative-capitalist enterprises, unpaid and alternative-paid work, and nonmarket and alternative-markets that are variously formed and integrated with lifeworld values and practices. This heterogeneity of everyday economic practices offers more credible and critical economic accounts that furthermore enable social and economic justice. Here, George DeMartino and Amartya Sen support my assertion that complex economic representations can be mutually constructed with complex social and economic justice theories. J.K. Gibson-Graham and Erik Olin Wright inspire two closing points: that many economic lifeworld practices are at once social and economic justice practices and that theorizing existing economic lifeworlds takes the most critical and transformative path.