Agency and economizing in interacted economies

Abstract

This paper discusses some core implications of the bulk of IMP research over the years for the understanding and conceptualization of what we call “interacted agency”. The discussion is also rooted in the two fundamental assumptions about resource heterogeneity and relational knowledge constraints that are essential in IMP based economic theory. Based on this, the paper portrays agency as representing self-interest in value creation processes that exploit benefits that are collective outcomes of unique interactions with others. These situations represent multiple alternatives that require complex interactions in both time and space for any actual evaluation, deciding and acting to be possible and meaningful in real economies. These characteristics of agency in real economies imply that the radical simplifications of how agency is represented in main stream economics leaves out the essence of what economic agency is about and how it works.