Institutional economics and the Viking Age: a response to Anders Ögren et al.

An ‘institutional turn’ has been detected in archaeology, with several scholars drawing from institutional economics to help explain various economic and political developments, including in the Viking Age. Generally, institutional analysis encompasses both political and cultural change, casting light on underlying rule systems, motivations, and mechanisms. This note responds to an article in Archaeological Dialogues by Anders Ögren et al., which argues for the application of the new institutional economics to viking studies, but focuses largely on one author, Douglass North, from that tradition. North’s views evolved, and in some respects he moved closer to the ideas of Thorstein Veblen, who was part of the original institutional economics. Overall, we need to draw more widely from institutional economics, including from inspiring earlier contributions.