THE WOUND AND
THE BLESSING
Economics, Relationships, and Happiness
Luigino Bruni
Economics, Relationships,
and Happiness
Foreword by Charles M. A. Clark
PAPERBACK; 128 PAGES; 2012
ISBN: 978-1-56548-428-3
SALE PRICE: $16.95
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About this Book
The crisis that market societies are undergoing is essentially a crisis of
relationships. It originates in the illusion that the market, through the
actions of an “invisible hand” operating in impersonal market
relationships, can present us a good common life exempt from the possibility
of being wounded by the other.
Luigino Bruni offers an authoritative and innovative look at the cultural
and anthropological premises underlying contemporary market economies and
their promises. He suggests that the market has betrayed its promises and
points out the need for balancing the increasing tendency toward isolation
with the human need for relationships.
Bruni proposes gratuitousness – free and open reciprocity, quite different
from altruism – as a means of maximizing the benefits of the market
(and the equality and freedom that market contracts propose) without losing
the joy that comes from putting the relationship with the others in the market
as the primary good.
Some Reviews:
Luigino Bruni is one of
the few scholars with both the knowledge and courage to seek to integrate
the humanities and social sciences. He has written a stimulating and thought-provoking
book that is well worth reading.
Richard Easterlin,
Professor of Economics, University of Southern California
What is most remarkable
about Bruni’s book is its refusal to romanticize social relations –
they are at once necessary to human happiness and a source of human sorrow
and pain. One of the attractions of market exchange is its impersonal nature,
but a market economy cannot by itself promote human happiness. Bruni proposes
neither a utopian dream of universal brotherhood nor a libertarian values-free
market. Instead, he sketches a framework within which we may more carefully
identify the respective roles of state and market in a social order in which
social relations are recognized as central.
Andy Yuengert,
Professor of Economics, Pepperdine University
The Wound and the Blessing
is the kind of work that is urgently needed … Bruni wants to affirm
relatively free markets, but do it by placing them in the larger context of,
and operate them for the benefit of, the inherently relational character of
human life, including acknowledging the risks – the “wounds”
– that come with those relationships … Bruni’s argument
ignores (and transcends) more American ways of framing these issues, and lays
bare the “traps” in both free market (largely Republican) and
social equity (largely Democratic) approaches … because both have been
trapped in the narrow box of Modern individualism. Bruni’s work is a
contribution to [the emerging asset-based community development] movement
to re-think not only economics, but more deeply, how we understand human beings
and our need for a common life with relational density in order to flourish.
Carol Johnston,
Christian Theological Seminary, in Claritas: Journal of Dialogue & Culture
— Read the full review at Claritas
[Bruni] sheds considerable
light on how our “business relationships” became so separate,
and less real, than our private relationships … he does not reject the
notion of markets and contracts; what he rejects is the arbitrary extension
of market relationships into all arenas of life, like healthcare and education.
The market must make way for gratuitousness. Bruni calls for a return to the
Italian tradition of “civil economy” (as opposed to the dominant
tradition of “political economy”), in which he locates his own
work, because it associates economics with happiness instead of wealth. Bruni
proposes a theory of happiness based in relationship: “one cannot live
a ‘good life’ unless with and thanks to others.” This theory
points to what is known as the “paradox of happiness” emerging
from recent economic research. The paradox of happiness asserts that happiness
depends on genuine relationality, which makes reciprocity, and the potential
for being wounded by others – gratuitousness – absolutely essential.
Once people have enough income to live decently, their relational well-being
becomes the primary source of their happiness.
Joe Davis,
at Englewood Book Review — Read more at Englewood Review of Books
Bruni recognises the paradox
of community "it consists of wounds and blessings, and this is no less
true of our economic relationships. The key to success is to ensure that the
‘other’ ceases to be faceless… a good policy is one that
can mediate reciprocity without preventing people from encountering each other
out of fear, otherwise the ‘embrace’ of the other is lost"
(p110) … Bruni appears to be an advocate for market capitalism on a
human scale. Retaining the humanity at the heart of our economic relationships
will not prevent us from getting hurt, but it will contribute to a recovery
of community … A difficult and specialist read, ably translated from
its first publication in Italian in 2007.
David Ford,
at theGoodBookStall.org — Read more at theGoodBookStall
Pope Benedict’s
encyclical, Caritas in Veritate … was well grounded in a sophisticated
economic theory and practice ... Bruni’s important and accessible short
book, The Wound and the Blessing: Economic, Relationships and Happiness, not
only explains the significant workings of gratuity and gift, economically
and socially, he (and the school of thought which he represents) provide a
refreshing and provocative alternative to the current economic orthodoxy which
seems less and less convincing … Bruni traces the origins of our current
understanding of the market and the economy in terms of what he calls ‘immunitas’.
That is basically a set of structured exchange relationships designed to protect
us against risk and against each other. The alternative, ‘communitas’
… recognizes the centrality of relationships – their capacity
to ‘wound’ (when risks don’t work out) and bless (when the
common good is developed and human flourishing is made more secure) …
[Bruni] draws parallels between the classical characterizations of love: Eros,
Philia and agape, and the sort of relational exchanges (economic as well as
personal) they produce. This allows him to explore the idea of ‘the
joyless economy’ – and economy which denies reciprocity/gratuity
and therefore denies the human because the other is reduced to a ‘thing’
(the erotic narcissistic economy where there is effectively no relation except
“I/I”) … Although The Wound and the Blessing is a relatively
short book, it provides much to think about and discuss.
James Hanvey, S.J.,
at the Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought,
University of San Francisco. — Read more at Lane Center
Writing from a British political perspective blending conservative high Tory and socialist leaning Labour perspectives ("blue Labour",) John Milbank proposes drawing from the Italian civil economy tradition to integrate ethical considerations into market relationships. "[T]he challenge now is to move away from neoclassicist utility in either its neoliberal or statist versions, in favor of a civil economy based upon reciprocal exchange and the virtuous pursuit of a true economic wealth that contributes to human flourishing. ... For an ethical economy can allow us to return to our own better western nature, and still give us a greater chance of succeeding economically in global trends." Read the full article here.
About the author Luigino
Bruni
Luigino Bruni, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Political Economics, Università
di Milano-Bicocca and Resident Faculty at Istituto Universitario Sophia in
Loppiano, Italy. He is co-editor of the International Review of Economics
(IREC, Springer) and has written numerous books and articles, including the
award-winning Civil Happiness: Economics and Human Flourishing in Historical
Perspective and The Economy of Communion (ed.).
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