René Girard and the Economy
A bibliography
The following texts in English discuss or are inspired by René Girard's theoretical approach. Inclusion in the list (or inclusion of a link) does not necessarily imply endorsement of a given text. Readers may suggest additional references through the contact page of this website.
Michel Aglietta and André Orléan, “The Violence of Money (Excerpt): Monetary Crises,” in Institutionalist Theories of Money: An Anthology of the French School, ed. Pierre Alary, Jérôme Blanc, Ludovic Desmedt, and Bruno Théret (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 27-66
Luis Enrique Alonso and Carlos J. Fernández, “Debt and Sacrifice: The Role of Scapegoats in the Economic Crises,” Religions, Vol. 12, No. 2, Feb. 2021
Mark Anspach, “Global markets, anonymous victims,” interview by Yannick Blanc and Michel Bessières, UNESCO Courier, May 2001, pp. 47-51
Mark R. Anspach, “Violence Deceived: Changing Reciprocities from Vengeance to Gift Exchange,” in Expanding the Economic Concept of Exchange, ed. Carolyn Gerschlager (Boston: Kluwer, 2001), pp. 213-24; reprinted in Id., Vengeance in Reverse: The Tangled Loops of Violence, Myth, and Madness (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2017), pp. 13-26
Mark R. Anspach, “Desired Possessions: Karl Polanyi, René Girard, and the Critique of the Market Economy,” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 11, 2004, pp. 181-88
Mark R. Anspach, “Negative Reciprocity at the Rashō Gate: The Dynamics of Social Breakdown and the Role of the State,” Ritsumeikan Studies in Language and Culture, Vol. 26, No. 4, March 2015, pp. 119-28
Mark R. Anspach, “Sharing economy or rampant capitalism? On the commodification of hospitality,” tr. Isabelle Chaize, Cairn·info (traduction de “Economie du partage ou capitalisme sauvage? Sur la marchandisation de l’hospitalité,” Revue du MAUSS, No. 53, 2019, pp. 55-64)
Mark R. Anspach, review essay on André Orléan, The Empire of Value: A New Foundation for Economics, in COV&R Bulletin, No. 77, Aug. 2023
Cesareo Bandera. The Sacred Game: The Role of the Sacred in the Genesis of Modern Literary Fiction [see the Epilogue on Marxian economics]. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994
Anthony W. Bartlett, “The Swerve of Desire: Epicurus, Economics and Violence,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, Vol. 58, No. 2, Apr.-Jun. 2002, pp. 319-32
Luke Burgis. Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life [with examples from and lessons for business]. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021
Pablo Díaz-Morlán, “The Success and Malaise of Capitalism: A Mimetic View of the Market,” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 31, 2024, pp. 275-92
Alexander Douglas, “Spinoza, money, and desire,” European Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 26, No. 4, Dec. 2018, pp. 1209-21
Paul Dumouchel, “Rationality and the Self-Organization of Preferences,” Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1995, pp.177-91
Paul Dumouchel, “Exchange and Emotions,” in Expanding the Economic Concept of Exchange, ed. Carolyn Gerschlager (Boston: Kluwer, 2001), pp. 53-65
Paul Dumouchel, “Indifference and Envy: The Anthropological Analysis of Modern Economy,” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 10, March 2003, pp. 149-60; reprinted as “Indifference and Envy: Girard and the Anthropological Analysis of Modern Economy” in The Ambivalence of Scarcity and Other Essays (see below), pp. 97-107
Paul Dumouchel, “Ethics and Economics: Of Value and Values,” Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2008, pp. 28-40
Paul Dumouchel, “New Economic Thinking and Philosophy,” Journal of Northeast Asia Development, Vol. 15, Dec. 2013
Paul Dumouchel. The Ambivalence of Scarcity and Other Essays. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2014
Jean-Pierre Dupuy (with Henri Atlan and Moshe Koppel), “Individual Alienation and Systems Intelligence,” IFAC Proceedings, Vol. 20, No. 10, Sept. 1987, pp. 37-40
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, “Mimesis and Social Autopoiesis: A Girardian Reading of Hayek,” tr. Mark Anspach, Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1995, pp. 192-214
