Die Erforschung der Produktion und Distribution wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Wissens wurde in den letzten Jahrzehnten zunehmend in internationalen und interdisziplinären Arbeitszusammenhängen organisiert und spiegelt

This paper analyses the transformation of identities and institutions of economic experts as politico-economic professionals brought about by the Brexit process between 2016 and 2020. In order to understand the transformation from order to chaos in times of COVID-19, a mixed methods approach is applied. In a first step, a discourse analysis of two competing letters from two different groups of economists is carried out. One letter was published by “Economists for Remain” before the Brexit referendum in 2016; the other letter was published by a group called “Economists for Free Trade”, arguing for leaving the EU. In a second step, we conduct a field and social space analysis of economists who signed the letters in order to analyse their social backgrounds and professional positions within the UK academic, media, political and economic system. The paper shows that members of both groups take significantly different positions. In a final step, we conducted interviews in 2019/20 with selected members of each group. Here we show how the professional system of UK economic governmentality enters a state of crisis. The paper finally argues that contemporary nationalist movements cannot provide a new social order. They lead societies into chaos instead.

Economists receive high social recognition in media, politics and business discourses where they often obtain a status as 'star economists' and 'financial prophets'. This paper investigates the social conditions that make the formation of size in the economic sciences possible. It analyses the institutional constraints, professional networks, forms of academic knowledge and publication strategies of early career economists as part of an academic dispositif. A position of 'size' is achieved when academics take a privileged scientific discourse position via publications, presentations and various evaluation reports for journals, funds and other academic institutions. To understand the formation of privileged academic discourse positions, we need to investigate the entire construction processes that start already at the earlier phases of the professional biography. Based on narrative-biographical interviews with economists in UK and Germany, this paper will focus on four sorts of resources that are analysed as 'biographical discourse capital'. Biographical resources as 'discourse capital' are mobilised by early career researchers to solve practical problems in their daily life. The paper shows how specific tacit and conceptual knowledge interact with access to professional networks in order to find a 'proper topic' that help young economists to finally publish an A+ or 'Four* ' paper.

The notion of ideology plays a crucial role in the social sciences in general and discourse studies in particular because it helps us conceptualize, problematize and understand the complex relation...

Ideology analyses play an important role in Cultural Discourse Studies because they investigate complex meaning production within various political systems and power structures. The notion of ideology can be analysed in different dimensions. Whereas Marx and Engels proposed a negative as well as a positive conception of ideology, sociologists such as Mannheim understood ideologies as sets of ideas and general world views. Some scholars in Discourse Studies seem to follow a conception of ideology that is located in-between Mannheim’s conception and Marx’s negative idea of ‘false consciousness’. In this paper we define ideology as a political discourse practice devoted to exerting power and influence. Following Marx’s positive notion, ideology is seen as a modality that regulates the relationship between the subject and a specific system of knowledge related to political action. Here, ideology refers to discourses as knowledge/ power regimes where the political-power aspect is suppressed through the subjectivation process itself. Following Gramsci, Foucault and Lacan, our theoretical framework helps us to analyse ideological discourse practices as different modalities of subjectivation. We propose three types of ideological subjectivation: oppressive forms, normalizing forms and resisting forms. Finally, these forms are illustrated with examples from economic expert discourses from Italy and Germany.

The European Constitution is not a single text. Rather, it emerged, changed over time, and developed an incomplete and constantly transforming ensemble of texts, rules, institutions, competences and implementation procedures. The notion of dispositif grasps the form, outlook and logic of European economic governance and agenda-setting practices to analyse the logic of economic constitutionalism based on complex translation processes. With the ‘discursive pentagon’ model, the paper will show how an economic idea, grounded within the European constitution, was implemented by Greece, Italy, and Portugal through different forms of translation in the aftermath of 2009 financial crisis. The paper argues that austerity was part of the EU constitutional system moved through a mechanism of interpretation consisting of different stages, tools and discourses before it was finally (un)realised in different member states. The interpretative flexibility of the EU economics apparatus is finally illustrated by a discourse analysis of the European semester.

La pandemia di COVID-19 sta influenzando le societa contemporanee in modi complessi ed eterogenee. Questo lavoro si focalizza sull’economia, analizzando le trasformazioni causate dalla crisi pandemica nei discorsi degli esperti economici europei. Il contributo prende le mosse dalla teoria foucaultiana del dispositivo e distingue quattro livelli attraverso i quali il neoliberismo – sfruttando il sistema UE – ha influenzato le societa europee negli ultimi decenni: mondo economico, istituzioni, policy network e discorsi . L’interazione tra i quattro livelli sara analizzata e discussa a partire dall’analisi empirica del livello discorsivo. Prendendo come casi di studio i Country Report del Semestre Europeo 2020 e le Raccomandazioni UE sull’Italia, verranno individuate tre caratteristiche del discorso neoliberista dell’UE: temporalita discorsiva, autorita discorsiva ed ethos discorsivo. L’analisi discorsiva comparata di due documenti pubblicati tra i mesi di marzo e maggio 2020 mostrera come lo shock esogeno causato dal Corona Virus abbia drasticamente cambiato il discorso degli esperti economici neoliberisti dell’UE. L’articolo prospetta la nascita di una “nuova normalita” nella sfera politica e politico-economica; un “nuova normalita” che potrebbe influenzare le prospettive future dei Paesi europei. The COVID-19 pandemic is influencing contemporary societies in complex and multiple ways. This paper focuses on the economy via an analysis of the transformations of European economic expert discourses brought about by the corona crisis in 2020. The contribution starts form Foucault’s theory of dispositif and distinguishes four levels on which neoliberalism was influencing European societies via the EU system in the last decades: the world economy, institutions, policy networks and discourses. While focussing empirically on the discursive level, the interplay of all four levels is discussed and investigated. Taking the example of the European Semester 2020 “Country Reports” and “EU Recommendations” on Italy as case study, three features of these documents characterising EU neoliberal discourse are elaborated: discursive temporality, discursive authority and discursive ethos. A comparative discourse analysis of two documents published between March 2020 and May 2020 shows that corona as external shock has changed EU neoliberal economic expert discourse dramatically. The paper argues that a post-neoliberal “new normality” in the realm of economic policy and politics is emerging that could influence the future outlook of European societies.