Prospects for a heterodox economics of the environment and sustainability

Abstract

This paper introduces a Special Issue on heterodox economics of the environment and sustainability. At present, humanity faces several challenges, such as resource scarcity, biodiversity loss and climate change. And yet, we would argue, contributions from traditional ‘heterodox’ schools of thought, such as post-Keynesianism, Marxism and (to a lesser extent) institutionalism, have had relatively little to say about them. Instead the economic analysis of environmental issues has been dominated by approaches inspired by neoclassical economics; and latterly by ‘ecological economics’. The Special Issue is part of an effort to stimulate more heterodox work on the environment, and to explore connections between existing groups of scholars, particularly between ‘ecological’ and ‘heterodox’ economists.