The social ecology of Adam Smith: reconsidering the intellectual foundations of political economy

Steeds, L. (2022) The social ecology of Adam Smith: reconsidering the intellectual foundations of political economy. New Political Economy, 27(1), pp. 132-145. (doi: 10.1080/13563467.2021.1926956)

Abstract

Nearly 250 years on, the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations is widely understood as a germinal moment for modern (political) economic analysis. Within political economy, the text continues to be cited not only as the inauguration of a specifically liberal theoretical tradition, but also as a foundational statement of what it means to be doing political economy more broadly. Yet established readings of the work have reproduced, perhaps unwittingly, assumptions about the nature and remit of its content drawn from subsequent economic thought, obscuring crucial environmental ideas that underpinned its main conclusions. Though long overlooked within orthodox readings, Smith in fact insisted that essential to political economic analysis was a careful consideration of the materiality of evolving relationships between societies and the nonhuman environment – an approach that, I suggest, can justifiably be viewed as a kind of ‘social ecology’. Reassessing these theoretical foundations reveals, on the one hand, over-optimistic ecological assumptions that he bequeathed to subsequent liberal political economy. On the other, in light of today’s ecological crisis, it prompts us to reconsider the importance, for political economic analysis more broadly, of a materialised understanding of the relationship between human societies and the earth.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Steeds, Dr Leo
• Authors: Steeds, L.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: New Political Economy
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1356-3467
• ISSN (Online): 1469-9923
• Published Online: 13 May 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Author
• First Published: First published in New Political Economy 27(1):132-145
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License