Title: The sovereign debt crisis – a transdisciplinary approach

Authors: Marc Pilkington

Addresses: School of Law, Political Science, Economics and Management, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Trotabas Campus, Av. Doyen Louis Trotabas, 06050 Nice Cédex 1, France

Abstract: We have chosen to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to debt, leading to a transdisciplinary analysis of sovereign debt. Disciplinary fields as varied as logic, accounting, finance, psychology, geopolitics, economics, statistics, ethics, rhetoric and political discourse analysis are mobilised in order to reveal the prejudicial nature of an over-rigid compartmentalisation of knowledge in particular that which is centred on economics alone. This approach comes in sharp contrast to mainstream economic theory, which has often refused any constructive dialogue with other disciplines. We do not praise interdisciplinarity as an end in itself. Our aim is to underline the merits of a plural scientific approach which finds its justification in times of crisis in the very nature of the problems under scrutiny whose complexity and multidimensional character require an in-depth review of the underlying research frameworks. Finally, a textual analysis of four documents will complete and justify our argumentation.

Keywords: interdisciplinarity; transdisciplinarity; scientific dialogue; sovereign debts; debt crises; interdisciplinary approaches; transdisciplinary analyses; disciplinary fields; logic; accounting; finance; psychology; geopolitics; statistics; ethics; rhetoric; political discourse analysis; prejudicial views; over-rigid compartmentalisation; knowledge compartmentalisation; mainstream theories; economic theories; constructive dialogues; plural approaches; scientific approaches; complexity; budget deficits; multidimensional characters; underlying frameworks; research frameworks; textual analysis; public debt; USA; United States; UK; United Kingdom; Greece; IMF; International Monetary Fund; European Central Bank; ECB; European Union; EU; monetary policies; euro area; eurozone; single currency; currencies; pluralism; economics education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2011.046028

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2011 Vol.2 No.4, pp.369 - 397

Published online: 29 Jan 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article