Prospects for a heterodox economics of the environment and sustainability

This paper introduces this special issue on heterodox economics of the environment and sustainability. At present humanity faces several challenges, such as resource scarcity, biodiversity loss and climate change. And yet, we would argue, contributions from traditional 'heterodox' schools of thought such as Post Keynesianism, Marxism and (to a lesser extent) Institutionalism have had relatively little to say about them. Instead, as discussed below, economic analysis of environmental issues has been dominated by approaches inspired by neoclassical economics; and latterly by 'ecological economics'. This special issue is part of an effort to stimulate more heterodox work on the environment, and to explore connections between existing groups of scholars; particularly between 'ecological' and 'heterodox' economists. The papers gathered in this special issue and their authors reflect different traditions but appear to share some ways of thinking. The papers in the special issue display the vigour and variety within heterodox approaches to the environment and sustainability. The papers themselves are summarised briefly in section 3, and referred to in other sections. Prior to that, section 2 attempts to summarise the state of play in the economics of the environment, and then proposes a conceptual map of contemporary 'ecological economics'.