Albert Hirschman: a celebration

Abstract

The article is the opening address at the Conference “Albert Hirschman scienziato sociale” held in Rome on the 6th May 2014 at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and at the presence of the President of Italian Republic, Sen. Giorgio Napolitano. A previous version of this article was published in Italian and available on line on Moneta e Credito, 2014, vol. 67, issue 266, pages 159–165 (http://ojs.uniroma1.it/index.php/monetaecredito/index). In this article the author traces the cultural and political environment of Hirschman stating that he "was a formidable enemy of the narrow lines of reasoning called 'the economic approach', which had—and still has—much following among many economists and some sociologists, who celebrate economics as a 'conquering discipline'. Rather than having social studies influenced by the emaciated understanding of economics that has weakened economics itself, Hirschman was keen on enriching economics by incorporating social, political and cultural considerations".