{"id":1012,"date":"2007-02-15T08:54:14","date_gmt":"2007-02-15T16:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2007\/02\/buddhist_economics\/"},"modified":"2007-02-15T08:54:14","modified_gmt":"2007-02-15T16:54:14","slug":"buddhist_economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/buddhist_economics.php","title":{"rendered":"Buddhist Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Managers of all sorts of social enterprise (nonprofit, public, commercial, coop, whatever) often find themselves stuck between the laws of economics and the goals of social good. Economic theory explores the mechanics of value creation and value transfer among individuals and throughout social systems. As such, it certainly should inform our strategies and tactics in advancing our organization’s work. But economics often sets aside the ”values” that bring us to our jobs each day — truth, beauty, fulfillment of personal potential, social justice, human expression, and human dignity.<\/p>\n

As a result, managing a social venture can feel like swimming in a riptide, because we’re trying to advance a non-commercial cause in a highly commercial world.<\/p>\n

Enter Buddhist Economics<\/a>, an effort to combine the ”physics” of economic theory with the larger ”meta-physics” that shape human existence. The combination is not intended as an academic party game, or an amusing oxymoron (like ”military intelligence,” or ”jumbo shrimp”), but rather as a more holistic response to the needs of social systems:<\/p>\n


\nIf economists were to stop evading the issue of moral values, they would be in a better position to influence the world in a fundamental way and to provide solutions to the problems of humanity and the world at large. Ideally, economics should play a part in providing mankind with opportunities for real individual and social growth rather than simply being a tool for catering to selfish needs and feeding contention in society, and, on a broader scale, creating imbalance and insecurity within the whole global structure with its innumerable ecosystems.
\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The idea of merging economic theory and Buddhist principals traces back to a series of essays by E. F. Schumacher in 1973 entitled Small is Beautiful<\/i><\/a>, an early effort by a serious economist to inject ”sustainability” goals into an otherwise value-neutral social science. It seeks to suggest that moral behavior, ethics, and consideration of the larger good, should not be tacked on or sidelined in economic analysis, but integrated.<\/p>\n

I’m not a Buddhist, nor have I studied Buddhism extensively, so others will have to tell me if these documents are fair and true to the larger belief system. And I’m as wary as anyone when I hear the phrase “moral values” — a phrase co-opted by many these days.<\/p>\n

But as the director of an MBA program that straddles the worlds of economics and social benefit, I definitely appreciate the effort to align the two. Says Ven. P. A. Payutto:<\/p>\n


\n…in the end, a truly beneficial life is only possible when the individual, society and the environment serve each other. If there is conflict between any of these spheres, the result will be problems for all.
\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks, Colin, for uttering the phrase that led me here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Managers of all sorts of social enterprise (nonprofit, public, commercial, coop, whatever) often find themselves stuck between the laws of economics and the goals of social good. Economic theory explores the mechanics of value creation and value transfer among individuals and throughout social systems. As such, it certainly should inform our strategies and tactics in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}