Editorial

Diversity matters, both at the firm and at the macro-economic level. This is the driving mission of JEOD. While the importance of diversity is already quite well recognized in other disciplines as a major source of wellbeing and quality of life, an open discussion on diversity in economics (meaning both diversity of enterprise types and diversity in the possible combinations of public and private sector roles in different economic systems) has long been taboo. JEOD wants to remove this anomaly. The urgency of this mission has never been as evident as it is now, during the deep and prolonged crisis that started in 2007 and is now at the center of the world economy. Indeed, the crisis has shaken many long-held tenets on the sustainability of the free market model and even on its ability to satisfy peoples’ needs. Since the mid 1970s, and even more after the collapse of the Socialist regimes – which gave the impression that a single model had prevailed (the “end of history” evoked by Fukuyama1) – an increasingly strong wind of market fundamentalism had blown from New York and Washington, deeply influencing the approach to economic policy worldwide.