Performativity matters : economic description as a moral problem
Abstract
If performativity theory simply repeats that economists design markets, much of its radicalism is lost. Instead, researchers must consider the mechanisms by which economization transforms social arrangements. This chapter develops the argument that economic description constitutes aspects of the social as economic. Following Austin and Butler, I argue that such description has a performative force, and is therefore politically and ethically charged. I suggest that an understanding of economic description as performative explains how economics can at once constitute and claim authority over an object. The chapter explores how economic description transforms social relations. It connects performativity theory to existing critiques of economic relations, and suggests that performativity research can develop ethically rich narratives without losing theoretical or empirical rigour. Finally it urges performativity research to rediscover its radicalism in its ability to unseat the ‘metaphysical presumptions’ of economics.
Citation
Roscoe , P J 2016 , Performativity matters : economic description as a moral problem . in I Boldyrev & E Svetlova (eds) , Enacting Dismal Science : New Perspectives on the Performativity of Economics . Perspectives from Social Economics , PalgraveMacMillan , pp. 131-150 . https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48876-3_6
Publication
Enacting Dismal Science
Type
Book item
Rights
© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s). This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript, and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48876-3
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