Economics of Convention Meets Foucault

The contribution examines concepts and the methodology of Michel Foucault from the standpoint of the French institutionalist approach of economics of convention (in short EC). EC is briefly introduced. Then, it is argued that Foucault should be regarded as an “ally” for EC, because his theory shares main positions with EC, but Foucault also provides concepts and methodological strategies, which could improve EC’s capabilities to analyze practices and strategies of convention-based processes as critique, justification and the social construction of qualities and worth. Some representatives of EC have already adopted Foucaultian concepts. Foucault also pioneered the analysis in domains, highly relevant for EC, as in the field of law and neoliberalism, but these works are not well recognized so far. Moreover, Foucault began the study of individual’s strategies of self-conduct and self-formation, which EC approached later on as well. The article claims that it is especially Foucault’s notions of episteme and power as well as Foucaultian discourse analysis, which offer innovative theoretical and methodological perspectives for EC

Economics of Convention Meets Canguilhem

The neopragmatist institutionalist approach of economics of convention (in short EC) still is in need of a conception of health that enables EC to work out a critical standpoint in the analysis of health care institutions. French historical epistemology is an early critique of Comtian positivism in the philosophy of science. The work of the historical epistemologist Georges Canguilhem is the most important approach for a non-reductionist, pluralist conception of health and for the anti-positivist critique of medical concepts of the "normal." This critique has become an influential basis for the critical analysis of quantification in health care. Canguilhem introduced the notions of biological normativity and social normativity, which govern the relation of organisms and their milieus and can be regarded as original sources for value and normative orders. In this contribution, the anti-positivist critique of Canguilhem is presented. Then the link between scientific concepts, knowledge production in the health care system, and health institutions is discussed, which was later on continued by Michel Foucault as a successor of Canguilhem in the field of historical epistemology. It is pointed to the affinities of Canguilhem's approach to pragmatism but also to the capability approach of Amartya Sen. Consequences of Canguilhem's work for EC and links to EC's concepts are worked out. Finally, the relevance of Canguilhem's work to the ongoing digitalization of health care is sketched

Quantification and the economics of convention

"Analyzing social processes of quantification has close relationship with the origins, core and potentialities of the economics of convention. Quantification and its social organization and goals are now impacted by the turn toward the market for organizing all human activities. Research should focus on the relationship between generalizing the market, transforming the state and changing the rote and status of quantification. Retracing the main outcomes of the seminal works on quantification, this paper highlights the contributions that EC could provide in that field." (author's abstract

Institutional approaches of industrial dynamics (In French)

The paper aims to develop a methodology of an institutionalist approach of industrial dynamics. Part 1 defines the framework for such an institutionalist approach in the continuity the J.R. Commons’ method. Part 2 elaborates the basis of the project of an institutionalist industrial dynamics as a political meso-economy, discussing the results and limits of the economics of convention and regulation theory.COMMONS J.R.; Economics of convention; Industrial dynamics; Institutionalism; Political economy; Regulation theory

Conventions, the great transformation and actor network theory

"This article proceeds from the field of tension between the synchronical approach of the economics of convention and the diachronical approach of economic anthropology (in the tradition of Karl Polanyi). It is argued that the economics of convention remain problematic to historians in that they fail to capture the long term transformations traditionally referred to as the emergence of modernity and the coming about of homo economicus. As a possible solution, the use of concepts and insights from Actor Network Theory is proposed. While this cluster of theories enables an historical perspective without considering modernity as a natural process, it confronts changing relationships between subjects, objects and cultural systems of meaning head on." (author's abstract

The economics of convention and statistics: the paradox of origins

"The line of heterodox economic thinking named 'the economics of conventions' emerged in the 1980s in France. Four among its six founding fathers had a strong background in statistics and were working at INSEE (the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research). However, the numerous and fruitful researches in the line of this new paradigm have only slightly used the quantitative methods (above all econometrics) that are widely spread in mainstream economics as well as in other heterodox movements, e.g. the French school of regulation. In order to provide a rationale for this paradox, we are lead to set the development of the economics of conventions within a broader history of economics and social sciences. Indeed, from the 1980s onwards, social sciences have gone through a movement of bifurcation that brought about a deep change in the scientific and political status of quantification. Monitoring this movement leads to address the issue of the relationships between the search for theoretical reflexivity and the social demand for expertise addressed to economics." (author's abstract

Competing conventions: The Big Branders’ struggle to incorporate new quality conceptions in the Norwegian food market

The paper addresses recent changes in the Norwegian agrifood industry from the analytical perspective of quality conventions. Storper and Salais’ “worlds of production” plus Boltanski and Thévenots’ “orders of worth” are used as a basis for the empirical study. First, the paper discusses how the largest Norwegian branders try to strategically adapt to “novel” quality attributes like health-enhancing food, origin/terroir, environmental sustainability and ethics. Second, the paper investigates the companies’ quality signalling strategy: How are these “novel” qualities communicated to consumers? Multiple options are available: Do they attempt to systematically incorporate “novel qualities” into their private brand equity (“conventionalizing qualities”)? Do they prefer a co-labelling scheme with a third party control, or do they use any other measures for quality signalling? The paper thereby discusses how the largest Norwegian branders in the food sector cope with conflicting and competing quality conventions.Food quality, economics of convention., Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Classifications, Quantifications and Quality Conventions in Markets - Perspectives of the Economics of Convention

The article presents the French approach of economics of convention (EC) as a pragmatic institutionalism. It was developed on the one side for the analysis of practices of classifications and quantification. On the other side it was developed for the analysis of multiple logics of economic coordination. The basic concepts of EC are introduced and applied to the analysis of classificatory procedures in markets. The article aims to present EC as an innovative approach for the analysis of markets

Institutionalist and methodological perspectives on law: contributions of the Economics of Convention

"The article presents in its first parts main concepts of the French approach of economics of convention (EC) and its main contributions to the analysis of (economic) law. EC represents an endogenous perspective of law as an institution whose usage is embedded in situations wherein competent actors have to coordinate and develop a shared understanding of situations. EC conceives real situations as structured by coordinating actors and a plurality of logics of coordination, which are called conventions in this approach. EC has contributed in some of its historical research studies on economic institutions to the analysis of (economic) law. In the second part of this article, newer trends in EC are discussed which focus on discursive practices and apply strategies of discourse analysis in the analysis of economic institutions as labor law. It is claimed that EC can be regarded as a distinguished approach for the integration of discourse analytic perspectives into a complex pragmatic approach to political economy." (author's abstract