Resource scarcity is not a necessity

However, a new doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that there may be alternative solutions to the allocation problem.

Economic theory generally assumes that there will never be enough food, water, cars, money etc. to satisfy people’s wants.

This means that inequalities, conflict and poverty are inevitable parts of society. Many economists feel that scarcity is best dealt with through the presence of a market – the highest bidders gain access to a society’s scarce resources.

Yet, economic sociologists do not necessarily see resource scarcity as inevitable, and neither do they always agree with the mainstream solution to the economic problem. There are indeed enough resources, they might argue, but people are for various reasons denied access. For example, there is enough food in the world, but people are still starving. Why is that?

’The market as an allocation mechanism has not been able to distribute food to everyone – every sixth person in the world does not have access to enough food,’ says Adel Daoud, author of the thesis.

So, do we need the market?
’Maybe we do, given the present economic system, but we should at the same time ask ourselves whether any alternative allocation models could help us manage the world’s resources better, not least considering the climate threat. A so-called economic democracy could be one such solution. In an economic democracy, citizens get to have a say about what and how much of various products and services should be produced,’ says Daoud.

One of the main contributions of the thesis is to show the importance of using alternative perspectives, such as economic sociology, to deal with the notion of resource scarcity rather than simply seeing scarcity as inevitable.

For more information, please contact:
Adel Daoud, telephone: +46 (0)31 786 4763, 070-437 1663, e-mail: adel.daoud@sociology.gu.se

Media Contact

Helena Aaberg idw

More Information:

http://www.gu.se

All latest news from the category: Business and Finance

This area provides up-to-date and interesting developments from the world of business, economics and finance.

A wealth of information is available on topics ranging from stock markets, consumer climate, labor market policies, bond markets, foreign trade and interest rate trends to stock exchange news and economic forecasts.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors