Orthodox economics has long come in for criticism regarding its presumptions about the world, especially those regarding human decision-making. The question is, if economics is to become more empirically attuned to real-world behaviour, how should it seek to do so? Equally importantly, to what extent does it draw on existing power structures (including some of questionable legitimacy) to acquire more fine-grained behavioural insight, and if so, how can it then offer any critical feedback to those structures, if at all?

It was these sorts of questions that motivated the agenda for the third Spaces of Evidence Seminar, held at Goldsmiths, University of London on 26th September 2014. The seminar was entitled Trials and Tribulations of Economics: New Directions for Economic Policy Evidence, and brought together economists, policy thinkers and sociologists. Here I offer some reflections and thematic summary, drawing on what was discussed over the course of the day (1). Continue Reading →