Theorizing Economic Miracles

Economies are socially constructed phenomena, but the idea of economic miracles, once redeemed from modernist doubt, certainly surprises and puzzles more than most. Both highly politically prized, and considered the spur behind worldscale change, such miracles enjoy exceptionally good press, and carry their appeal right through into everyday life with richly suggestive images about miraculous nations, industries, firms, technologies, products, and ‘entrepreneurial’ leader figures. Yet they remain perpetual philosophical puzzles which, despite first confounding established worldviews, stay difficult to fully demonstrate, prove, and explain along recognized lines thereafter. Key arguments over whether, where, and how they ever arise, what form and course they take, and whether they are reproducible elsewhere are therefore difficult to decipher and resolve without the guiding theorizations outlined here.