New perspectives on emergence in economics

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue of this Journal on the topic of emergence in economics. After providing a brief explanation of what ‘emergence’ actually is, the article then examines how the concept is used by exponents of various schools of thought in contemporary economics. It then goes on to summarise the contributions to the special issue, all of which explore the nature of emergence in economic life and how the use of notions of emergence can inform and enrich economic analysis.