Economics | Synthesis

Browsing » Economics

Oh Kay!

Posted by gregfisher on Oct 8th, 2011 in Blog, Economics | 2 comments

By Greg Fisher Yesterday INET published a valuable essay written by John Kay entitled “The Map is Not the Territory: An Essay on the State of Economics”. In this blog I would like to discuss how John’s essay is a useful and fair critique of the state of economics and use his framing to demonstrate […]

Why is economic growth stalling? May be it is Ricardian equivalence!

Posted by gregfisher on Aug 2nd, 2011 in Blog, Economics | 0 comments

By Paul Ormerod The British and American recoveries do seem to be stalling. The recovery profile is by no means as strong as is usually the case after recessions, even after pretty major financial crises like that of 2008/09. One of the insights of complex systems is that the impact of any particular factor may […]

Recovery is not always smooth

Posted by gregfisher on Jul 26th, 2011 in Economics | 0 comments

By Paul Ormerod There has been huge media attention about the 2011 Q2 UK GDP growth figures released today. The estimate of 0.2 per cent shows only very weak growth. It is bound to be revised either up or down as more information comes to light. But at the moment, recovery looks very weak, after […]

Keynes & Hayek – A Synthesis?

Posted by gregfisher on Jul 18th, 2011 in Economics | 1 comment

I want to argue in this post that we are now well placed to go beyond – even synthesise – the over-rehearsed debate between the Keynes and Hayek. The point I want to emphasise here is that Keynes and Hayek did the best they could with the conceptual tools they had to hand… however, we […]

Next Entries »

Blog Categories

Useful Links

Synthesis

Synthesis is a think-tank devoted to using the emerging paradigm of complex networks in the social sciences to tackle social and public policy concerns.

Over the past 20 years or so, social scientists have increasingly made use of advances in the natural sciences to make better sense of social systems. Fields such as network theory, non-linear mathematics and systems theory, which we refer to as the study of complex networks, give us much greater insights that help us make sense of social systems. Armed with a greater understanding, this collection of paradigm-changing toolboxes can help us to make better policy decisions, in the public, private, and “third” sectors.

The need for new thinking is clear. The world has changed radically over the past 30 years or so, with evolving and growing challenges for public policy at all levels - from local communities to the global domain. At the same time, dominant modes of thinking have been left wonting. Human society is now more interconnected than ever before, and this emphasises the need for understanding that accounts for networks which evolve over time. This is at the heart of Synthesis’ approach. Read more.