in the twentieth century, society was supposed to be impersonal: lifewas organized by state bureaucracy, capitalist markets and scientificexperts. Not surprisingly most people felt estranged and powerless inthe face of all this.

In order to be human, the economy must be at leastfour things:1. It is made and remade by people; economics should be of prac-tical use to us all in our daily lives.2. It should address a great variety of particular situations in alltheir institutional complexity.3. It must be based on a more holistic conception of everyone’sneeds and interests.4. It has to address humanity as a whole and the world society weare making.

For well over a century now,this discipline has called itself economics and its subject matter hasbeen the economic decisions made by individuals as participants inmarkets of many kinds. People as such play almost no part in thecalculations of economists and they find no particular reflection ofthemselves in the quantities published by the media. The economyis rather conceived of as an impersonal machine, remote from theeveryday experience of most people. The idea that we put forwardhere of a ‘human economy’ is intended to remind readers that theeconomy is made and remade by people in their everyday lives.

umbrella concept of ‘the human economy’ whichrefers to an emphasis both on what people do for themselves andon the need to find ways forward that must involve all of humanitysomehow.