Economic Freedom and Cultural Flourishing: A Praxeological Account on Value, Capital, Sustainability, and Identity

A theory of cultural “value, capital, and sustainability†(as core economic concepts) is just a subset of the general economic theory. The “cultural†epithet cannot generate independent epistemic effects, even though the mainstream economics of culture assumes the “cultural value†, “cultural capital†, “cultural sustainability†as special realities, requiring special treatment. But if the cultural aspect can underline something “special†, then, starting from some common definitions of culture, pointing to “a set of shared values, preferences, beliefs†, we are dealing with subjective preferences demonstrable in action, with voluntary inter-personal relations, and with clearly defined property rights, since cultural mark is imprinted on various material supports as scarce resources. This paper takes an Austrian School praxeological route in cultural economics. The peculiarity of the proposed research line lies in demonstrating how such praxeological analysis may explain the fecundity of the cultural realm, as an expression of exercising the human freedom in society, by voluntarily sharing its seeds and fruits. Thus, the praxeological test of culture-making-of is meant to reveal institutional situations that do not meet the genuine cultural value exigency, nor the idea of cultural reproducibility, nor the idea of cultural survival, since they rely not on free and fair human (inter)action, but on violent and wasteful redistributions and privileges (aka support and protection).