Macroeconomics and the composition of modern economic government: Towards a critical sociology of economics.

摘要

The dissertation argues that sociological critiques of economics must take better account of this latter's role as a practical tool of economic policy management. In this respect, economics helps to constitute real economies, rather than merely reflecting them. This is particularly so with macroeconomics, which came together in the first half of the 20th century and which provided a picture of the economy which made state intervention possible. Business cycle theory and later macroeconomics were originally conceived as tools for stabilizing economic flows, and thus reducing the negative social outcomes associated with depressions. This tool, however, made its ultimate ends the result of proper technical manipulation of the economy, specifically around attempts to stabilize the price level. This had a de-politicizing effect on economic policy, as management of the economy was encased in specific technical imperatives which masked the social relations of economic organization. Ultimately, these technical imperatives have come to dominate over the mediation role that macroeconomics was assigned in the middle of the 20th century. Thus, by the early 21st century, we are unable to envisage alternatives to neoliberal economic policies, which privilege price stability and free trade over employment and material equality. This leaves economics in a perilous position as the gap between rich and poor makes evident new tensions within the emerging global economy---the re-emergence of social problems to which current macroeconomics offers few if any solutions. The dissertation argues for a politicization of economic knowledge, and for a clearer understanding of the value rational content of some of the concepts and categories of macroeconomics. Through a clearer understanding of the social construction of apparently natural objects of economic analysis, it is possible to conceive of new ways in which the economy might be organized.