"Mainstream economics offers a perspective on the gift which is constructed around exchange, axioms of self-interest, instrumental rationality and utility-maximisation - concepts that predominate within conventional forms of economic analysis. Recognising the gift as an example of social...

Is there a moral economy of capitalism? The term "moral economy" was coined in pre-capitalist times and does not refer to economy as we know it today. It was only in the nineteenth century that economy came to mean the production and circulation of goods and services. At the same time, the term...