Beyond Ecological Economics and Development: Critical Reflections on the Thought of Manfred Max-Neef

The interrelationship among development, environment, and human needs is one of the key issues being faced by the world today. The Chilean economist, Manfred Max-Neef, was a leading thinker on this dynamic, and this book provides both an introduction to and analysis of his work and ideas. Arranged in three main sections – “Human needs and wellbeing”, “Development, growth and sustainability”, and “Methodology of economics” – the chapters in this book contribute to on-going debates on issues as important as human development, the limits of economic growth, deep ecology, sustainable consumption, entrepreneurship, climate change, interdisciplinarity, and the methodology and practice of economics. The contributors to this volume provide a broad range of different critical perspectives on these issues, and the chapters are arranged in dialogue with each other to provide the reader with a rounded view of the legacy of Max-Neef. This book is vital reading for all those interested in ecological economics, environmental economics, development economics, methodology and philosophy of economics, and heterodox economics.

Luis Valenzuela-Rivera is an assistant professor at the Institute of Economics of the Austral University of Chile. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Oxford, as well as a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Oxford and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

His areas of interest are inequality, technological change, productivity, and the labour market, in addition to the philosophy and methodology of economics. He is an associate member of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford and adjunct researcher at the Millennium Nucleus on the Evolution of Work (M-NEW). He has been a consultant for the World Economic Forum and advisor of different agencies at the Government of Chile.

María del Valle Barrera is an adjunct professor at the Institute of Economics of the Austral University of Chile. She holds a Master’s degree in Rural Development from Austral University of Chile and a PhD in Political Science from Universidad de Cuyo in Argentina.

She teaches at the Master’s Programme in Human Scale Development and Ecological Economics at Austral University of Chile. She worked with late Prof. Max-Neef on several projects since 2001, and has specialised in participatory processes of sustainable development and community engagement. As a UNDP consultant, María has worked on energy poverty, climate change, and local governments.