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, “The Self-Deconstruction of the Liberal Order,” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 2, 1995, pp. 1-16
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, “The Logic of Imitation,” Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines, Vol. 7, No. 4, Dec. 1996, pp. 597-616
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, “Market, Imitation, and Tradition: Hayek vs Keynes,” in Intersubjectivity in Economics: Agents and Structures, ed. Edward Fullbrook (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 139-58
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, “Economics as Symptom,” in Transforming Economics: Perspectives on the Critical Realist Project, ed. Paul Lewis (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 227-51
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, “Invidious Sympathy in The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” The Adam Smith Review, Vol. 2, 2006, pp. 96-121
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, “Detour and Sacrifice: Illich and Girard,” in For René Girard: Essays in Friendship and in Truth, ed. Sandor Goodhart, Jørgen Jørgensen, Tom Ryba, and James G. Williams (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2009), pp. 57-77
Jean-Pierre Dupuy. Economy and the Future: A Crisis of Faith, tr. M. B. DeBevoise. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2014
Guglielmo Faldetta and Deborah Gervasi, “Escaping the Scapegoat Trap: Using René Girard’s Framework for Workplace Bullying,” Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 191, No. 2, 2024, pp. 269-83
Andrew Feenberg, “Fetishism and Form: Erotic and Economic Disorder in Literature,” in Violence and Truth: On the Work of René Girard, ed. Paul Dumouchel (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988), pp. 134-51
Chris Fleming and John O’Carroll, “Originary Economics and the Genesis of Advertising,” Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology, Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 2009
Eric Gans, “The Free Market,” Chronicles of Love & Resentment, No. 34, March 16, 1996
Eric Gans, “The Market and Resentment (I),” Chronicles of Love & Resentment, No. 286, June 28, 2003, and “The Market and Resentment (II),” Chronicles of Love & Resentment, No. 287, July 12, 2003; “The Market and Resentment,” in Passions in Economy, Politics, and the Media, ed. Wolfgang Palaver and Petra Steinmair-Pösel (Münster: LIT, 2005), pp. 85-102
Peter Goldman, “Consumer Society and its Discontents: The Truman Show and The Day of the Locust,” Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology, Vol. 10, No. 2, Winter 2005
Jim Grote and John McGeeney. Clever as Serpents: Business Ethics and Office Politics. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1997
H. Guénin-Paracini, Y. Gendron, and J. Morales, “Neoliberalism, Crises and Accusations of Fraud: A Vicious Circle of Reinforcing Influences?” Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, Vol 11, No. 4, 2014, pp. 317-56
Wilhelm Guggenberger, “Homo Œconomicus and the Mimetic Man: Vanity and Pride in the Ethics of Adam Smith,” in Passions in Economy, Politics, and the Media, ed. Wolfgang Palaver and Petra Steinmair-Pösel(Münster: LIT, 2005), pp. 123-38
Byrne Hobart, “What René Girard Can Teach Us About Bubbles,” Medium, July 31, 2019
Tobias Huber and Byrne Hobart, “Manias and Mimesis: Applying René Girard’s mimetic theory to financial bubbles,” SSRN, Oct. 11, 2019
Tim Huegerich, “Mimetic Theory: Some Pointers for Christian Economists,” Christian Scholar’s Review, Vol. 50, No. 2, 2021, pp. 207–17
Adam Katz and Zack Baker, “There Is No Economy but Only the Debt to the Center: Money, Capital and the Tributary,” Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology, Vol. 28, No. 2, Spring 2023
Erich Kitzmüller, “Economy as a Victimizing Mechanism,” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 2, 1995, pp. 17-38
Pierre Lacour. Mimetic Desire in Theory of Value: The Way Out of Hedonic Dead Ends. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag, 2009
