How economic life is organized is the topic of economics, from micro- to macroscale. Economic science is about human behaviour in relation to the production and consumption of goods and services and is, as such, addressed in most thematic chapters. It has become the language of power and rationality in Modernity.

• Three major forms of economic organization: state, market and community, have been around for millennia. They are often in competition and conflict, in a pendulum movement as each has a tendency to radicalize into extremes. It is a continuous struggle between state-controlled coordination from above, market power by corporations and the communities over which they try to gain control.
• Ideas about who creates economic value have changed over time, from objective standards of productivity to subjective consumer preferences/utility as reflected in the market price. The image of humans is in economics centered around the theory and practice of time preference, discounted utility and cash-flow optimization, which reflects an inherent short-termism of (textbook) consumers and producers. Externalities and rent are other relevant concepts in economics.
• Economic growth is driven by a complex of factors. One is technology, with its autonomous processes of creative destruction and long waves. Other factors are the – related – changes in demand and subsequent structural change and trade. Neoclassical economic growth models suffer from oversimplification, as the crises of the last decades have shown. New and less ideological concepts and theories are under development and can hopefully improve the role of economics in the quest for a more sustainable future.
• Economic growth is desired by governments, businesses and most of the population, for a variety of reasons. Whether economic growth is possible depends on productivity growth, but environmental and social limits will make continuous growth in average (net disposable) income improbable in many places and for many groups. Besides, past economic growth has not or even negatively affected the quest for more equality, partly because of the structure of the global financial system.
• There is a widespread feeling of discontent with the dominant capitalist system and its practices of maximizing short-term shareholder value and of socializing the costs of negative externalities. It is visible in the many seeds of change, discussed and practiced under the headings of degrowth (or décroissance), post-growth and others. It asks for new forms of solidarity with nature and among humans, and for experiments in managing commons, introducing basic income and organizing meaningful work. These challenges can and should be addressed by dialogue and alliances on controversies and worldviews.