Tara Natarajan

The Social Fabric Matrix Approach to Policy Analysis: An Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the Social Fabric Matrix approach to policy analysis (SFM-A) as laid out in Hayden (2006). This chapter is better understood as a “how to” chapter rather than as a more traditional summary or discussion of the rest of the contributions in the volume. The chapter describes the foundations of the SFM-A approach in general systems theory and instrumentalist philosophy. It then describes the process of building an SFM, and presents extensions of the SFM-A to normative systems analysis, analysis of time and timeliness, quantitative modeling, and social indicators. The chapter concludes with a brief summary of the rest of the chapters.

Rigidities, Living Conditions, and Institutions in the Far North

The remoteness and geography of Alaska create service access rigidities that are difficult to overcome. The delivery of basic services like healthcare, police protection, and justice are often inadequate in rural places. The continued employment of neoclassical assumptions in policy making is a primary reason policies fail to overcome the barriers. A broader scope of analysis can inform the issues faced by rural residents and provide insight into alternate solutions.

Institutions and Values: A Methodological Inquiry

Abstract: Economics entails a study of institutions regardless of the school of thought, and it is inherently an analysis of institutional transformation with a vision toward creating positive social change through economic arrangements. However, the conceptions of institutions, identity of individuals, human nature as it pertains to economics, identification of the economic sphere, its concerns, and studying its evolution, all vary substantively across schools of thought. We examine the following issues: (i) the differences in the ontological identity of the individual between heterodox approaches, new institutional economics (NIE), and the neoclassical school; (ii) the central point of divergence between original institutional economics (OIE) and NIE, despite both schools being committed to the project of an “institutionally” centered approach to economics; and (iii) the absence of a cohesive project to explore foundational theoretical congruencies among those heterodox approaches that have a shared vision, values, and a common ontological identity of socially embedded people.

Formal Methods for Integrated Socioeconomic Analysis: An Introduction to the Special Issue

I am pleased to bring you this special issue of the Forum for Social Economics devoted to exploring formal methods that can be used to delineate and analyze socioeconomic complexity using holistic and integrated frameworks. Examples of such frameworks are: The social fabric matrix approach (SFM-A), originally social fabric matrix (Hayden, 1982, 2006), institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework (Ostrom, 2005), systems dynamics (SD) (Forrester, 1968, 1985), and more recently, agent-based computational modeling (ABM) (Chen, 2012; Elsner et al., 2014 Chapter 9). I will briefly discuss the SFM-A and IAD frameworks, first, in order to provide the context for a synopsis of the articles in this special issue.

Enriching undergraduate economics: curricular and pedagogical integration of heterodox approaches from within

In exploring the importance of integrating heterodox economics into undergraduate economic education this article justifies taking an approach that is both non-divisive and programmatically integrative in a department in order to have an enduring curricular and institutional impact. Critiques of mainstream economics commonly pertain to the inherent narrowness of thought, concomitant methodology, methods, and practice. The author therefore focuses on both pedagogy and curriculum to argue for an approach that (a) methodically broadens the content of core courses while maintaining common departmental curricular goals, (b) develops a variety of conceptually strong upper-level heterodox field courses, and (c) prepares students to explore a diversity of topics for senior theses using relevant heterodox methodologies. Taking a consciously non-divisive and integrative approach that seeks to methodically broaden economic thought and practice by focusing on overall programmatic integration helps to build bridges both within ones department and more broadly in the discipline. This paper uses a curricular map and examples from the authors course content to illustrate integrating heterodox economics into an existing program. The final section provides examples from student research in economics that have made use of non-reductionist methodologies. While making observations about constraints in sustaining such an approach, the paper strongly argues that there is a greater possibility of creating a stronger identity for heterodox approaches with conceptual rigor, if developed not in deliberate opposition to the mainstream or any other approach.

Indian Agriculture in a Liberalized Landscape: The Interlocking of Science, Trade Liberalization, and State Policy

Mainstream macroeconomic policy in India has sought to alleviate rural poverty and food insecurity by expanding agricultural production, providing agricultural credit through a national agricultural banking system, programs of employment generation to alleviate income poverty, and some state-level midday meal schemes at schools. The green revolution was introduced in the late sixties, making India food self-sufficient at the national level. Even as the country accumulated buffer stocks of food, problems of hunger and starvation nevertheless persisted at the individual, household, village, and regional levels. Beginning in the late nineteen eighties, India gradually began to adopt market friendly policies. The economic crisis in 1991 set India on a path of fast track liberalization and structural adjustment resulting in comprehensive initiatives by the Government to promote the industrialization of agriculture. The government has opened up contract farming, food processing, horticulture, value added agricultural products, export crops, and biotechnology, and has allowed private corporations to invest in agriculture. This rapid industrialization is a transformative process. The social fabric matrix approach demonstrates this process where trade liberalization, scientific research, agricultural policy, and the ideology of neo-liberalism are interlocking agents shaping the contemporary industrialization of agriculture in India today. Thus, in the context of a liberalizing India, the concept of transformation replaces the term development and helps to focus our attention on a detailed understanding of the interactive institutional process of change in agriculture. The question continues to be whether or not the contemporary expansion of the agrarian sector through industrialization has served in preventing the ever-present problem of endemic hunger that nearly 320 million Indians still face.