ORCID

Abstract

In recent years, most Western economies have increasingly focused on the narrow pursuit of economic growth with its unintended and undesirable impacts on the wellbeing of people and planet being well-documented. This has led to the growth in ‘alternative economics’ that addresses these critiques and proposes new economic models. However, alongside these critiques, there is another that questions the modern scientific approach underpinning economics, arguing that it overlooks the importance of lived experience, creating feelings of detachment in the economic practitioner as well as undermining the relevance and effectiveness of economics and policy making. The research develops a more responsive and reflexive approach to economic thinking and practice through tracking significant moments of experience through reflexive narrative. In so doing, it turns away from ‘analysing and measuring’ towards immersing in the experience of practicing as an economist in different situations, observing and attending to the detail, finding ways of showing others what was previously unnoticed, to bring significance to, and thus open the way for other pathways of action. Through this immersive, responsive and reflexive approach to economic practice, the research discovers experientially, key concepts in the theory of ‘Entanglement and Agential Realism’ as developed by Karen Barad. By experiential I am referring to my own experience of working as an economist and then being reflexive by relating these experiences to wider traditions of thought This experiential interpretation of ‘entanglement’ highlights how economic practices shape and ‘perform’ different economies, rather than merely describing or measuring a pre-existing reality. Importantly, this research avoids the ‘false move’ of taking these theoretical concepts from Entanglement and Agential Realism and simply applying them to economics. Rather, the findings highlight the importance of developing new ways of thinking and practicing economics that arise from within experience rather than being conceptually driven.Building on this foundation, the research distinguishes between three different approaches to economic thinking and practice [objective, relational and entangled]. Each of these approaches ‘performs’ different types of economics, shedding new light on Gross National Happiness [GNH] as a global experiment in wellbeing economies. The thesis argues that to take forward the inspiration of GNH into other countries and cultures means more than replacing GDP with GNH. It also requires shifting how we understand wellbeing from a ‘thing’ out there that can be measured and maximised, to recognising how wellbeing is related to how we perceive and respond to the world, as both separate and entangled, as both individuated and related. The thesis warns against the dangers of an ‘instrumental’ adoption of GNH that can arise by only taking forward ‘part’ of GNH, typically importing the wellbeing indicators. Rather a fundamental reorientation towards entangled economic thinking and practice is recommended to move beyond abstract ways of knowing predominant in Western economies.

Keywords

economics, entanglement, Wellbeing

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2025

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