cfp:  Economic rationalities – economic reasoning as knowledge and practice authority

Aarhus University, 26-­?27 January 2014

Regimes   of   thought   and   legitimizations   of   action   draw   upon   systematized   authorities   of  religious,   juridical,   moral,   scientific   and   increasingly   economic   reasoning.   These   authorities  interrelate   in   various   ways.   They   compete   to   be   the   prime,   societal   authority;   they   supplant  each   other;   they   borrow   metaphors,   concepts,   practices;   they   subvert   and   change   existing  languages.  To  address  these  interrelations  ECORA  invites  interested  scholars  to  submit  paper  proposals  on  the historical study of economic rationality  and  the  struggles for authority between economic reasoning and other claims for knowledge-­? and practice-­?authority in Western modernity.   

Abstracts  must  be  submitted  to  one  of  three  parallel  streams:

• The  Renaissance

• The  Enlightenment

• American  and  Western  European  Capitalism

We   invite   scholars   with   an   interest   in   the   history   of   economic   thought   to   submit   a   paper  proposal.   We   particularly   encourage   scholars   working   with   the   interrelations   between  economic,  religious  and/or  scientific  reasoning  to  participate  as  well  as  people  understanding  their   work   as,   or   related   to,   what   could   called   the   ‘history   of   economic   thought’,   ‘intellectual
history  of  capitalism’,  ‘history  of  economic  ideas’,  and  ‘history  of  science  and  science  studies’.

Submission Guidelines

Please  submit  your  abstract  proposals  (max  300  words)  as  a  PDF  file  to  [email protected] Please indicate which stream your proposal refers to.

Deadline   for   paper   proposal:   September 1st 2013 (feedback   on   paper   proposals   September  15  2013).

ECONOMIC RATIONALITIES – economic reasoning as knowledge and practice authority

AARHUS UNIVERSITY 2014

Organizers: The   conference   is   organized   by   the   research   project   ECORA   (http://ecora.au.dk/)   located   at  the  Department  of  Culture  and  Society,  Aarhus  University  funded  by  the  Velux  Foundation.  

Suggested stream topics

The Renaissance (1400-­?1750)

Early   Modern   Entrepreneurship;   Trust   and   Trade,   From   credito   to   gentlemanliness;  Techniques   and   Practices;   Financial   Philosophies;   From   Households   to   Powerhouses;  Finances  and  Statesmanship;  Lady  Credit;  Virtú  and  Money;  natural  philosophy  and  economy;  the  role  of  mathematics;  usura  and  debt

The Enlightenment (ca. 1700-­?1840)

Political   contexts   of   key   economic   theories;   changing   discourses   and   meanings   of   money,  credit,  finance;  strategies  for  changing  the  role  of  states  in  commerce  and  finance;  conceptions  of   ‘friends’   and   ‘enemies’   of   mankind;   Changing   patterns   of   consumption;   Theories   and  arguments  on  global  economic  orders;  Conceptions  of  free  (or  unfree)  markets;  The  valuation  of  human  life  in  economics;  Insurance  systems.

American and Western European Capitalism (ca. 1870-­?2000)

Key   economic,   social   and   political   thinkers;   ideas   about   the   market;   the   economist   as   public  intellectual;   economic   textbooks;   ideas   of   the   corporation;   financialization;   interest  organizations  and  their  role  in  the  production  and  spread  of  economic  thinking;  legitimisation  of   economic   action;   changing   discourses   and   meanings   of   money,   credit,   finance;  neoliberalism;  financial  crisis;  comparative  studies.