<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/spain miners.thumbnail.jpeg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="67" /></span>Modern economics assumes that human beings are fundamentally self-interested. This essay will challenge that assumption, drawing in part on the ideas of Karl Polanyi, Marcel Mauss, Luigino Bruni and Stefano Zamagni. By contrast with the idea of the self-interested homo oeconomicus (central to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations), my argument is that humans are more relational, ‘gift-exchanging animals’ who are naturally disposed to cooperate for mutual benefit. In the following I will attempt to show how such an alternative anthropology can translate into a ‘civil economy’ and transformative policy ideas: rebuilding our economy and embedding welfare in communities.</p>
<div class="image-clear"></div><p><a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-07-24/building-civil-economy">read more</a></p>