The Paradigms of Economic Lenses and Problems (Economic Cluster Development)

The way we see and understand economics changes with time as new information and tools come available. We have moved from state-based problems to market problems and onto civil based problems. Mathematics is one factor that has influence on some of those perspective (Bowels, et. al. 2024). Other aspects include sociological changes that influence people's behaviors. What comes next is open to debate, but each helps to solve societal problems as societies are in flux states of development (Sociology and Economics are related to human behavior).

Society experiences problems that change over time we will naturally also change the type of problems researchers are trying to solve. Failure to adjust means economics becomes stagnant and increasingly useless. As new information comes available, we are also likely to move again into new paradigms of understanding. For example, I have indicated with my cluster research that economics is shifting to a big data digital era approach based on greater feedback loops that allows us to tweak our management.

While we develop new understandings one should not neglect the older paradigms of state, market and civil economics because they are part of understanding the same problem through different lenses. That gives us insight into understand what a newer era will bring in theoretical development. The more information becomes available, the more we are going to shift how we view the economic environment and the problems we want to solve. 

(I'm engaged in investigating economic clusters that help us understand tightly woven economies with much more information available to decisions makers and are often ahead of the market. Thus, economic clusters provide an opportunity to test and develop ideas that are likely to influence economic policy and outcomes. New societal problems need new perspective and the type of information available will impact those choices.)

 You can read Civil society comes of age in economics: Tracking a century of research

Key points:

-Economic lenses chage over time.

-Information and science influence economic theory.

-Economic theory is designed to solve current societal problems.

Samuel Bowles et al, Civil society comes of age in economics: Tracking a century of research, Economics Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.112070

Source: Bowles, 2024