[Recap] – Celebrating 1 year of Embodied Economics!

One year ago, I launched this newsletter with excitement and some trepidation. There are so many brilliant writers and thinkers on the interwebs today, and the world is awash in hot takes and commentary.

I wanted Embodied Economics to be a place for deeper reflections on the role of economic thinking and policy-making on all of our lives. The paradigms which underpin the structures we inhabit, the hidden narratives and assumptions which shape our worlds. I've been grateful and humbled at how many of you have joined me in these explorations...and how cool your work is!

In my very first post, I said "How we construct monetary and economic systems is as much a function of how we want to trade, as it is an expression about our cultural, philosophical, and even religious and spiritual views about who we are as a species and our relationship to the cosmos." In my earlier life, I seriously considered seminary. Instead, I went to business school. I've come to see these inquiries as not so wildly different after all.

In the first year of this publication, we've covered topics like:

    • The slippery definition of economic value, and how any attempt to concretely describe it is similar to the difficulty scientists have in defining what constitutes life. LINK

    • How our conception of "profit" has evolved and changed over time, complicating simplistic win/win narratives about profit and impact, and how we can redefine "profit" to better suit our needs in the future. LINK

    • How the politicized proxy wars of corporations "wokeness" reveal deeper issues in our economic and political systems – problems that are solvable with reviving small 'd' democracy and citizen engagement. LINK

    • What starlings, ant colonies, and consciousness can teach economists – that systems are complex, adaptive, and non-linear. As the father of complexity economics, W. Brian Arthur has said, "Complexity economics sees the economy not as mechanistic, static, timeless and perfect but as organic, always creating itself, alive and full of messy vitality.” LINK

    • That the term 'democratizing access' has become a vague meme, which often masks attempts to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of investors. LINK

    • That we've "drifted from having a market economy to being a market society" and, that it is time to consider afresh the philosophical and moral questions which underpin how markets are shaped. LINK

And much more. (LINK to all posts). I've also subjected you all to my poetry on occasion. Thanks for indulging me.

Next year, I'd like to experiment with shorter, more frequent pieces while also doing occasional deeper dives. I'd love to hear from readers what you've most enjoyed, or why you subscribe, and how I can make this space more interesting and useful to you. Reach out anytime at: hello [at] embodiedecon [dot] com.

Thanks for being here.

Denise