Kenneth Boulding: Knowledge, Conflict, and Power

Kenneth Boulding, despite winning a John Bates Clark Medal and publishing three dozen books and at least eight hundred articles, is an underappreciated economist. This article examines three of his most important books—The Image, Stable Peace, and Three Faces of Power—which reflect Boulding’s emphasis on individual agency, subjectivism, the nature of knowledge, open-ended processes, and the role of institutions.