Overview

In this debut, Wang offers an entirely new way of conceptualizing economics and social relations. Drawing from a rich historical analysis of ancient Greece, she provides an exposition of 'Olympianism'--a stunning program of political economy and identity formation that speaks directly to the crises in the 21st century. Olympianism comprises a series of distinct economic patterns which shaped the workings of property, labor, money, and knowledge in ancient Greece, around the time of its first democracy. The Olympian moral philosophies of universal inclusion and mutual thriving generated effective policies and practices in all areas of social relations. However, the advent of state and market institutions undermined the system's potency, resulting in exclusion and disparity. Examining these conflicting historical forces, Wang isolates the vision of a decentralized, spontaneous, and horizontal social order that was central to early democratic politics. Wang supplements this political and economic analysis with an identification of the cultural underpinnings in literary sources. She demonstrates that Olympianism was rendered possible by a unique subjectivity, which itself arose from a set of particular metaphysical, ontological, and sociological narratives. Before the Market presents a comprehensive vision of a vibrant alternative economic system and an inspiring notion of democratic identity. To this end, this book highlights the benefits that radical paradigm transformation could bring to societies all around the world, while raising provocative questions about the human condition in the modern era.

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9781612299006

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Wang is right to stress the importance of culture in constructing an economy, and, judging from the literary evidence at least, it does appear that the culture of the earliest periods of ancient Greece was antithetical to a market mentality. Wang goes beyond the Great Debate, as well, in systematizing her analysis, offering a mechanism of culture, identity, and action in the formation of economies, and in acknowledging complexity and change with the advent and ultimate dominance of market behavior in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. - Darel Tai Engen, California State University San Marcos for EH.net

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