Ökonomische Praktiken

'Economical' is nowadays used synonymously with 'efficient'. But are economic practices really always efficient? To answer this question, the author of this book takes a look back and examines which conceptual factors are decisive for Lionel Robbins, as a relevant representative of economics, in describing economic action. This perspective is extended with a sociological one through Karl Polanyi’s substantive concept of economic action. Basing his analysis on this, the author makes clear that it is not efficiency but the interchangeability of goals as well as the institutional context that allow us to understand practices as economic.