Integral Economics. Part 1: Understanding our Economic Institutions

This e-learning presentation offers an Integral economic framework to help differentiate fundamentalist approaches to economics from decidedly more sophisticated economic policies. It is argued that economic policies are often generated in the context of friction between fundamentalist conservative and liberal tendencies. For progress on several issues of economic concern today, Part 1 of this program aims to raise the level of debate to include more sophisticated versions of conservative and liberal approaches. Also covered is a quadrant analysis of liberal and conservative economic ideologies, an integral approach to capital, the prevalent conflation of sophisticated and fundamentalist policies, and the impact of shadow dynamics on our collective approach to economics.

Other Pieces in This Series:

Part 2: Understanding the Global Financial Crisis (Coming Soon!)

When applying an Integral approach to economics and the current global financial crisis, we see that fundamentalist tendencies from both the conservative and liberal sides of economic policy-making played a crucial role in creating the conditions for the crisis. If understood and embodied with pressure on policy-making, an integral economic view can help turn the current economic crisis into an opportunity for an elevated exchange for compromise among sophisticated conservative and liberal viewpoints.