Globalization Strategies and the Economics Dispositif: Insights from Germany and the UK

This contribution analyses current transformations in the field of economics as a reconfiguration of various academic cultures embedded in globalised hierarchies. The theoretical argument points to the rules and modalities which constitute the field of economics as a dispositif that covers different local academic fields and reaches into other areas of the global political economy. Drawing on empirical data from German and UK economics, the study shows how national fields respond to global pressures and create a global class society of economists. I will analyse, first, how academic hierarchies develop in two different countries and, second, how discourses of excellence constitute academic cultures within these hierarchies. On the basis of wide-ranging empirical data, the analysis develops new theoretical reflections about the logic of academic fields under globalisation. As a result, three different scientific cultures emerge that characterise the current field of academic economics: “native transnationals,” “migration transnationals,” and “local transnationals.

Post-neoliberalism in Europe? How economic discourses have changed through COVID-19 pandemic

La pandemia di COVID-19 sta influenzando le società 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 società europee negli ultimi decenni: mondo economico, istituzioni, policy network e discorsi . L’interazione tra i quattro livelli sarà 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: temporalità discorsiva, autorità discorsiva ed ethos discorsivo. L’analisi discorsiva comparata di due documenti pubblicati tra i mesi di marzo e maggio 2020 mostrerà 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 normalità” nella sfera politica e politico-economica; un “nuova normalità” 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

The Pragmatics of Economics Experts’ Engagement With Non-Specialists

A Call for Papers for Panel on Economics and Language Use: The pragmatics of economics experts’ engagement with non-specialists, 15th International Pragmatics Conference (IPrA2017) to be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 16-21 July 2017

Translating Austerity. The Formation and Transformation of EU Economic Constitution as Discourse

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

The new political economy of higher education: between distributional conflicts and discursive stratification

The higher education sector has been undergoing a far-reaching institutional re-orientation during the past two decades. Many adjustments appear to have strengthened the role of competition in the governance of higher education, but the character of the sector?s emerging new political economy has frequently remained unclear. Serving as the introduction for the special issue, this article makes the case for a multidimensional strategy to probe higher education?s competitive transformation. In terms of conceptualizing the major empirical shifts, we argue for analyzing three core phenomena: varieties of academic capitalism, the discursive construction of inequality, and the transformation of hierarchies in competitive settings. With respect to theoretical tools, we emphasize the complementary contributions of institutional, class-oriented, and discourse analytical approaches. As this introduction elaborates and the contributions to the special issue demonstrate, critical dialog among different analytical traditions over the interpretation of change is crucial for improving established understandings. Arguably, it is essential for clarifying the respective roles of capitalist power and hierarchical rule in the construction of the sector?s new order