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.

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