Edible Economics
A Hungry Economist Explains the World
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
Economic thinking - about globalisation, climate change, immigration, austerity, automation and much more - in its most digestible form
For decades, a single free market philosophy has dominated global economics. But this is bland and unhealthy - like British food in the 1980s, when bestselling author and economist Ha-Joon Chang first arrived in the UK from South Korea. Just as eating a wide range of cuisines contributes to a more interesting and balanced diet, so too is it essential we listen to a variety of economic perspectives.
In Edible Economics, Chang makes challenging economic ideas more palatable by plating them alongside stories about food from around the world. He uses histories behind familiar food items - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theory. For Chang, chocolate is a life-long addiction, but more exciting are the insights it offers into post-industrial knowledge economies; and while okra makes Southern gumbo heart-meltingly smooth, it also speaks of capitalism's entangled relationship with freedom and unfreedom. Explaining everything from the hidden cost of care work to the misleading language of the free market as he cooks dishes like anchovy and egg toast, Gambas al Ajillo and Korean dotori mook, Ha-Joon Chang serves up an easy-to-digest feast of bold ideas.
Myth-busting, witty and thought-provoking, Edible Economics shows that getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: if we understand it, we can change it - and, with it, the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chang (Economics: The User's Guide), a professor of economics at SOAS University of London, blends culinary facts and economic expertise in this rollicking guide that makes "economics more palatable by serving it with stories about food." "Economics has a direct and massive impact on our lives," Chang writes, and, in an effort to make knotty concepts accessible to a wide audience, he explains economic theory with culinary anecdotes: okra's use in gumbo gives way to a discussion of how the vegetable was brought to the U.S. via the slave trade, and how free market economics only grant freedom to some. Bananas lead to a look at the effects of multinational companies on "host economies," and a personal story about a spice being "taken for granted" leads Chang to extrapolate on unpaid care work, which isn't included in GDP calculations but "would amount to 30–40% of GDP" if it were. Chang infuses the survey with food-related trivia (strawberries aren't actually berries, South Koreans consume 10 times more garlic than Italians), covers an impressive swath of economics, and concludes with a call that readers scrutinize, think imaginatively, and be open-minded in their quest for economic knowledge. Lay readers with a taste for the field will find plenty to savor.