Pierre Lacour, “Mimetic Desire or the Missing Self at the Core of the Psychological Foundations of Choice,” 13th Annual Conference for Heterodox Economics, Nottingham Business School, July 2011
Antonio Machuco Rosa, “Complex Systems, Imitation, and Mythical Explanations” [see especially the section “Imitation in Financial Markets,” pp. 174-80], Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 10, 2003, pp. 161-81
Brian W. Nail, “Homo Sacrificus: Sacrificial Economization and Neoliberal Subjectivity,” in Law’s Sacrifice: Approaching the Problem of Sacrifice in Law, Literature, and Philosophy, ed. Brian W. Nail and Jeffrey A. Ellsworth (London: Routledge, 2019), pp. 1-11
André Orléan, “Money and Mimetic Speculation,” tr. Mark R. Anspach, in Violence and Truth: On the Work of René Girard, ed. Paul Dumouchel (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988), pp. 101-12
André Orléan, “Mimetic contagion and speculative bubbles,” Theory and Decision, Vol. 27, Nos. 1-2, July-Sept. 1989, pp. 63-92
André Orléan, “The Origin of Money,” in Understanding Origins: Contemporary Views on the Origin of Life, Mind and Society, ed. Jean-Pierre Dupuy and Francisco J. Varela (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1992), pp. 113-43
André Orléan, “Bayesian Interactions and Collective Dynamics of Opinion: Herd Behavior and Mimetic Contagion,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 28, No. 2, 1995, pp. 257-74
André Orléan, “Informational Influences and the Ambivalence of Imitation,” in Advances in Self-Organization and Evolutionary Economics, ed. Jacques Lesourne and André Orléan (Paris: Economica, 1998), pp. 39-56
André Orléan, “The Evolution of Imitation,” in The Economics of Networks: Interaction and Behaviours, ed. Patrick Cohendet, Patrick Llerena, Hubert Stahn, and Gisele Umbhauer (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1998), pp. 325-39
André Orléan (with Yamina Tadjeddine), “Imitative Expectations and Informational Paradox,” in Price Expectations in Goods and Financial Markets, ed. François Gardes and Georges Prat (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2000)
André Orléan, “Mimetic Interactions,” in Evolutionary Microeconomics, ed. Jacques Lesourne, André Orléan, and Bernard Walliser (Berlin: Springer, 2006), pp. 131-72
André Orléan. The Empire of Value: A New Foundation for Economics, tr. M. B. DeBevoise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014
André Orléan, “Money and Value: The Contribution of The Empire of Value to the Economics and Sociology of Conventions,” in Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions, ed. Rainer Diaz-Bone and Guillemette de Larquier (Springer, 2023)
Adrian Pabst, “Common Good Economy: Capitalism, Sacrifice and Humanity,” in Mimesis and Sacrifice: Applying Girard’s Mimetic Theory Across the Disciplines, ed. Marcia Pally (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), pp. 203-15
Bernard Perret, “The Economy as the Opium of the People,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion, ed. James Alison and Wolfgang Palaver (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 287-94
James Reveley and John Singleton, “Mimesis, Scapegoating and Financial Crises: A Critical Evaluation of René Girard’s Intellectual Legacy,” Science and Society, Vol. 83, No. 4, October 2019, pp. 469-94
Panagiotis Roilos, “Economic Crisis, the ‘PIGS’ and the European ‘Animal Farm’,” Huffington Post, May 12, 2012
Hyeon Joon Shin, “A Girardian Interpretation of the Market Mechanism in Neo-Classical Economics,” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2021, pp. 129–70
Petra Steinmair-Pösel, “Economy and Mimetic Theory,” in Passions in Economy, Politics, and the Media, ed. Wolfgang Palaver and Petra Steinmair-Pösel (Münster: LIT, 2005), pp. 67-84
Yamina Tadjeddine, “Understanding Finance Through Convention Theory,” in Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions, ed. Rainer Diaz-Bone and Guillemette de Larquier (Springer, 2022)
Peter Thiel (with Blake Masters). Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. New York: Crown, 2014
Kathleen M. Vandenberg, “René Girard and the Rhetoric of Consumption,” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 12-13, 2006, pp. 259-72