Cultural catallactics

Abstract

In response to Israel Kirzner’s claim that “culture lies outside the scope of economic theory itself,” Storr advances a compelling vision of market processes in which price changes, profit/loss signals, and constitutional rules do their work only when refracted through culturally specific webs of meaning. Yet Storr provides few details about the analytic structure or consequences of his alternative approach and ultimately no answer to the Kirznerian question of how, or how fully, a culture-infused market process would eliminate incoherence of plans. Storr’s focus on the competing spirits that animate particular markets is congenial to Ludwig Lachmann’s emphasis on diverse interpretative frames through which individuals decode market signals. If pursued, the nascent Weber-Schütz-Lachmann trajectory of Storr’s cultural catallactics would showcase the distinctive strengths of the Austrian hermeneutic tradition as a radical alternative to the culturally disembedded Walrasian/Kirznerian market.