Thinking about open systems: learning, adaptive efficiency and uncertainties in Douglass North

Abstract In the present paper, I propose a reflection on the relationship between the field of institutional studies and pluralism in Economic Sciences, exploring some of Douglass North's contributions. To this end, I discuss how the categories of learning and adaptive efficiency are mobilized to account for the relationships between institutional and economic change, incorporating the agents' intentionality. Still, the epistemological challenges of assuming ubiquitous uncertainty as a prerequisite for institutional economic analysis are discussed. The main contribution of this work is to demonstrate how Douglass North's thinking approaches the characterization of economic systems as open systems, in the sense proposed by Sheila Dow in her concept of structured pluralism.