For citation:
Dyatel, E. P. (2025). Economic Theory as an Infrastructure of Socio-Economic Analysis, Education, and Business Practice. AlterEconomics, 22(3), 543–564. https://doi.org/10.31063/AlterEconomics/2025.22-3.9
Abstract:
The article examines economic theory as a conceptual framework for socio-economic analysis, education, and business practice. A scientific discipline, it argues, must satisfy two criteria: internal perfection and external justification. Internal perfection requires adherence to logical principles, while external justification involves accounting for observations and experiments through the lens of personal and universal experience. The integration of these criteria shapes the worldview of researchers, teachers, and business executives. Regardless of materialist, idealist, or positivist perspectives, practical decisions are objectified in an information medium, which can take various forms: perceptible means and products of production, industrial relations, economic, sociological, legal, and political information, and other artifacts of material and spiritual culture. Building on this, the article hypothesizes that infrastructure functions as an information intermediary in the genesis and development of socio-economic phenomena and processes. Its distinctive role lies in providing logistics services for distributing primary social and economic benefits to end users or key economic agents. The study employs critical assessment and reinterpretation of primary sources, along with economic and statistical data. Results are presented as conceptual matrices that capture the essence and main features of the established system of economic knowledge, incorporating insights from related social sciences. The novelty of the work lies in conceptualizing the infrastructure of economic, scientific, and educational activities: shaped by internal socio-economic factors rather than external conditions; accounting for its spatial and temporal characteristics as a carrier of socio-economic information; and emphasizing economic theory as an infrastructure for scientific, pedagogical, and applied research.
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