The importance of meta-economics

E.F. Schumacher was one of the first scholars who recognized the crucial role of metaeconomics. In his "Small is beautiful" he writes: "The science of economics is 'so prone to usurp the rest' … because it relates to certain very strong drives of human nature, such as envy and greed. All the greater is the duty of its experts, the economists, to understand and clarify its limitations, that is to say, to understand meta-economics." (Schumacher, E. F. 1973: p. 38) Meta-economics is the basic assumptions about the subject-matter, value-orientation and methodology of economics. (Zsolnai, L. 1991) The paper attempts to reconstruct the metaeconomic foundation of mainstream economics and that of alternative economics initiated by Schumacher. It shows how the emerging alternative economics transcends the erroneous metaeconomic assumptions of mainstream economics by considering the total economic process, choosing sustainable livelihood as basic value-orientation, and employing a constructive methodology.

Borrowing services from nature. Methodologies to evaluate ecosystem services focusing on Hungarian case studies.

In modern societies, humans are largely managing the world's natu­ral resources as if they were limitless. ln fact, even the so-called renewable resources require time tor renewal once they have been used. This kind of human attitude puts pressure on Earth's ecosystems at an unprecedented scale. In order to reverse the recent trend, policies shall tackle the roots of the problems and the drivers behind them must be addressed in order to reduce the pressure on ecosystems, including the overuse of natural resources and ecological space. This publication aims to show good examples tor evaluating natural values and tor showing possible environmental and social impacts of various policies. Considering carefully the examples presented in this publication could play fundamental role in proper decision making that considers environmental and overall sustainability aspects.