Decolonizing Economics

Decolonization has long been debated across the social sciences, but the economics discipline has so far avoided such critical engagement. This book provides a much-needed intervention.

Dutt, Alves, Kesar, and Kvangraven uncover the deeply Eurocentric foundations that shape how economists study the world today. These have rendered the discipline ill-equipped to tackle critical questions, such as structural racism, uneven development, the climate crisis, labour relations, and how structural power shapes economic outcomes. Decolonizing economics entails challenging the norms of neutrality and objectivity that economists claim to speak from, while fostering alternative ways of understanding the economy that take seriously structural power relations and contemporary processes of economic development. Readers will come to understand the political stakes of decolonization and the wide range of scholarship that already exists that can help us grasp economics from non-Eurocentric perspectives. Through such scholarship, we can gain an enriched understanding of capitalism and its relationship to exploitation, colonialism, and racialization.

The author order is randomized. All authors contributed equally to the book.

Prologue: Why this book? Why now?

Part I: Eurocentrism in Economics
1: Introduction
2: The Foundations of a Eurocentric Discipline
3: Colonization of the Discipline: From Political Economy to Contemporary Economics
4: Development Economics: A Failed Attempt to Break from Colonial Roots

Part II: Decolonizing Economics
5: Heterodox Economics and the Decolonization Agenda
6: Towards a Decolonization Agenda
7: Exploring the decolonization agenda
8: What Is to Be Done?
9: Conclusion

Notes
References
Index “A timely and long-awaited book produced by a brilliant quartet of leading economists.”
Ndongo Samba Sylla, International Development Economics Associates and coauthor of Africa’s Last Colonial Currency

“In this highly intelligent and rigorous book, the authors critically examine the Eurocentric nature of mainstream economics and discuss how the discipline can be 'decolonized' from its conceptual foundation so that it serves all humanity, rather than the interests of rich countries and a small group of global elites. It is a timely and courageous book that will fundamentally change the way we see the world.”
Ha-Joon Chang, SOAS University of London, and author of Economics: The User's Guide and Edible Economics Devika Dutt is Lecturer in Development Economics at King’s College London.
Carolina Alves is Associate Professor in Economics at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) at University College London, and a Fellow in Economics at Girton College, University of Cambridge.
Surbhi Kesar is Senior Lecturer in Economics at SOAS, University of London.
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven is Senior Lecturer in International Development at King’s College London.