Workshop – “Interrogating Economics in the Public Sphere”



On the 18th and 19th of April 2013, the ECONPUBLIC project will host a workshop on “Interrogating Economics in the Public Sphere”. The event will bring together historians, sociologists, and media analysts to review the outlying literatures on public economic knowledge. In an intense but informal setting we will review scholarship on history of science, political and economic history and sociology. Our challenge is to elaborate on the research questions and the research agenda that will explore the connections and overlaps between economic journalism, the public production of knowledge, and knowledge as communicative practice.

Venue: Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, UK.

Panel I: The public understanding of economics: A recent media history
This panel analyses the relationship between economic ideas, and their audiences, by providing a historically informed examination of more recent changes in the forms, and forums, which have mediated them. Panelists: Raymond Boyle (University of Glasgow), Tim Rogan (University of Cambridge), Simon Potter (Bristol University), Jane Chapman (Lincoln University), Scott Anthony (University of Cambridge).

Plenary: Donald MacKenzie (University of Edinburgh), “Financial modelling as culture”

Panel II: Social sciences and the media’s role in finance and financialization
This panel aims to explore the links between journalism, economics and the public sphere, as well as between the social sciences and financialization. Panelists: José Ossandón (Universidad Diego Portales), Aeron Davis (Goldsmiths), Karel Williams (CRESC, University of Manchester), Daniel Beunza (LSE), Tomas Undurraga (University of Cambridge).

Panel III: The uses of publicity: the 364 economists’ letter of 1981.
The session brings together historians of the 1970s and 1980s to converse around the object of the protest letter. We invite them to bring other objects from the period that might help us understand the context of the protest, its form, its precedents, and its consequences. Panelists: Aled Davis (University of Oxford), Catherine Walsh (Goldsmiths), Duncan Needham (University of Cambridge), Tiago Mata (University of Cambridge).

Panel IV: Economic journalism: practices in national contexts
This panel will compare diverse practices of economic journalism, exploring how national narratives, institutional arrangements and professional cultures affect the ways in which the economy is discussed in the public sphere(s). Panelists: Angel Arrese (University of Navarra), Carolina Matos (University of Essex), Julien Duval (CNRS), Roei Davidson (University of Haifa), Emre Tarim (Gothenburg Research Institute).

Round-up session with Christopher Godden (University of Manchester) and Peter Sloman (University of Oxford)
The number of participants is limited. If you are interested in joining the workshop please contact us through the email: hpsecon@hermes.cam.ac.uk
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Tiago Mata
Senior Research Associate, "Economics in the Public Sphere"
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge, Free School Lane
Cambridge, CB2 3RH, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1223 330466 / Fax: +44 (0)1223 334554
http://www.econpublic.hps.cam.ac.uk