TY - JOUR A1 - Di Giovinazzo, Viviana T1 - The Cultural and Aesthetic Roots of >The Joyless Economy< JF - Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 44, No. 4 (2022), pp. 556-578. [Online ISSN 1469-9656] [doi.org/10.1017/S1053837221000493] N2 - Tibor Scitovsky’s >The Joyless Economy< (1976) is now regarded as a landmark publication in the combined fields of economics and psychology, with standard accounts of Scitovsky’s ideas emphasizing the influence of 1960s motivational psychology literature. While this encounter is all-important, Scitovsky’s ideas must at the same time be read in the context of the evolution of his critique of twentieth-century mass society. The present paper presents that critique and demonstrates its fundamental importance for Scitovsky’s diagnosis of an economy he termed >joyless<. Drawing upon his >Memoirs<, we show how Scitovsky’s ideas were initially shaped by the culture/aesthetics of his early years in Budapest, followed by his experiences of rising totalitarianism in interwar Europe, and further affected by his move to the consumption society of postwar America. The way he engaged with the writings of influential contemporary cultural commentators, including André Gide, Erich Fromm, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Lewis Mumford, and Bernard Rudofsky, was incisive. Close scrutiny also reveals resonances between Scitovsky’s cultural concerns and those of some of the Bloomsbury Group. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Di Giovinazzo, Viviana T1 - A Tale of Two Critics: Erich Fromm and Tibor Scitovsky on the Consumer Society JF - History of Political Economy, Vol. 51 (No. 2, 2019), pp. 329-359. [Online ISSN 1527-1919] [doi.org/10.1215/00182702-7368884] N2 - This paper suggests that in the development of his critique of American consumer society, culminating in >The Joyless Economy< (1976), Tibor Scitovsky owed a significant intellectual debt to Erich Fromm. The latter’s influence can be detected in Scitovsky’s work from the 1950s, but emerges most clearly in the 1976 book. There, Scitovsky presents in an economic context the essential elements of Fromm’s psychosocial critique of the United States, a Puritan-type culture that encourages moneymaking but not the cultivation of leisure; a mass-production economy that provides comfort but also alienation; and an educational system that emphasizes technical knowledge over the liberal arts. By considering both their shared formative, intellectual milieu and Fromm’s influence on Scitovsky, the paper casts new light on both the origins and controversial reception of >The Joyless Economy<. Y1 - 2019 ER -