Project

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Politics in the market place. Economic practices as political action

English title Politics in the market place. Economic practices as political action
Applicant Beckstein Martin
Number 126154
Funding scheme Fellowships for prospective researchers
Research institution Dept of Politics and International Relations University of Oxford
Institution of higher education Institution abroad - IACH
Main discipline Political science
Start/End 01.05.2009 - 31.12.2010
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All Disciplines (2)

Discipline
Political science
Philosophy

Keywords (8)

political action; citizenship; economic practices; naturalisation of the economy; post-foundationalism; Micro-economic activity; postfoundationalism; naturalisation/politicisation of the economic

Lay Summary (English)

Lead
Lay summary
Recently, political theorists have increasingly reconsidered existing conceptualisations of economic phenomena. Sharp criticism has been levelled at concepts that "naturalise" economic phenomena by obliterating social and political nexuses. Against such "economicist" conceptualisations political theorists have subsequently dedicated considerable energy to theoretically (re-)politicise the economic. Conspicuously, though, most approaches politicise the economic only on a macro-level, which is to say, on the level of the organisation of the economic order and of institutionalised behaviour. The activities of market participants that constitute this economic order and the institutionalised behaviour, however, are usually not brought into focus. To politicise the economic, thus far, apparently means only to politicise the economy; It does not mean to politicise economic activity.
In order to complement the dominant macro-approach to the project of the theoretical politicisation of the economic, this dissertation project aims at contributing to carving out a political theory of micro-economic activity. To this task, a heuristic is erected which allows to discuss micro-economic activities such as acts of work, production, investment, or consumption with a view to politico-theoretical concepts. The dissertation project is guided by a postfoundational spirit. One of the central underlying questions is, therefore, whether such a political theory of micro-economic activity provides a conceptualisation of economic phenomena that is more useful for the emancipatory goal of fathoming possibilities for political action than existing approaches.
Direct link to Lay Summary Last update: 21.02.2013

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