"Economics and ecology are almost alike\, but do they neglect one another?"
Discussed by
\n\nMikko Mö\;nkkö\;nen (Professor in Applied Ecology\, University of Jyvä\;skylä\;)
\nOlli Tahvonen (Professor of Forest Economics and Policy\, University of Helsinki)
\n\nmoderated by Uskali Mä\;ki (Academy professor\, University of Helsinki)
Time: Monday 14 October\, 14-16
Place: Metsä\;talo/Forest Building\, Unioninkatu 40\, room 6\, 3rd floor
AID is the new forum for interdisciplinary conversation coordinated by the Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences\, University of Helsinki. For the very idea and the programme\, check http://www.helsinki.fi/tint/aid.htm
For further information\, please contact Pekka Mä\;kelä\;\, pekka.a.makela@helsinki.fi
TOPIC of the session:
\nEconomics is a study of human market systems and interactions between its components such as consumers\, firms and industries. Ecology is a study of interactions of organisms\, populations and communities\, with their biotic and abiotic environment. Both try to understand how the systems work as a whole and study the allocation of scarce resources among alternative\, competing ends.
Not surprisingly these disciplines have developed models with many similarities. One branch of research where the efforts of these fields explicitly overlap is the question of managing natural resources and the value of ecosystem services.
Interdisciplinary research has produced interesting results especially when researchers apply commensurable analytical methods. Still many tensions exist. According to the leading textbook in ecology present economic reasoning leads to disdainful treatment of the hungry mouths of the future and thus a new economics must be forged. From the economics point of view the frequently repeated failure in ecological reasoning is the attempt to treat human-nature interaction without appropriate economic concepts with the consequence that the policy recommendations become socially infeasible. The critics of natural resource economics postulates that it simplifies ecological systems to a collection of consumable resources and that monetary valuation of &ldquo\;nature&rdquo\; purely on the flow of human benefits ignores fundamental questions of sustainability.
This discussion sets out to clarify these and other similar issues between these disciplines.
The QUESTIONS the debate will address include the following:
- What are the similarities between economics and ecology?
- What are the relevant differences between them?
- What's the traditional critique of economics by ecologists?
- Do ecology textbooks misrepresent economics?
- Is ecology itself deficient in ignoring economic considerations?
- How can ecology and economics be brought in closer collaboration with one another?