About The Workshop
Historians and social scientists have turned to examine the relationship between economics and its object. Scholars increasingly argue that the 'economy' itself is a recent product of socio-political practice. With the integration of markets and the rise of global economic institutions, there is a tendency to see this as a universal process playing out similarly in different jurisdictions.
The aim of this meeting is to examine how contingency, violence and ideologies were involved in redefining the economy. How was the economy constructed after revolutionary change or decolonization? What tools and technologies did new political orders adopt? Given that drastic political change was accompanied by both chaos and violence, we are interested in examining the ways in which the contingencies of the everyday shaped conceptions of property, wealth, exchange and commodities.
The workshop also examines the ways in which the the 'economy' is a creature of laws and regulations. In the workshop we hope to bring into focus not just the processes of law making, but also the everyday life of the law and the role it plays in constructing the economy.
Further details
Conference venue »
61 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138