Changing the Foundations of Economic Thought in the Midst of Crisis - How Economic Actors Create New Imagined Futures for Sustainable Economies

How can lasting sustainable economic change emerge from spontaneous solidarity and innovative interaction during the Covid-19 pandemic? By combining epistemological groundwork and research on imagination with an empirical mixed-method approach borrowed from complexity research, the project investigates how during crises economic actors create imagined futures of the common good and thus may transform "choice architectures" below the threshold of rational and habitual action. The goal is to contribute to understanding imaginative, narrative and sensemaking processes necessary to sustainably transform the economy, and to explore a fundamental paradigm shift in economics.