The Problem with Economics: Naturalism, Critique and Performativity

Fabian Muniesa (1)

1 CSI i3 - Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation i3

How natural is economic nature and how provocative is it to claim that this nature is a provoke done? The purpose of this contribution is to expose the problem of the naturalness of economic things. Naturalism in modern economic reason is examined through a series of ‘breaching thought experiments’: intellectual setups in which economics, economic critique and the critique of economics are confronted to annoying situations or uncomfortable paradoxes. The very idea of the performativity of economics and the critical reactions it prompts are analysed in these terms: that is, as an anthropological test on the quandaries of economic naturalism.

Mots clés: performativity; economics; naturalism; critique

Domaines: Sociologie; Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Economies et finances; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences; Gestion et management

Fabian Muniesa. The Problem with Economics: Naturalism, Critique and Performativity. Ivan Boldyrev; Ekaterina Svetlova. Enacting Dismal Science: New Perspectives on the Performativity of Economics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.109-129, 2016, 978-1-137-49210-4. ⟨10.1057/978-1-137-48876-3_5⟩. ⟨halshs-01347480⟩