Enacting Dismal Science : New Perspectives on the Performativity of Economics

It is an established fact that the social sciences codetermine the construction of social realities. This thesis has recently been reinterpreted (along with some new evidence) in the field of sociology of knowledge; the keyword here has been performativity, and economic theory and financial markets have been the main subjects of theoretical reflection. Economic ideas and models have been seen as both governing the behaviors of agents and in many ways conditioning the very existence of such behaviors, thus (co)constructing the agents and institutions that they address. Indeed, economic theories define standards of rationality, categories of risk, rules undergirding investment decisions, macroeconomic expectations, and microeconomic incentives that prove indispensable in the context of complex, turbulent, and newly-emerging markets. This perspective based on performativity also pertains to the phenomena of marketization, indoctrination, the diffusion of theoretical knowledge via expertise, the creation of new languages and ideologies, etc. It implies the necessity to more precisely examine the forms of entanglement of economic knowledge, institutions, and practices. In this volume, sociologists, philosophers, and economists investigate the conceptual issues underlying the discussion of performativity by scrutinizing its potential over a variety of disciplinary contexts. The authors evaluate the concept of performativity as a theoretical resource by applying it in diverse and heterogeneous fields of research ranging from Luhmanns social systems theory to Descolas anthropology. At stake in this research is not only the notorious relationship between theory and reality, but also strategies of rethinking the original concept of performativity (as formulated by Callon and MacKenzie) and reflection on its significance within broader disciplinary fields such as sociology (in general) and philosophy of economics. From this strongly interdisciplinary perspective, the contributors discuss how the performativity program can be developed to enhance its relevance for contemporary economic theory, theory of finance, macroeconomics, game theory, business ethics, and mechanism design. These efforts may help us to discover and more comprehensively understand the logic of our post-crisis, market-oriented society, eventually leading to more reflexive, responsible, and humanistic economics.