Transforming Economics from the Side Lane? The New Economy Space and its Think Tanks

Contemporary societies face a persistent polycrisis in which socioeconomic, ecological, technological, and geopolitical challenges intersect and reinforce each other. This volatility exposes the limitations of linear, mono-paradigmatic responses and places new demands on the production and circulation of knowledge. This is also true for economic matters, policies and rationales: While mainstream economics remains characterised by abstraction, disciplinary closure, and expertocratic policy advisory, an alternative ecosystem has emerged, also in the German-speaking world: the New Economy Space (NES). This article reconstructs the NES as a boundary-spanning dispositif of knowledge production that combines critical resources from pluralist economics with broader societal trends towards transdisciplinarity and impact orientation. Drawing on interviews, organisational documents, and observations of networking events, the study identifies three defining features of NES knowledge production: the continuous establishment of agile addresses, a pronounced orientation towards political impact, and the organisation of transversality across fields. NES think tanks thereby translate heterogeneous knowledges and normative positions into strategically crafted interventions for policymakers, media, and civil society. The article situates NES practices in contrast to academic economics and highlights their potential to reshape the epistemic and institutional foundations of economic expertise. It concludes by reflecting on the implications of this emerging model for the future of economics as a science and as a mode of public intervention.