Sociology of Economics

• Applicant: Dr. Alexander Lenger
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 279363351

Recently, an increasing interest in the social constitution and societal consequences of economic knowledge can be observed. Following up on various findings in economic sociology and the sociology of scientific knowledge for the first time there are various knowledge-, discourse-, and field-theoretical analysis available dealing with the way economics is constituted. The scientific network will analyze the emergence, the specific characteristics and the performativity of economic knowledge production and aims at contributing to the establishment of a sociology of economics in German-speaking countries. For this purpose the different existing approaches to the social constitution of economics will be correlated. Relying on empirical and theoretical findings the objective of the network is to reveal the institutional patterns, practices and discourses constituting the social impact of economics. For that purpose three fields of interest will be established and empirically analyzed: (1) the social structure of economics, (2) the modulation practices within economics, (3) the performativity of economics. Methodologically the methods of discourse analysis, ethnography, field analysis, and network analysis will be applied to identify synergy effects and research complementarities.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks