Peter Söderbaum

Mälardalen University

School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology

Box 883

721 23 Västerås

Sweden

E-mail: peter.soderbaum@mdh.se

Previous book

Published by Earthscan, London 2000

Ecological Economics, A Political Economics Approach to Enviroment and Development

Published by Earthscan, London 2008

Understanding Sustainability Economics, Towards Pluralism in Economics

Professional experience

2006 - Mälardalen University, School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, Professor emeritus

2000 - 2006 Mälardalen University, School of Business, Professor of Ecological Economics.

1995 - 2000 Mälardalen University, School of Business. University lecturer. Responsible for the Ecological economics undergraduate programme. This was the first Ecological Economics programme in Sweden where a large part of the courses in economics, business and environment, ecology etc. were designed specifically for the programme. Later the programme was called 'Economics for sustainable Development'.

1974-1995 Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Economics. Various appointments: docent (Associate professor), First assistant, University lecturer 1986-95. Responsible for ecological economics courses 1992-95.

1965-1974 Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies. Assistant professor, research assistant. Lecturer in marketing and consumer behaviour.

1963-1964 Uppsala University, Department of Economics. Student adviser, lecturer in international economics.

Education

1973 Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies. Thesis: Positionsanalys vid

beslutsfattande och planering. Ekonomisk analys på tvärvetenskaplig grund (Positional

Analysis for decision making and planning. An interdisciplinary approach to economic analysis)

(in Swedish with an English summary) Stockholm: Esselte Studium

1967 Licentiate thesis (fil.lic.) Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies. Thesis: Profitability of Investments and Changes in Stock of Technical Knowledge (in English) Report.

1964 M.S. (pol.mag.) Uppsala University (Political Science, Statistics, Economics, Major in Business Studies)

1962 B.A. (fil.kand.)

Present memberships

· International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE)

· European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE)

· Green Economics Institute

· Association for Social Economics

Editorial Advisory Boards

· Ecological Economics. The Journal of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE)

· Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics (JIE)

· International Journal of Ecological Economics & Statistics (IJEES)

· International Journal of Green Economics (IJGE)

· International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education

Research interests

Economics is always political economics. Economics is science but at the same time ideology (in a broad sense) and politics. As alternative to neoclassical (mainstream) Economic Man, a Political Economic Person (PEP) as actor guided by her ‘ideological orientation’ is proposed. Similarly, a Political Economic Organization (PEO) as actor guided by a ‘mission statement’ replaces exclusive focus on the neoclassical profit-maximizing firm.

An understanding of the ideological element in economics does not reduce the importance of the discipline. Sustainable Development, globalization etc. are among the subjects discussed today. But the ideological nature of economics makes the discipline subordinated to democracy. The monopoly of neoclassical economics at university Departments of Economics in most countries can no longer be defended and has to be replaced with pluralism, reflecting a larger spectrum of ideological orientations in society.

Even university scholars have their ideological orientations which has to be openly discussed and declared. In my case I try to influence other actors in the direction of Sustainability. A specific version of institutional economics, economics for Sustainable Development or ‘sustainability economics’, is considered useful. Only two sub-themes will here be mentioned:

- Positional Analysis (PA) as an approach to Sustainability Assessment. Contrary to Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), PA is a disaggregated and ethically open approach

- An actor-oriented approach to the understanding of social and institutional change processes with interpretation as a key concept.

Key words: democracy, Political Economic Person, Political Economic Organisation, actor, relationship, network, ideological orientation, disaggregated idea of economics and efficiency, fairness in market and nonmarket relationships, social responsibility, Positional Analysis for Sustainability Assessment (as an alternative to Cost-Benefit Analysis), sustainability economics, ecological ethics for public policy, strategies for business, universities and Civil Society Organisations.

Selected publications

(For a more complete list see Publications in English and C.V. (feb2010))

For publications in Swedish (feb2010)

Articles

Söderbaum P. 1999. Values, ideology and politics in ecological economics (Tenth Anniversary invited paper) Ecological Economics, Vol.28, pp. 161-170.

Söderbaum P. 2001. Political Economic Person, Ideological Orientation and Institutional Change. On competition between schemes of interpretation in economics. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, Vol.12, No. 3, pp. 179-197.

Söderbaum P. 2001. Neoclassical Economics, Institutional Theory and Democracy. CBA and its alternatives. Economic and Political Weekly, May 26, Vol. 36, No. 21, pp.1846-1854.(Mumbai, India)

Söderbaum P. 2004. Decision Processes and Decision-Making in Relation to Sustainable Development and Democracy – Where Do we Stand? Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, Vol. 14, pp. 41-60.

Söderbaum P. 2004. Democracy, Markets and Sustainable Development: The European Union as example. European Environment. The Journal of European Environmental Policy, Vol. 14, No 6 (November-December) pp. 342-355.

Söderbaum Peter, 2005. Democracy, Decision-making and Sustainable Development: dam-construction as an example. International Journal of Water, pp. 107-120.

Söderbaum Peter, 2006. Democracy and Sustainable Development. What is the Alternative to Cost-Benefit Analysis? Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management Vol.2, No.2 (April), pp. 182-190.

Söderbaum Peter, 2007. Issues of paradigm and ideology in sustainability assessment. Ecological Economics, Vol. 60, Issue 3 (January), pp. 613-626.

Söderbaum P. 2007. Science, ideology and development: is there a sustainability economics? Post-autistic economics review, issue no. 43, 15 September 2007, pp. 24-41.

