Since the early 1990s, a group of scientists from different disciplines has been researching a common approach to the economic description of modern economic systems. Numerous research papers with different individual aspects of a comprehensive theory have been published so far. The currently most important research project is Alternative Economic Theory. By "linking" Luhmann's qualitative systems theory with the quantitative description of systems according to Straub's "alternative mathematical theory of non-equilibrium phenomena" (based on Gibbs-Falk dynamics), Alternative Economic Theory is created. It represents an alternative methodology for describing economic systems at the meso and macro levels, which also manages without the strongly limiting assumptions of many traditional economic theories.