Econsoc 14-2 | Economic Discourses and Economic Dispositives
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economic sociology_ the european electronic newsletter Vol ume 14, N umber 2| March 20 13 14.2 Editor Rainer Diaz-Bone, University of Lucerne Book Review Editor Mark Lutter, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Editorial Board Patrik Aspers, Stockholm University Jens Beckert, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne Johan Heilbron, Centre de Sociologie Européenne, Paris Richard Swedberg, Cornell University, Ithaca Table of Contents Note from the editor_2 Economic Discourses and Economic Dispositives On Coordination: Stories and Meaning Making in Markets | by Sophie Mützel_4 Dispositive, Discourse and the Economy | by Dietmar J. Wetzel_10 “Days of Revelation” | by Ronald Hartz_17 Spectral Performativity | by Jens Maeße_25 How the Firm Became Consultable | by Christian Schmidt-Wellenburg_32 Justification, Conventions, and Institutions in Economic Fields | by Lisa Knoll_39 Discourse Conventions in the Construction of Wine Qualities in the Wine Market by Rainer Diaz-Bone_46 Interviews with Christian Bessy: Economics of Convention as the Socio-Economic Analysis of Law_54 with Claude Didry: Contributing to a Pragmatic Institutionalism of Economic Law_61 Book Reviews_ 69 Ph.D. Projects_ 80 http://econsoc.mpifg.de Note from the editor 2 Note from the editor Dear reader, pervaded by mass media and communicative dispositives (such as newspapers, business magazines, the World Wide Socio-economic analysis has to include the processes and Web and others). This is not to be confused with a revival devices that co-construct the collective knowledge of of ideological criticism which relates ideas and world views “economic facts”, their cognition and (e)valuation. Con- in a too simplistic way to group interests. It is the other temporary approaches such as Foucaultian discourse analy- way round: The economy is driven by discourses and dis- sis conceive discourses as collective practices that build up positives engaging actors in economic situations. Economic economic knowledge and economic models actors need to discourses and economic dispositives “mobilize” economic coordinate and to act in economies. So “discourse” is no institutions as well as economic actors. As the contribu- longer misunderstood as a more philosophical deliberation tions in this issue show, there is an emerging field of between individuals. Instead, economic discourses are scholars working on a new constructivist socio-economic empirical orders of economic knowledge at the meso level perspective on economic institutions and economic prac- and macro level of economies. At the same time economic tices that centres around the notions of “discourse” and discourses are collective practices processing economic “dispositives”. This perspective therefore also offers a institutions such as markets and firms. Economic discourses constructivist foundation for a contemporary political are related to economic devices, instruments or tools. economy . It now integrates different analytical levels and Michel Foucault named them “dispositives”. Economic empirical research strategies as all the following contribu- dispositives equip the socio-technical environment of eco- tions demonstrate. nomic action. They enable actors, firms, or groups to ad- vance economic strategies and dispositives multiply the In the first contribution Sophie Mützel presents her re- power effects of economic discourses. search perspective on the discursive formation of markets. She relies on Harrison White’s model of markets as social Economic discourses and economic dispositives interact in formations and his (later) works on market discourses. performing the economy. It was Michel Callon who intro- Sophie Mützel combines White’s theory with the approach duced the notion of performativity arguing that economics of economics of conventions – both share the perspective is constructing the economy by bringing in its economic on quality definitions as social constructions – and she models into economic institutions. There where others brings in notions from sociological neo-institutionalism and who did pioneering research on the interaction of econom- from actor–network–theory. Mützel highlights the im- ic discourses and economic dispositives such as Pierre portance of stories and metaphors in the process of market Bourdieu, Donald MacKenzie, Deirdre McCloskey, Marie- formation and the structuring of markets and organiza- France Garcia-Parpet or Harrison White – although they tions. She gives insights into an ongoing empirical research sometimes used different notions for what is called here project in which she applies relational and structural strat- “discourse” and “dispositive”. Approaches like actor– egies (such as topic modeling) to analyze the emergence network–theory and economics of convention focused in and dynamics of economic discourses. particular on the contributions of materialities, (cognitive) forms and objects to the construction of economic “facts”, In his contribution Dietmar Wetzel works out the interrela- “values” and “normativities”. tions between economic discourses, dispositives and cul- tures of competition. His article offers a new approach to The current issue – Economic Discourses and Economic the sociology of markets. Referring mainly to the Foucaul- Dispositives – presents contributions from a still emerging tian theory of discursive practices and dispositives he also field of scholars applying concepts of discourse and dispos- applies his approach and his notion of “competition dis- itives in the economic sociology of markets, of organiza- positives” to the analysis of financial markets. As Mützel tions and of economies. More and more researchers have did, Wetzel also offers methodological considerations and become aware of the “discursive reality” of the economy strategies for future research on discourses and dispositives (as well as the discursive impact of economics) and the in economic sociology. But there are also some desiderata importance of economic discourses in societies which are which Wetzel identifies at the end of his contribution. economic sociology_the european electronic newsletter Volume 14, Number 2 (March 2013) Note from the editor 3 Ronald Hartz applies the concept of “collective symbols” – have to engage in compromises and conflicts between developed by the German discourse theorist Jürgen Link – to different conventions justifying ways of producing energy. analyze the discursive construction of the financial crisis as a Lisa Knoll systemizes the (discursive) conventions, which discursive event, i.e. to analyze the “economic order in times are applied by actors who are responsible for emission of crisis”. Starting from the astonishing observation that the trading in two German communities when justifying their financial crisis did not lead to a substantial questioning of management decisions. One result of her empirical study is the neo-liberal doctrine in the financial sector, he analyzes the discovery of a plurality of conventions co-existing in the the mass media discourse about the financial crises in the field under study – not only the market convention. course of 2007/2008 (selecting the most important German newspaper). Ronald Hartz identifies the distribution of col- The last article in this issue by Rainer Diaz-Bone links Fou- lective symbols which enable de-normalization and normali- caultian discourse theory with convention theory. In this zation in the course of the crisis – thus reconstructing how contribution it is argued that products do not determine collective symbols work as sense-making devices in the fi- their market value themselves, their quality cannot be nancial sector. deduced by the physical properties of products alone. Discursive investments are necessary in processes of the The contribution of Jens Maeße emphasizes the multiple construction of product’s qualities. These product-related ways economics can be used by the economy. His article is discourses are organized by conventions as their internal also a contribution to research on performativity – applying logics. As in the aforementioned article a field analysis (the a discourse analytic and dispositive analytic approach. His German wine market) is presented demonstrating the co- interest is to extend the scope of the concept of performa- existence of a plurality of co-existing “discourse conven- tivity by showing that discursive practices open up a space tions”. of a plurality of meanings. As Dietmar Wetzel and Ronald Hartz do, Jens Maeße applies his discourse analytic ap- The current issue of Economic Sociology is complemented proach to the financial sector, showing how bankers trans- by two interviews which present two representatives of the form economic theories in different ways to generate approach of economics of convention (EC). Christian Bessy “multiple worlds of banks”. and Claude Didry both represent the second generation of EC and both are members of the research laboratory “In- The object under study in the article written by Christian stitutions and historical dynamics of economy” (IDHE, Schmidt-Wellenburg is management consulting of firms. Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan/Paris), which is a He traces its development and introduces a discourse ana- leading institution (together with the Nanterre Group) in lytical perspective on the activities of external consultants the contemporary development of convention theory. In a engaged in the discursive construction of the firm and their way the interviews offer further insights into