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Human Dimensions of Ecological Restoration pp 191–206Cite as

Merging Economics and Ecology in Ecological Restoration

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Part of the book series: Society for Ecological Restoration ((SPER))

Abstract

The late Kenneth Boulding contended, “Mathematics brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately it also brought mortis.” Although it would be fair to say that economics is not the only discipline suffering from this type of rigor mortis, the public’s disappointment with mainstream economic theory has been more pronounced because of mainstream economic failures in solving real-life problems (Blag 1998; Wilson 1998; Gowdy 2000). Even the 1996 Nobel Laureate of Economics, William Vickrey, dismissed his prize-winning 1961 paper as “one of my digressions into abstract economics…..At best, it’s of minor significance in terms of human welfare” (Cassidy 1996, 50). Is the future of the dismal science that dismal?We argue not, precisely because of the earlier self-reflections prompted by the chorus of critics. “Those scholars working on the frontiers of economics have firmly put behind them the inward-looking reductionism” and, as a result, economics is enjoying a “remarkable creative renaissance” refocusing its efforts to help solve real-life problems (Coyle 2007).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

    Yeon-Su Kim

  2. Northern Arizona University, Anchorage, Alaska, USA

    Evan E. Hjerpe

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  1. Yeon-Su Kim
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  2. Evan E. Hjerpe
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Correspondence to Yeon-Su Kim .

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Dave Egan Evan E. Hjerpe Jesse Abrams

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© 2011 Island Press

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Kim, YS., Hjerpe, E.E. (2011). Merging Economics and Ecology in Ecological Restoration. In: Egan, D., Hjerpe, E.E., Abrams, J. (eds) Human Dimensions of Ecological Restoration. Society for Ecological Restoration. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-039-2_14

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