Söderbaum P. 2007. Towards Sustainability Economics: Principles and Values. Journal of Bioeconomics, Vol. 9, issue 3, pp. 205-225.

Söderbaum P. 2008. Only pluralism in economics research and education is compatible with a democratic society. International Journal of Green economics, Volume 2, issue 1, pp. 29-44.

Söderbaum P. 2008. Actors, Agendas, Arenas and Institutional Change Processes: A Social Science Approach to Sustainability, Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, Vol. 19, Nos.2/3, pp. 127-151.

Söderbaum P. 2008. 10th Anniversary Focus: From mainstream ’environmental economics’ to ’sustainability economics’. On the need for new thinking, Journal of Environmental Monitoring, Vol. 10, pp. 1467-1475

Söderbaum P. 2009. Making Actors, Paradigms and Ideologies Visible in Governance for Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Vol. 17, pp. 70-81.

Söderbaum P. Science, politics and water management for sustainability: economics as example, Water International, Vol. 34, No. 4 (December), pp. 432-440.

Söderbaum P. and Judy Brown, 2010. Democratizing economics: Pluralism as a path towards sustainability. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Ecological Economics Reviews, Vol. 1185 och pp.179-185. (To be published February 2010)

Book chapters

Söderbaum P. 2001. Global ecological sustainability: the actor-network approach applied to the use ISO 14001 in the European Union. In: Thorne, Kym and Geoff Turner (eds) Global Business Regulation: Some Research Perspectives, pp. 253-269. Prentice Hall/Pearson Education, Sydney.

Söderbaum P. 2002. Business Corporations, Markets and the Globalisation of Environmental Problems. Chapter 8 in: Havila, Virpi, Mats Forsgren and Håkan Håkansson (eds) Critical Perspectives on Internationalisation, pp. 179-200. Pergamon/Elsevier Science, Oxford.

Söderbaum P. 2003. Democracy and the Need for Pluralism in Economics. Chapter in: Fullbrook, Edward (ed) The Crisis in Economics: Teaching, Practice and Ethics, pp. 94-96. Routledge, London

Söderbaum, P. 2004. Economics as ideology and the need for pluralism in economics, pp. 158-168 in Fullbrook, Edward, ed. A Guide to What’s Wrong with Economics. Anthem Press, London.

Söderbaum P. 2005. Actors, Problem Perceptions, Strategies for Sustainable Development: Water Policy in Relation to Paradigms, Ideologies and Institutions. Chapter 4, pp. 81-111 in Biswas, Asit and Cecilia Tortajada (eds) Appraising Sustainable Development. Water Management and Environmental Challenges. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Söderbaum P. 2005. Valuation as part of a Microeconomics for Ecological Sustainability. Chapter 3, pp. 88-108 in Kumar Pushpam (ed.) Economics of Environment & Development. Ane Books, New Delhi.

Söderbaum P. 2006. Is there a ‘Sustainability Economics’? On the roles and responsibilities of actors in the academia. pp. 245-255 in: Björn Frostell (editor) Science for Sustainable Development. Starting Points and Critical Reflections. (Proceedings of the 1^st VHU conference on Science for Sustanable Development, Västerås, Sweden, April 14-16, 2005). CEMUS, Uppsala. First Conference of the VHU association in Sweden (Vetenskap för hållbar utveckling), April 14-16, at Mälardalen University, Västerås.

Söderbaum P. 2007. The Nobel Prize in Economics – a barrier to new thinking, pp. 81-83 in: Edward Fullbrook, editor, Real World Economics: A Post-autistic Economics Reader. Anthem Press, London.

Söderbaum P. 2007. Paradigms, democracy and globalization. The role of actors, language and ideology in institutional change, pp. 34-61 in Lapka M. J. S. Rikoon and E. Cudlínova, editors, Is Globalization Overpowering Democracy? The Challenge for Ecology, Economy and Culture. Prague, Dokoran Publisher.

Söderbaum P. 2008. Economics as Ideology and the Need for Pluralism. Chapter 7, pp. 117-127 in Edward Fullbrook editor, Pluralist Economics. Zed Books, London.

Söderbaum P. 2009. Science, Ideology and Sustainable Development. An Actor-Oriented Approach, pp. 125-136 in Cecilia Tortajada, editor, Water Management in 2020 and Beyond. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.

Söderbaum P. 2009. Sustainability Economics, pp. 181-198 in Jack Reardon, editor, The Handbook of Pluralist Economics Education. Routledge, London.

Internet publications

Söderbaum P. 1986. Beslutsunderlag. Ensidiga eller allsidiga utredningar? (Approaches to decision-making. One-sided or many-sided impact studies?) Pp. 1-196, Doxa-Ekonomi, Lund

http://www.eki.mdh.se/personal/psm01/beslutsunderlag.pdf

Söderbaum P. 2002. Democracy and the need for pluralism in economics. Post-autistic economics review: Issue no 11, January, article 4. http://www.btinternet.com/~pae_news/review/issue11.htm

Söderbaum P. 2004. Politics and Ideology in Ecological Economics. In: International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) Internet Encyclopaedia for Ecological Economics.

http://www.ecoeco.org/pdf/politics_ideology.pdf

Söderbaum P.2004. The Nobel Prize in Economics – barrier for new thinking. post-autistic economics review, issue no.28, 25 October 2004, article 5, http://www.btinternet.com/~pae_news/review/issue28.htm

Söderbaum P. 2007. Science, ideology and development: is there a sustainability economics? Post-autistic economics review, issue no. 43, 15 September 2007, pp. 24-41.

http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue43/Soderbaum43.pdf

Updated: 2010-02-02