The Triangle of the Human Economy: Household - Cultivation - Industrial Production An Attempt at Making Visible the Human Economy in Toto

Citation:

Pietilä, Hilkka. 1997. “The Triangle of the Human Economy: Household - Cultivation - Industrial Production An Attempt at Making Visible the Human Economy in Toto.” Ecological Economics 20 (2): 113–27.

Author: Hilkka Pietilä

Abstract:

This paper is an attempt at outlining a comprehensive framework within which it would be possible to perceive that the totality of the human economy consists of three distinct components: household, cultivation and industrial production. Each one of these components operates according to its own particular logic. Therefore, the logic of one cannot be imposed on the logic of another without serious consequences — as is now already seen, when the logic of industrial production has hitherto been imposed upon the whole human economy. It is to be hoped that establishing a new, more comprehensive and relevant perception of the human economy as a whole would help humanity to adopt a lifestyle which will provide the prerequisites for a dignified quality of life for all people, with due respect to the ecological boundaries of the biosphere. In this process, a recognition of the economic, social and cultural contribution of women is decisive, as well as a respect for the values and priorities set within women's culture and way of life.

Keywords: women's work, gender and economics, cultivation economy, alternative economics, new theory of economics, economy versus ecology, the human economy, unpaid work and production, household as basic economy

Topics: Economies, Care Economies, Ecological Economics, Environment, Gender, Women, Households

Year: 1997