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One of the most dramatic changes that has occurred in our lifetime in the way we live and in the way that our societies have been organized is the expansion of information and knowledge and their applications to everyday life. The most recent manifestations of this process has been the communication revolution with its dazzling array of inventions such computer hardware and software, modems, fax machines, the internet, etc., and equally dazzling new concepts and ideas, such as the artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, etc. Moreover, less dramatic, yet equally important, applications of new knowledge have occurred in such diverse economic sectors as transportation, construction, manufacturing, electronics, etc. The application of knowledge to the economic process has reached such a stage that some economists have been induced to “cash” on it. Naula Beck, for example, has achieved some short lived popularity with her newly developed topology based on the role of knowledge in economy. She divides the economy into an expanding, knowledge based “new economy” and a declining, resource based “old economy” with the former being essentially where the action is.

Introduction The objectives of this paper are twofold. Firstly, we will define economic paradigm by identifying its structure and functions. Secondly, we will apply this concept to social economics and human economics.

Introduction In addition to his economic analysis, a key component of Keynes's intellectual legacy is his methodology, derived from the fusion of social philosophy and vision with politics, public policy concerns and economic analysis, which he employed to offer a solution to the most fundamental and pressing problems of his time. In effect, such a methodology constitutes, in spite of Keynes's opposition to classical economics, a rediscovery, and adaptation of the one used by the classical school of political economy, which had been abandoned as a consequence of the onslaught of the “neo‐classical” revolution in the late 1800s with its strict focus on “scientific” or positive economics.

Introduction Economics has been defined and re‐defined several times in the past, and even within the dominant scientific orientation of the discipline, there are currently a number of alternative definitions. One of the definitions, which has been gaining increasing popularity in recent years is “economics as the science of choices.” This definition focuses on the fundamental objective of the discipline as currently formulated, namely, the optimum allocation of resources through appropriate choices, or in other words, the development of economic engineering based on science. We will use the concept of choices as the convenient point of entry into the exploration of the nature of economic reality, or its ontology.

Introduction The connection between wealth and virtue or between economics and ethics has been severed. Pure or positive economics is believed to be objective and scientific, based on facts alone, while normative or ethical reasoning is believed to be less reliable and non scientific because it is subjective, value‐laden and prone to prejudice and personal preferences.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.