Institutionalizing the Plural Economy — Lessons from the Area of Care and Personal Social Services

Abstract

Making the economy work in a more cooperative way, creating more room for processes of self-organizing, strengthening goals and rationales in economic activities which are not purely instrumental — these goals can be conceived in different ways. It seems that in the analytical work of colleagues in the Institut Ökonomie und Soziales Handeln in Bremen, a concept is prevailing, which is foremost concerned with finding a different theoretical approach towards the economy (see e.g. Biesekker 1992), giving a space for the social and cultural dimensions it entails and for their conscious development by the economic actors, interested in practical reforms.

Slightly changed version of a paper which has originally been given for the first meeting on „Economy, Employment and Human Development“, OECD Paris 20/21.10 1994