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Intro -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Contents -- About the Authors -- Chapter 1: Overview of Qualitative Economics (QE) -- Introduction -- The Aim of the Book -- The Paradigm Shift: Economics Needs to Be a Science -- The Book Contents -- Subjectivism Paradigm: Lifeworld Perspective as Symbolic Interactionism -- Part I: Philosophy of Science -- Part II: Qualitative Economics - Towards a Science of Economics -- Part I: Philosophy of Science and the Lifeworld Traditions -- Chapter 2: The Case for Rethinking the Foundation of Business Economics -- The Business Economic Debate -- The Paradigm Debate -- Qualitative and Interactionism Research Economics to Be a Science -- Context of Business Economics and Culture -- Sociological Phenomenology and Organizations -- Symbolic Interactionism -- Chapter 3: Understanding the Organization of Science -- Science and Philosophy of Science -- The Development of Science -- (Natural) Science -- Social Science and Objectivism: Positivism and Rationalism -- Positivism (A Comte 1798-1857, E Durkheim 1858-1917) -- Rationalism (R Descartes 1596-1650 -- B de Spinoza 1632-1677 -- G W Leibniz 1646-1716) -- Empiricism (T Hobbes 1588-1679 -- J Locke 1632-1704 -- G Berkeley 1658-1753 -- D Hume 1711-1776 -- J S Mill 1806-1873: The English Empiricists) -- Positivism -- Realism -- Another Science -- The Science of Subjectivism and Lifeworld -- The Paradigm -- The Placing of the Concept of Paradigm -- Paradigms in Social Science -- The Dimension of Philosophy of Science: The Debate of Objectivity vs. Subjectivity -- Differences Between an Objective and a Subjective Perspective -- The Dimension of Philosophy of Society: Regulation vs. Radical Change -- Understanding Ontological Themes and Theories in Social Science: Four Paradigms -- Traditions of Objectivism: Rationalism and Positivism.

In understanding economics and the organisation of economics, the questions are what constituteeconomics and the thinking behind economics today? In short what is the field of economics? And in what ways can we connect to and understand this field of study? Of course, the answer to this depends upon the perspective chosen, in which one sees and thinks of economics from a particular philosophical and even political position and perspective. If one takes the perspective on economics from a qualitative paradigm that draws upon the tradition from Kant, Husserl, Simmel, Mead, Schutz, Blumer (see references), then it can be stated that economics cannot only be understood as something that appears in nature. On the contrary, economics must be understood as "something" which results from human behaviour, interaction and groups in human activities and the thinking involved and embedded in those activities. Therefore in analyzing economics it is significant to note that economics belongs to and is being constructed by people due to their everyday lives. What appears as central in those statements, from a qualitative perspective, is that the essences of economics have to be discussed in relation to the mind and thinking related to an understanding of individual and group societal activities. Economics is to be understood as constructed and maintained through everyday human interactions and exchanges, whereby people are creating the meanings of situations with objectives of what are believed as important in the understanding of economics activities, actions and results. Those meanings and definitions of economics are being produced and exchanged in order to become a new comprehensive framework that influences, co-produces, limits and creates contradictions in everyday economic life. This additional qualitative focus [1] outlines the importance of understanding how human cognitions produce meaning of objects, definitions, activities and actions which provides the framework for the field of economics. The epistemological perspective for this is that the objects are not only within themselves.No, instead the objects are as they presents themselves to people, and thereby the meanings we are constructing and attaching to them. The paper will therefore discuss some of the scientific complexities in three areas: mind and thinking; understanding economics as a social activity and construction, and the interplay between economic activities and economic theoretical work.