The Political Economy of Gunnar Myrdal: Transcending Dilemmas Post-2008

The intellectual trajectory of Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish Nobel Laureate economist, sociologist, and politician, brings us through many of the major issues in the world economy and politics of the 20th century. This new volume explores Myrdal’s work on three major themes:

breaking away from conventional assumptions in Political Economy (and highlighting flaws that can still be found in today’s teachings on Political Economy);

finding ways of re-creating Europe after WW II, including the discussions between liberal Americans and European social democrats on how to create a more cooperative and socially just international order;

and understanding the impact or environmental concerns on growth and development, starting with Myrdal’s participation in the first UN Conference on Environment in Stockholm 1960 and continuing with his later writings.

What is then the relevance of these themes today? In times when financial crisis threatens to block international and domestic economies, when the European Union’s promises of prosperity and cooperation seems to be severely threatened and when there is a large consensus that current modes of economic development are ecologically unsustainable: can we find ways of transcending seemingly intractable dilemmas? These questions will be discussed in the final part of the book.