This paper uses the theory of complex systems as a conceptual lens through which to compare the work of Friedrich Hayek and Vincent and Elinor Ostrom. It is well known that, from the 1950s onwards, Hayek conceptualised the market as a complex adaptive system. It is argued in this paper that,...

This paper explores how a consideration of ontological issues - that is, issues concerned the nature of social reality - informed Elinor Ostrom's analysis of the possibility that local communities can successfully govern common property resources. It is suggested that several ontological issues...

Historians of economic thought are paying greater attention to issues of social ontology (that is, to the assumptions that economists make about the nature of social reality). In this paper, we contribute to this burgeoning literature by exploring the hitherto neglected way in which James...

This paper offers an immanent critique of Peter Boettke's recent book, 'F.A. Hayek: : Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy'. That is to say, it takes some of the goals Boettke sets out to achieve and suggests how they might have been pursued more effectively. Issues addressed...

Tony Lawson has long advocated an ‘ontological turn' in the history of economic thought. This essay aims to contribute towards that goal by considering how one aspect of the methodology adopted of a prominent heterodox economist was informed by ontological considerations. The economist is...

Hayek's later work on the possibility of socio-economic order in decentralized market economies is an exercise in contrastive causal explanation as conceptualized by realist social theorists and philosophers. This interpretation of Hayek's work lends support to the view that Hayek's post-1960...

In this paper, we analyse Hayek’s views on endogenous preferences. Perhaps surprisingly in the light of his remarks that economists ought to take people’s preferences as given, there are several places in Hayek’s economics and political economy where preference endogeneity plays a...

This paper examines the question of whether social institutions should be treated as possessing the sui generis causal power to influence people's actions. It does so by means of a case study of the work of the Austrian economist Ludwig Lachmann. Lachmann's account of how social institutions...

This paper outlines the development of Hayek's account of the working of decentralised economies, focusing in particular on his move away from using the notion of economic equilibrium towards an emphasis on the notion of 'order'