From an historical context, Douglass C. North's work represents a sea change in cultural and social policy, and has the potential to affect billions of people through a renewed sense of community and concern for cultural context. North has started a chain reaction that will likely result in the questioning of market forces and fundamentals that were once thought to be the bedrock of the economics field. His work, according to many of his colleagues is groundbreaking because it holds the potential for unlimited inclusion and understanding of how economies are changed by the very mental structures and cultural constructs that they operate in and around.

It would be very hard to logically oppose North's work, and the economists and philosophers that do will likely be cast aside as staunch supporters of a more imperialistic time when knowledge and economic constructs were thought to be unaffected and unchanged even when they were introduced to new societies with different rules, norms, and values. Those who argue against North, or who feel strongly that economics and the study of how economies and cultures are changed and affected by outside forces should...

When it occurs, this shift will open new pathways and unlock refreshing solutions to some of the world's most puzzling problems. It will also pave the way for new research relative to how cultural and social contexts affect economies and the markets.
There is little doubt that Douglass C. North has changed the world. He has shown that the neo-classical analysis of our economic reality is outdated, and that in an age of globalization and new understandings of how the mind works, economists and philosophers need to come to an agreement that total cultural and social inclusion is the only way forward. Economics is not a sterile field. The contexts around economic functions are very much influencing the markets and the way in which we study and understand economics as a whole.

Works Cited

North, Douglass C. "Institutions and Economic Theory." American Economist, Vol. 36, 1992.

North, Douglass C. "Prize Lecture." Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, 9 December 1993.

North,…